CASEY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
CASEY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
Today, Olivia and I taught our second lesson! Although we already taught yesterday, I was a little more nervous for the lesson, today. I think it was because I knew that I was going to be reading a book that I had written to the class, and I was nervous about managing the class, again. My nerves started to get to me right as I sat down at the front of the students to start reading my book, but just like yesterday, the lesson ended up going really well! The teacher had us start our lesson right as we entered the classroom, signaling me to the front of the room as soon as we got our things together. I sat down with the teacher, and we began reading my bilingual book. When we wrote our bilingual books, we weren’t sure what grades we would be teaching when we arrived in the DR. So, my book ended up being a little advanced for students who are only five years old. As we read the book, I could tell during certain pages that I was losing the students’ attention. So, I started telling the teacher to skip certain pages that were too long and wordy for the students, and just reading the important pages that talked about the colors that Olivia and I would be teaching. Once we had finished reading the book together, I told the class that in my book, I talked about many different colors. I also told them, again in broken Spanish, that today, they would be learning to say a lot of different colors in both Spanish, and in English. To introduce the colors that we were going to be teaching, Olivia began walking around the room and pointing to different posters while saying “Que color es en Espanol?” or “What color is this, in Spanish?” The students would yell out the Spanish word for each color as she pointed to it, and I would write it up on the chalkboard. Then, she would ask “En Ingles?” or “In English?” and see if any of the students knew the color word in English. If they didn’t, she would tell them the color in English, and have them repeat after her and say it as well. As they did this, I would write the English word for the color up on the chalkboard, next to its corresponding Spanish word. Once all of the colors were written on the board, we went over each one again, having them repeat us in saying the color in Spanish first, then in English. Once we were done reviewing, I told the students that we had a game for them to play. Olivia and a few of the other girls had taken a trip to the dollar store yesterday, and while they were there, Olivia picked us up some balloons for our lesson! We blew up the balloons once we had first gotten in the classroom, and tried to keep them hidden from the students, as to not spoil the game. Our goal for the game they played was for us to pick up a balloon, and have the students tell us its color name in Spanish, followed by the English. After the color of a balloon was identified, we were going to take the balloon, hit it up in the air and say the color name in either Spanish or English. The goal was for the students to keep the balloon up in the air, hitting it back and forth to one another, while simultaneously yelling out the color name once their hand touched it. Although this was the plan, it went a little differently than we had hoped. The students followed our lead in repeating the color of the balloon we were holding in Spanish and in English, but once we threw the balloon out to them, it was chaos! The students were stumbling over one another, smacking the balloon as hard as they could, and none of them were repeating the color name! But, we could tell, as well as the teacher, that the students were having fun, so although the game didn’t go exactly as planned, we continued the same steps with each color balloon. Once the game was over, Olivia had the idea to review the colors one more time, by “playing the game” in a little more of an organized way. We would say a balloons color in Spanish, and have the students each hold the balloon, repeat the color, and pass it nicely to the person next to them to do the same thing. We repeated this with every balloon, with the English color word, as well. The teacher then helped us wrap up the lesson by creating another worksheet for the students to complete in their notebooks, except this time, their instructions were to color in six different balloons, with six different colors they had learned from Olivia and I! As the students colored, I would go up to them, grab a crayon, and ask “Que color es?” and almost every student was able to tell me every color name in English!! It was great to see that our lesson really stuck with them, and that they remembered all of the color names. Since I read my bilingual book today, Olivia will be reading hers tomorrow, and we will be teaching the students about the four seasons!
