Janinna
Art Education Undergraduate |
Janinna
Art Education Undergraduate |
I have officially been home from the Dominican Republic for a few weeks now. I can truthfully say that I have never missed a place more.
I arrived back to Buffalo and was greeted with the most welcoming hail and sleet at 11pm at night. Since then I have reflected on my work in the Dominican almost every day. I started student teaching and I have shared my stories with hundreds of teachers and students. I have even had discussions with some of my seniors about scholarships and study abroad programs if they choose to advance their education. When telling someone about my experiences in the Dominican Republic I really put emphasis on how life changing it was. How the relationships I built in a short time will now impact my teaching career and all of my students. I share my adaptiveness and how welcomed I felt by the Dominican culture and people. I felt passionate about my mission to go there. To learn from directors, teachers and students. My goal before traveling was to become more culturally aware and to be a more culturally diverse minded teacher. I believe those two goals have been achieved but are also more deeply extended now that I know my capacity for learning has not been reached. I am extremely grateful for my work partners, teachers and friends for helping me adjust and to reach my full potential before , during and after the Dominican Republic. I will continue to seek more culturally expansive opportunities to better my personal and career goals. A humungous thank you to Tamara and Pamela, my professors for leading me and my cohort through an amazing two week experience. I have learned so much and I hope to learn even more in the future! Goodbye for now! IPDS Dominican Republic 2023
0 Comments
Today we started our day back at tres mariposas to finish up any research/interviews that we couldn’t finish the week prior. We worked with students throughout the morning and later in the day we got to work with a licensed social worker who works with the school. It was interesting to see his side of how our lessons and activities were planned out. He helped us see the activities from different perspectives so that we can run them as smoothly as possible. For a quick treat we decided to stop at a local bakery. It was so good! I had the best slice of flan. After we finished our work at the schools, we were gratefully served a homemade Dominican dinner from the Mariposa DR foundation team. It was so fun. We spent the night with friends and had a huge feast! Thankfully today was pretty relaxed day because the next few days of our trip is going to be busy! Saturday was our only completely free day of the whole trip. We chose to spend our day in the ocean and hang around on the beach. It was a very well needed break. The following day, we had spent our morning driving through the mountains to Salcedo. The roads were windy and felt like we were on a roller coaster. We were on our way to the Mirabel Sisters Museum. The Mirabel sisters were four young ladies who fought for their freedoms and rights against the former dictator Trujillo. On November 25th, 1960 three of the sisters, Minerva, Maria Teresa and Patria were intercepted by men who worked for Trujillo after visiting their husbands in jail. The men abducted and killed them and framed their death to look like an accident. The chilling tragedy struck the Dominican Republic hard. The Mirabel sisters death was the last straw for the people and six months later Trujillo was assassinated. Prior to this study abroad experience we read “In the time of the Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez. This is a fictional story based on the accounts and history told by the second eldest sister, Dede. Reading this story and analyzing their history was so interesting and helped me tie my experiences reading the book to my real-life experiences like seeing the museum and their graves. Because of my connections with my research and my reading I definitely felt more connected to the city and the museums. If I knew someone that was traveling to their next destination, especially abroad, I would give them advice to research and put in time to get to know the community before entering it as a guest. I encourage people to look past the excursions and tourist traps and see what local communities and families are working on day by day. Reminders to always stay respectful of people around you and their families, languages, and lives. You should arrive at your destination ready to learn and be learned from. Overall today was a great day and I feel so refreshed and ready for the upcoming week! Today was a super eventful day. We began the same at tres mariposas finishing up observations. Today we got to observe the upper elementary students. In my observations, I noted that all kids are very aware of their actions and take responsibility for their learning environment. Seeing the older kids helped me see the more practical side of things in a Montessori. Next, we went to our final day with our host family and it was a little sad because it felt like Hailee and I finally just got comfortable talking in Creole ☹. They were so amazing and I am glad we got to meet them. The best part of the day was going to Coral and teaching a lesson called “Grab your Passports!” I wrote a short lesson plan for this and it is essentially a simulation of riding in an airplane and filling out your passport. We began by writing on the board outlines and fill in the blanks for their passports. We did this in English and Spanish. We then reviewed and repeated all the words so that we knew the correct pronunciation. After filling out our passports we left the classroom and stood in a line outside the classroom door. One by one I had each student present their passports to enter the “plane”. I took this as an opportunity to be fun and engaging. The kids seemed to love my expressions and enjoyed the lesson. We then had everyone bang on the desks to simulate taking off. While we were “in the sky”, we had a class discussion about all the things we saw out the window on our way to America. The children did very well with the lesson and were super good listeners. I loved teaching this lesson at Coral and I am grateful for being able to meet and teach English to these amazing fourth graders. When we got back, we celebrated by swimming in the ocean and the pool. Today was so nice and rewarding. I can’t wait to see the other lessons I get to teach. See ya tomorrow! Here are some photos and videos from the lesson! This blog post will be a little shorter as today was like yesterday. We started our day at Tres Mariposas again but this time we were interviewing the lead classroom guides for our research. We spent about 2 hours interviewing the guides and asking different questions from our survey containing questions about classroom assessment, behavior and management, mental and physical health of students, special needs and accommodations and child neglect and maltreatment. I really loved getting to see the guides outside of their classroom. They really connect to the kids and are very observant of the children. I also learned that many of the guides are very well educated and certified specifically in Montessori teaching and values. When we went to Coral, Anna and I taught an English lesson about food and animals. First, we played the game “I’m going on a picnic and I am bringing…” We did vocabulary on what types of food we could bring and what those words translate to in English. We practice repeating the phrases in both languages and made sure to write everything down in their notebooks. The children loved learning in English and tried their hardest to focus and participate.
To make things easier and more coherent I will be talking about my host family experience here! (:
|
AuthorI am twenty one years old and I live in Buffalo, New York. I am an artist and teacher. I practice being an advocate for people in need and the art community. ArchivesCategories |