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Today was the day that we got to teach our very first lesson in Coral! My cohort and I were picked up at the CCC around 8:45, all nervous, but excited, to begin teaching in our classrooms! I had no idea what to expect when going into the classroom, today, because when I was here in 2017, I had never taught a full lesson to a group of students. My partner in the classroom, Shannon, and I taught a few activities, but never stood up at the front of the class and taught a whole 45-minute lesson! Last night, Olivia and I sat down for about 30 minutes, planning out and googling translations for what we were going to say, how we were going to teach the lesson, and planning what activities the students were going to complete in order to learn the letter “C.” When we got to the classroom today, I think we were both a little anxious, but the lesson went really well! After the students completed their morning routine, the teacher pointed to us, signaling that it was our turn to teach! We began our lesson by greeting the students, and telling them that I would be teaching them in Spanish, and Olivia would be repeating the lesson for them in English simultaneously. With this technique, we hoped to not only teach the students the letter “C,” but teach them some English as well. We first wrote the letters “a,” b,” and C” up on the chalkboard, and emphasized the letter “C” by capitalizing it. We had the students repeat after us as we read the letters on the board, then pointed to the “C” while telling the students, in broken Spanish, that today they would be learning about the letter “C.” We continued the lesson by having the students repeat after us, saying the letter “C” out loud in both Spanish and English. We then told the students that the letter “C” makes a “Cuh” sound, and had them repeat the noise back to us multiple times, before providing them with some examples. We gave them the examples of the words “Cabeza,” which means “head,” and the word “Correr,” which means “to run.” I would say “Por ejemplo,” which means “for example,” then read them one of those two words. After I said them, Olivia walked around the room while emphasizing the “C” sound in the word, and repeating it like a chant for the students. For example, with the word “cabeza,” we walked around the room chanting “ca-ca-cabeza, ca-ca-cabeza!” The students seemed to enjoy this chant, because they followed right along. Once we finished chanting both example words, we took the students’ notebooks, and worked with the teacher to write out a practice worksheet for each student in their notebooks. We created a worksheet that allowed them to practice writing the letter “C” multiple times, as well as color in a block-letter “C” at the bottom of the page, a strategy the classroom teacher had used for previous letter lessons. We walked around the room and helped the students as they wrote their letters, and tried to help them practice the “cuh” sound that it makes, as they wrote it. Once they had finished their worksheet, our first lesson was complete! I believe that it went really well, especially since the lesson was taught with a language barrier between us and the students! However, Olivia and I did realize something that was a challenge for us not only today, but that we know will be a challenge with our lessons for the rest of the week: classroom management. Classroom management is extremely important in a classroom, and is necessary for anything to be done in a classroom. Back in the United States, classroom management is difficult enough to get the hang of at first in a classroom. Now, think of trying to manage a class of 18 preschoolers, that speak a different language than you! Throughout our lesson, there were certain times when the students would “misbehave” and “fight” with each other, or get distracted from the lesson. These times were hard, because we didn’t know key phrases or techniques to get the class back and focused when they started to drift away. However, we did see the teacher use a hands-up, 1-2-3 count down to regain the classes attention, and that seemed to work. So, maybe we can try that throughout the rest of our lessons this week. Speaking of our other lessons, we talked with our teacher and decided that tomorrow I will be reading my bilingual children’s book to the class. The teacher will read the Spanish sentences, and I will read the English. My children’s book is about the colors of the rainbow, and finding the different colors throughout places in Buffalo. So, we will pair my reading of my book with a lesson on colors! Today was our very first day observing and helping in our schools, as well as our first day attending Spanish class and spending time with the girls at the Mariposa Foundation! When we boarded the bus at 7:45, I couldn’t help but to be nervous about what lied ahead. When I was here in 2017, we observed and taught in Coral, but this time, I wasn’t sure what to expect with being placed in a pre-k classroom! When we pulled up to the school, I could hear the little kids laughing in the room that I will be teaching in, and all of my anxiety seemed to melt away. On our first day here, I was already feeling a little homesick. But, both of my parents told me, “Once you see those kids, you’ll be fine. That’s all it’s going to take.” They were both right, because any bit of anxiety I had was gone once I saw all of the students’ faces! Since today was our first day, Olivia (my partner in the classroom) and I mostly observed the class, and got to see what a pre-k classroom is like in the Dominican Republic. One thing that we observed, that I think is one of the biggest hurtles that our teacher has to overcome every day, is that she doesn’t have worksheets! I know that you don’t need worksheets to teach, and you can have students do hands-on activities, or write on their own. But, this classroom that we’re in is full of students who are only 5 years old, 6 at the oldest. So, when the teacher wants the students to complete a worksheet for practice during class, or for homework, she has to create each one in every individual students’ notebook! For example, the students were learning how to write the numbers 1 through 10. So, the teacher had to create a practice sheet for each student, in their notebooks. She would take each notebook, write out the numbers 1 through 10, with spaces in-between, and draw squiggly lines to show the separation between each number, giving the students space to write each number on their own, multiple times. Each student needed this worksheet drawn up by her, so with the help of Olivia and I, we created these worksheets 18 times, with one for each student! When I saw that this is what the teacher has to do every day, for the students’ classwork, as well as homework, I couldn’t believe it. Although it was only our first day, through the work that I saw this teacher put in to make sure her students were successful, I could see that she really cares for her students and for the way that she teaches them. I know some teachers in the United States who would drop their career as a teacher if they had to go through so much work and effort for a simple classwork or homework worksheet. It was refreshing to see a teacher put in so much work for her students. At the end of the class, our teacher asked us if we would like to teach a lesson tomorrow. So, tomorrow, Olivia and I are going to be teaching the students the letter “C!” Although I am a little nervous to teach, especially since neither Olivia or I are fluent in Spanish, I am excited to be able to finally get up in front of these students and do what I came here to do: teach!!
At about 11:45, once we had finished our time at Coral, we went back to the CCC for lunch, and a short break, before heading off to the Mariposa Foundation! When we arrived at the foundation, we started right away by receiving our first Spanish lesson from one of the volunteers we’ve been closely working with, Emma. Emma took about half an hour to teach us basic greetings and introductory phrases that we could use when meeting the Mariposa’s! This type of Spanish lesson was different than the lesson’s that I attended back in 2017, where we were split into different groups by ability level, and worked one on one with a teacher and a group of Mariposa’s to complete our lessons. However, I thought the lesson we were given today was fun, because we were all able to stay together and work through some practice conversations, using the greetings and phrases that we had learned. Once our Spanish lesson was over, it was time to meet the Mariposa’s! I wasn’t sure what to expect when meeting the girls, because I had forgotten how the first interaction between us had went when I first visited in 2017. I will say, all of us were a little timid during the first ice-breaker game that we played, but we all warmed up to each other by the end of our time at the foundation, today. The Mariposa’s, as well as my cohorts and I, all spent the afternoon together doing ice-breakers, playing games, and reading the bilingual books that we had written before traveling to the DR, simultaneously helping each other read in our non-dominant language. Overall, I think our first day in both the schools and the foundation went well, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this week holds for us all! Saturday, 1/12/19 Today was a very busy day for my cohorts and I. Today was the day of our Puerto Plata City tour! We all piled on a bus around 8:45 this morning, and were off to the beautiful Puerto Plata, the city that we flew into when we landed in the DR. Our tour started off with a scary, but amazingly beautiful, ride on the Teleferico Puerto Plata cable car. This cable car took us to the top of a mountain called “Isabel de Torres,” which was about 2,624 feet up in the air! I am afraid of heights, so riding up the side of a mountain in a small car with 20 other people made me feel a bit uneasy, but there was no way to pass up looking out the window to see the beautiful scenery that surrounds us in the DR. Once we reached the top of the mountain, we all took the opportunity to take some amazing pictures of the cities below us. The last time I was here, it was very cloudy and foggy when we got to the top of the mountain, so it was a little hard to see. However, it was almost completely clear when we reached the top, this time. We had an amazing view of everything around us, and were able to take some amazing pictures. At the top of this mountain, there is also the statue “el Cristo Redentor,” or “Christ the Redeemer.” The tour guides even helped us take some pictures that made us look like we were holding hands with, linking arms with, and holding the statue in the palm of our hands. Once we finished this part of the tour, we boarded the cable car once again, and rode it back down to the city below. Our next stop was the Larimar museum, a museum solely dedicated to telling the origins of the larimar stone, as well as amber, and its’ worth and significance in the DR and around the world. I bought a bracelet that had a larimar stone in it while I was here in 2017, but we did not get to tour this museum the last time I was here. So, being able to go through this museum, and learn the significance of the stone I had bought, was pretty cool. While in this museum, my cohorts and I were also able to try a drink called “Mamajuana.” Mamajuana is an alcoholic beverage made by allowing rum, wine, and honey to soak in a bottle with tree bark and herbs. I did not try this drink when we were here last time, but I took a little sip when it was given to us, today, and it was pretty good! Once we were done in the Larimar museum, we were given some time to buy souvenirs in a few shops, and were able to walk around the Puerto Plata town square. We walked around for about a half hour, and I was able to see some of the buildings and statues that I had walked by back in 2017. It was nice to be able to just hang around the town square and feel comfortable, since I had been there before. Once we were done at the town square, we took a short trip to Fort San Felipe, a fort that was once used to keep pirates away from the island. The last time we came here, we were given headsets that allowed us to listen to the history of the forts as we walked through. This time however, we didn’t go into the fort, but were able to walk around by the water that surrounded it, and take in more beautiful scenery. We ended the excursion by driving back to Nanny Estates, and stopping on the way to see a memorial dedicated to the Mirabel sisters, or the Tres Mariposas. It was sad, yet breathtaking, to be able to see the place where the sisters had been killed, and to see such a beautiful memorial made in their honor. I will talk more about the Mariposa sisters and who they were, in a later blog. After a long day of touring Puerto Plata, my cohorts and I decided to have a night out on the town! We all hung out by the pool for a while, before getting dressed up and going out to a delicious dinner out on the beach! We walked the beach to a restaurant called “Onno’s Bar,” and had a delicious meal together out by the water. It was a really great time to just spend time together, get to know each other a little more, and just relax! The only stressful part of paying the night was trying to pay the bill, which came to over 6,000 pesos! But, we all figured it out, hung out by the beach for a while, then went home for some much-needed rest. Sunday, 1/13/19
Today we had our first free day! After all of the excursions and touring, our group was looking pretty exhausted. So, it was nice to have a free day to just relax during our first weekend of the trip. My cohorts and I spent most of our day tanning by the beach, laying and dancing out by the pool, and planning on catching up on some more sleep before our first day in our classrooms tomorrow! All in all, I think it’s safe to say that it was a very relaxing, fun, and rejuvenating day for all of us. Today was a very relaxed but eye-opening day for my cohorts and I. Today was the day that we were able to visit the Taino Organic Farm, a permaculture inspired, agro-tourism demonstration and education center that’s just outside our town of Cabarete. When our taxi dropped us off at the farms, I had no idea what to expect. This trip was a new excursion that we did not participate in when I came to the DR in 2017, so I wasn’t really sure what we were getting into! I knew from looking at the farm online, that we would be taking a trip down a river in a plastic tube, but that was all the information that I had. Let me tell you, this experience was so much more than that! When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by a woman named Elizabeth, who led our group through our tour and river experience. Elizabeth started by taking us on a tour around the farm itself, teaching us about permaculture and aquaponics. From what I gathered from the tour, permaculture is a sustainable way of participating in agriculture. On this farm, Elizabeth explained that their different varieties of plants and trees may not be in perfect rows and that they could be growing anywhere on the farm. She explained the reason for this by comparing it to going to a buffet. She said that when we go to a buffet, they spread different foods out around the restaurant, and that if all of our favorite foods that we wanted to eat were at one station, we would never leave it. With different insects trying to eat different plants, it’s the same thing. If all of one type of plant are in a row together, the insects can just come right up to that row and “go to town.” With the plants spread out, it gives the plants more of a chance to survive away from the insects, because one plant won’t be continuously attacked by the bugs. She also said that when plants that insects like are next to plants they don’t like, it will turn them off to eating the plant. She used me for an example, and said “If I’m a type of food that the bugs like to eat, and you’re a type of food they don’t like to eat, I’d like to stay by you so that they won’t want to come near me.” So, having the plants distributed among the farm, they have a better chance of surviving. I thought that permaculture was cool enough, but then she taught us about aquaponics. Before today, I had honestly never even heard of aquaponics. Apparently, aquaponics uses fish in order to help the growth of different plant species. Fish are put into a plastic tank filled with water, which has a pipe system connecting it to a water bed filled with sprouting plants. When the fish “do what they do,” the fecal matter within the water is brought up through the pipes to the water bed, which then provides the plants with nutrients that they need to grow. The plants then release water back to the pipes which is carried down to the fish, which provides them with oxygenated water. This whole process is completed through a symbiotic relationship between the plants and the fish, with 0 waste left behind. When these fish get big enough, they are cooked and eaten by those that live and work on the farm, to which they will be replaced with new fish to start the process over again. During this tour, we were also able to see how fish breeding is done on the farm. There is one male fish that is placed in a tank with four female fish. The bottom of the tank is layered with pebbles, so that it’s easier to tell when a fish is ready to lay its eggs. Once the female fish is ready to lay its eggs, the male fish uses its fins to clear a spot on the floor of the tank, made noticeable to the breeders by the movement of the small pebbles. Once the fish is ready to lay its eggs, the female fish is removed from the tank so she can do so safely, without the possibility of the eggs being eaten by other fish. Once The eggs are laid, the female fish scoops them up into her mouth, and holds them there for about ten days until they are ready to hatch. During these ten days, the female fish does not open its mouth once, not even to eat! She constantly keeps the eggs moving in her mouth, for if she didn’t, they would not develop fully to hatch-able eggs. Once they are ready, the eggs are removed from the mothers’ mouth, and are left to hatch new baby fish for the tanks. Before we went on this tour, I didn’t know anything about aquaponics, so this whole process was fascinating to learn about! One thing that stuck with me was that when Elizabeth was talking about the fish’s fecal matter, and everything that they reuse on the farm, she said, “Everything else that the world thinks is gross, to us is gold.” So, to these people on this farm, things that we may think are gross or not useful, are things that make their farm and way of life, possible. Throughout the whole tour, Elizabeth talked passionately to us about why she does what she does, and how she came about working at Taino Farms. Elizabeth is from Detroit, Michigan, and hopes to begin a sustainable aquaponics system in her home town. She said that she hopes to learn how to do this by the others working at the farm, so that she can then take her knowledge home to teach it to others around her. As she explained this to us, she also expressed her passion for learning how to grow food and build, on her own. She discussed the negative stigma around women and cooking, where their “place” is in the kitchen. But, she also discussed how women need to take back that pride in “being in the kitchen,” and being able to cook and take care of themselves as an independent woman, without needing the help of a man. The whole time she talked, we all just stared at her in awe, learning how passionate she really is about women empowerment, as well as just doing something as “simple” as creating a stable farm that can be used to aid in doing so. Once we were done with the tour, we were able to take a beautiful and relaxing float down the Yasica River. We all grabbed a tube and took about a twenty-minute walk up a hill towards the opening of the river, then “lazy-rivered” it back to the back end of the farm, once again. We had an amazing view, were able to float over some “rapids” in the water, and had a very relaxing and fun afternoon! We ended the day with a delicious home-cooked lunch, before taking the taxi back to Nanny Estates for a relaxed rest of the afternoon. (https://tainofarm.com/farm-tour-river-float/) Today was a very busy day for our group! The day started bright and early with a beautiful breakfast prepared for us at the CCC, or the Cabarate Coffee Company. The CCC is located right at the end of Nanny Estates’ driveway, and is owned by the Mariposa DR Foundation. When I was here in 2017, the CCC was my favorite place to get a quick breakfast, especially since they make amazing homemade waffles (which is just what we had, today!) Once we were done with breakfast, we headed off on our tours of five different schools, the Mariposa DR Foundation, and a neighborhood named “La Cienega,” which translates to “The Swamp.” Below are pictures from all of the destinations we visited, with a little bit that I learned about each one! This is a private school called Cadin. Cadin is the private school that we visited in 2017 where many of the Mariposa girls attended. When we walked into the courtyard today, I saw two Mariposa girls that I had met my first time here, ChiChi and Katiana. It was so cool to see familiar faces, and to see how much they had grown up in just two years! Flavia is the principal of Cadin, and believes and preaches in following three steps; love, discipline, and respect. She said that if you show the students love, they won’t be as upset with you when you have to show and teach them discipline, and when there is discipline in place, they know to show you respect, because you have first shown them love. One thing that I took away from this school was something that Flavia said about teaching the students to use books and encyclopedias to do research. She said that the students are only allowed to use the computers in the library once they have already found an answer to their questions in a book or encyclopedia. She brought up the point that when people use the internet to answer a question, it is given to them instantly. With this fast of a result, you are never really learning anything or thinking, just looking for a quick source of information. I think that this should be taught in schools back in the United States, since I have seen students relying on ipads and laptops in so many different placements I have encountered during my time studying with Buffalo State. This is a public school called Punto Cabarete, or “The Door to Cabarete.” This school teaches 175 students from kindergarten through 6th grade, with only 10 teachers working there. The students who were in this school had been in the one room school, “Punta Cabarete,” that we had visited when we were here back in 2017. The principal of Punta Cabarete made the move with the students to Punto Cabarete, and said that the change in the organization of the school, as well as the way the school ran, was something that would take some getting used to. This is a private school called Puerta Cabarete. Puerta Cabarete holds 572 students, and was opened pretty recently. This school was not running when we visited back in 2017, so we didn’t even have a chance to see it. Puerta Cabarete was the biggest school I have seen in the Dominican Republic, and was so organized and well built! It seemed like a school that’s really going in the right direction to educate students to the best of its ability. This is a private school called Coral. Coral is the school that I had the pleasure of observing and teaching in when we visited back in 2017! Today, I was able to see the classroom where I taught third grade students. But, to my surprise, when I walked into the classroom, it was full of twelfth graders! I learned today that this school runs in two sessions. In the morning, students from grades 6 to 12 attend class, then kindergarten through 5th grade attends in the afternoon. There is one kindergarten class that runs in a separate building in the morning, along with the older students. In total, the school holds over 400 students, taught by 13 teachers. I am the most excited about this school, because just as last time, this school is the one that we will be observing and teaching in. I will be having the pleasure of working with the class of five-year-old students that runs in the morning, starting Monday of next week! This is the public school called Salomé Ureña. We only visited this school for a few minutes at the end of the day, and it was BUSY! The school holds about 150 students between first and eighth grade, taught by 22 teachers. Like Coral, the school runs morning and afternoon sessions with different students. The principal informed us that the school has come a long way, since the school started as just a learning center with one teacher who taught three different grades, 1st through 3rd, all at once. Once we had finished touring the schools, we were able to visit the Mariposa DR Foundation! I was so excited to see the foundation, especially since it was my favorite place that we visited back in 2017. The Mariposa girls were on a trip today, so there weren’t any girls there when we visited. However, I was able to see my Spanish teacher from last time, Maria Alexandra! It was such a surreal feeling to be able to see the Mariposa DR Foundation once again, especially since I had such a hard time saying goodbye the first time. There were some renovations, reorganizing, and painting that has been done since I was here in 2017, which made the foundation look all the more beautiful! I don’t know how someone could walk into the foundation and not feel an immediate sense of excitement and happiness in knowing that there is a foundation like this that helps girls learn and be able to live up to their fullest potential as not only human-beings, but strong women. Once we had entered the foundation, we were served another delicious lunch by Freddy and his family, and were then given a full tour around the foundation by a volunteer named Emma. If you would like to learn more about the Mariposa DR Foundation, click this link!: (https://mariposadrfoundation.org/) Once we had finished our full foundation tour, Emma, Victor, and a few other volunteers took us on a tour of the neighborhood, “La Cienega,” or “The Swamp.” I remember taking this tour back in 2017, and feeling so humbled in seeing the houses in which many of the Mariposa girls come from. I couldn’t help but to feel the same way again, realizing how lucky I am, and how grateful I should be for everything I have, have done, and the opportunities I have been given.
Tuesday, 1-8-19: On this day, my cohorts and I started an adventure of a life time, and finally began our journey in the Dominican Republic! The plane rides here were a little bumpy, and since I don’t enjoy flying, it was kind of a lot to handle… but we made it! When we first touched down in the DR, I couldn’t help but smile at the faces of my fellow classmates. When I travelled here the first time, I was shocked at how beautiful just the land around the airport was, without even seeing anything else! Seeing the looks on their faces, as happy, excited, and in awe as I was the first time we touched down in this beautiful country, was great. I still think I had that same look on my face, as well, since I was so happy that we finally made it. It was even better to see everyone’s reactions to the beautiful houses that we stay in while we’re here. While we’re here, we will be staying in a beach house complex called Nanny Estates, with three of us to a house. Once we got the keys to our houses and unpacked some things, we all sat down for our first meal of the day, Gordito’s burritos! They were just as good as I remembered from last time. Once we ate, everyone seemed so energized and ready to explore the estates, but since I didn’t get any sleep before we took off on the first flight, I ended up calling it quits early and going to bed around 7pm. Wednesday, 1-9-19: Today was our first full day in la Republica Dominicana! It was also our very first excursion; a visit to a Cocoa farm! This cocoa farm is owned by a man named Freddy and his family. Freddy is the husband of Trisha, a wonderful woman who started the Mariposa DR Foundation, and accompanies us throughout our journeys here! Once we got there, Freddy showed us around the whole cocoa farm, where we came upon banana, mango, coconut, platano, orange, grapefruit, and cocoa trees. The cocoa tree was the most interesting to see, once again! The cocoa pods themselves were about the size of two fists put together, filled with smalls seeds that resembled fruit, but had the bitter aftertaste of dark chocolate. Once the cocoa pods are opened, these seeds are extracted and put through a drying process, are roasted, peeled, and transferred to a wooden pot where they’re crushed into a fine powder. The natural oils within the dried seeds give the powder a moisture that allows it to turn into a thick paste, which is then rolled into balls, put in the freezer for about ten minutes, and becomes chocolate! Although I was walked and talked through this process last time I was here, it’s a cool process to learn about, and I did learn something new about what happens between the extraction of the fruit-like seeds, and the point in which they’re roasted. Apparently, the fruits are put into a bowl of water, which is then left out for a few days so butterflies can fly to it. Once the butterflies get to it, they eat the white, fruit-like outside layer of the seed, and leave the inside pod that is then dried and cooked to be made into chocolate. The last time I was here, we did take this tour with Freddy. But, I actually think that I enjoyed this one even more than the first! When we came here in 2017, it had rained the day before we visited the farm, so we were only able to tour part of it. However, at the time, I didn’t know that I was missing out on any part of it. When we went on this tour, I saw so many things that I didn’t even know existed on the farm! We saw types of trees I had never seen before, saw the biggest type of tree in the Caribbean, pet a chicken, saw dozens of cows, and tried different fruits that Freddy hacked off the trees with a machete! Once the tour was over, Freddy’s mother cooked us a DELICIOUS family-style lunch, one that I had been looking forward to eating since I applied to study abroad once again. She made us a classic Dominican dish called “la bandera,” consisting of chicken, rice, beans, and fried plantains. Once we had eaten enough to keep us full the rest of the week, we still had one more thing to try; hot chocolate! Although the hot chocolate wasn’t made from the roasted cacao beans that we had picked, it was still made with the same process, so it was cool to see the end product of all of our (Freddy’s) hard work! All-in-all it was really fun to be able to go on this excursion knowing that I had been there before, but ending the day with a completely different and equally exciting experience. Once we had finished at the farm, we headed back to Nanny Estates, where we cooled down after a long day. We all hung out, took a dip in the pool, played lawn games with other guests of the estates, and took a walk down by the beach. I think it’s safe to say that it was a pretty successful first day! Suitcase packed: √ Carry-ons: √ Passport: √ 2 days. In 2 days, my cohorts and I will be on a plane flying to the beautiful Dominican Republic! Anyone that knows me, knows that the last time I visited the Dominican Republic, it took me almost a month to pack. First, I would make a list, then rewrite it when I thought I was missing something, then rip it up and start all over again when it became over two pages long. Of course, this time was no different! I began collecting some of the things I knew I would take with me on the trip back in the beginning of December. It wasn’t until this past Friday that I finally sat down for almost SEVEN HOURS, and pushed myself to actually start picking out outfits, packing up my carry-ons, and actually getting myself ready to go! Although I have went on this trip before, I can’t help but to feel nervous and anxious to go, again. When I first travelled with Buffalo State to the Dominican Republic, it was my first time going out of the country without my mom, and my first time being away from home for more than a week. I love travelling to new places and learning new things, but I am a homebody at heart, so it was hard for me to leave the first time. I thought that this time would be different, since I have gone once before. But I was wrong! In 2017, I had a very close friend go on the trip with me as well, so I had someone to turn to when I was missing home, or nervous about a new experience. This time, as I keep saying, I’m “doing it on my own,” and breaking out of my comfort zone. But, after all of our Wednesday meetings at Buffalo State this past semester, I know that I have a wonderful group of people going on this new journey with me, and I have no worry that we won’t all have an amazing experience, together! This past semester, I had the pleasure of student teaching in an amazing classroom full of Second graders. During one of my final weeks there, I took the time during one of the classes Fun-Friday celebrations to work on my list of goals I wanted to accomplish while in the Dominican Republic this time around. This list includes goals like, “To learn more about the Dominican culture,” and “To build relationships with students, teachers, and others that we meet.” While I was creating this list, one of my students, named Kendra, came up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told her that since I was studying abroad in another country, we had to make a list of goals, or things we wanted to do/accomplish, while we were away. I told her I needed one more thing to add to my list, and she said “Well that’s easy! To be happy! You can’t have a good time or do the stuff they want you to do if you’re not happy, Miss Garlick.” So, at the bottom of my list is my favorite goal of all, “To be happy.” I loved the whole experience the last time that I went, and I am expecting to love this experience just as much. Like Kendra said, I just have to make sure that the whole time we are away, I make sure that I am happy.
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AuthorHello! My name is Casey, and I just graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Childhood Education. I had the pleasure of studying abroad in the Dominican Republic in January of 2017, which was an absolutely amazing experience! I am so excited to have been given yet another opportunity to expand my knowledge in the field of education, while simultaneously exploring the beautiful culture of the Dominican Republic, once again. When we return at the end of January, I will be starting my Master’s program with Buffalo State, majoring in Curriculum and Instruction, with a minor in Early Childhood Education. ArchivesCategories |