SHANELLE
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
SHANELLE
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
I was able to visit five different schools while here in the Dominican Republic. Two of them were private schools and the other three were public schools. The two private schools are Coral and CARIN, both of which schooled Mariposa girls. The three public schools are Puerta Cabarete, Punta Cabarete, and Salome Urena. The private schools pick their own uniform, similar to the United States, but all the public schools have the same uniform. (Talk about segregation) The teachers in the schools even have their own uniform, which is very modest and reserved. The Coral school is where we are doing observations, teaching lessons, and teaching English classes. In the Dominican Republic, students only go to school for half a day. Usually, the older students go to school from 8a.m. to 12p.m. and the younger students got from 2p.m. to 5p.m. Some schools, like Coral, only have a limited number of classrooms so this schedule works perfectly. On the other hand, the government is trying to make full days of school universal in the Dominican Republic. It would be interesting to see how the smaller schools adapt to these changes. For example, The Coral school only has nine classrooms (the owner is currently constructing a new preschool room so we’ll call it 10). This school serves grades Pre-K up until 12th grade. How could the principal possibly fit all these grades into 10 classrooms for a full day of school? Just giving some food for thought. The other private school, CARIN, was a really nice school but it was too quiet. Some people may argue that a quiet classroom is a classroom full of well-behaved learners but how can you tell that the students are learning anything if they’re not saying anything? Granted, there’s a difference between on and off – task classroom discourse, but in all the classrooms I walked past, the teachers were talking and the students we’re just looking at the teacher. You could just tell that this school was strict and the faculty took no nonsense from their students. CARIN is also a school where wealthy parents send their children to get a great education. I know this may sound very “judgey” as a future educator, but most of these students were rocking gold watches, chains, and earrings like it was apart of their uniform. And I know what you’re thinking, “Shanelle, just because they have expensive looking jewelry on doesn’t mean they’re rich.” Butttttt, and I kid you not, none of the other schools I visited had students wearing this much jewelry. In the other schools, students usually walk from home to school by themselves or with a parent. At times you may see their parent drop them off on a motorcycle but rarely, if ever, have I seen a parent drop their child off at school in a car. However, we were told that students at CARIN get dropped off and picked up in cars every day from school. There’s a strong possibility that if a student is getting picked up and dropped off, they don’t have to worry about anyone trying to rob them of their possessions unlike students who have to walk to school every day. At least that’s how I looked at it. Punta Cabarete was a one - room school. Meaning, the school is comprised of one room. There is another class, however, that is held outside of the classroom under a shed-like roof. This school was very saddening for me because during recess, the students were playing with balloons and rocks for fun. This is supposed to be a government – funded school, yet it looked like the principal was pouring all her life savings into this school. Even though it’s a one - room school, I expected it to look better for the simple fact that the government should be taking care of it. However, one thing I did like about this school was the fact that most of the students’ parents had also gone to this same school. I thought of it as a generational school, keeping the same education within the family sort of thing. When we went to Puetra Cabarete, the students had the day off. One thing I noticed, and it made me smile, was the drawing of the Mirabal sisters that someone made and it hangs in their school library. This was a two - floor school, pretty decent size, but again there were no students so there isn’t much to say about the school. The last school that we saw was the public school Salome Urena. This was a pretty nice looking school that actually seemed like it was funded by the government. This school had three floors, which was extremely tiring to climb, and it was the biggest school I had seen in the Dominican Republic. We were told that the classrooms can get very loud but they’re too bad when we did a walk through. Granted, the students could’ve been distracted by our presence but I was still expecting more rowdiness. All in all, I had fun going to the different schools. It was interesting to see how the public schools differed from the private schools and how much they had in common. Stay in touch for my future blog where I talk about working in the Coral school. Hasta luego!
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Have you ever heard of the girl effect? If you can help a girl in poverty by the age of 12, you can help change her life and help end generational poverty. Today we were given a presentation on the girl effect and how it ties in with the Mariposa DR Foundation. We watched three different documentaries about girls all over the world with different inspirational stories. The one story that stood out to me most was about this little girl that lives in Haiti named Wadley. She loved to read speeches by Toussaint Louverture and she looked forward to going to school every day. After the earthquake her mom couldn’t afford to send her to school anymore but she still didn’t give up. Wadley kept on trying to go to school but her teacher would tell her to leave until her mother could afford to pay for her. One day, Wadley decided she would be like Toussaint Louverture and take a stand for what she believed was right. She went to school and when the teacher would ask her to leave, she said no and the only way she would leave is if the teacher made her leave. As a result, the teacher decided to let Wadley stay in the class and learn. I was affected by this story so much because it made me realize how much I take school for granted. When my alarm goes off in the morning for class, I try and think of 50 different excuses I could use for missing class. Here was this little girl that loved school so much and learning new things that would do anything just to go to school. I also looked at this documentary from a teacher’s perspective: what if I worked in a private school and one of my students couldn’t afford to come to school anymore? Maybe this student will receive the same education in a free public school. Maybe I could find a way to get this student a scholarship. Maybe there are many different factors affecting whether or not this student can continue to attend this private school. As much as this documentary was focused on Wadley, who had a thirst for education, this documentary was also about the teacher who allowed her to stay in the class. She could’ve called the police to have her removed from the class when Wadley became defiant or she could’ve let her stay in the class from the first time she asked. Because the teacher admired the Wadley’s love for learning, she allowed her to stay in the class. As a future educator I do believe I will be faced with tough decisions when it comes to my students’ learning but I hope my students will inspire me to make the right decision.
Saturday, January 7th Today we went on a tour of the Mirabal Sisters Museum. The museum is located at the home where the four sisters (Maria Teresa, Dede, Minerva, and Patria) and their mother lived after their father had died. Maria Teresa, Minerva, and Patria were assassinated for opposing the dictator at the time, Rafael Trujillo. Dede, the last remaining sister, made sure the legacy of her sisters was carried on and that they would be remembered for the heroes that they were. Dede recently passed away on February 1st 2014. Before embarking on our two hour - long journey to Salcedo, where the museum is located, we warned that the tour of the museum could get emotional. When I hear the word emotional, I think of tears coming down my eyes and a feeling of sadness but that’s not what I experienced after this tour. As I mentioned before, the museum is in the home where all the sisters last lived together. We saw pictures the sisters had drawn and painted, and sculptures that were created while they were incarcerated. Strike number 1 that started to get me emotional was the collection of items Dede gathered at the scene of her sisters’ death. There was a cloth that Dede used to clean off the bodies of her sisters to identify them, the handbag that one of sisters were carrying, as well as the shoes of one of her sisters. The fact that Dede had enough strength to collect all these items and preserve them for so many years really had my emotions working. We then got to see the room where the sisters slept and some of their favorite dresses to wear and even Minerva’s wedding dress. Strike two that led to my emotional state happened when we entered Maria Teresa’s room. There was a case with Maria Teresa’s long black hair that Dede had cut off her sister’s head when she died. To top it off, the clip that Maria Teresa had in her hair when she died was still there in the casing. Seeing this just sent a chill through my bones that I will never forget. Strike 2.5 was going into Minerva and Manolo’s room and seeing the shirt Minerva had planned to wear once her country was free from the dictatorship of Trujillo. It was a shirt in the form of the Dominican flag but unfortunately, she never got the chance to wear it. We continued to tour the house and garden area and may I say that this house is a pretty nice house to have been built in the 1950s. I knew they were a wealthy family but sheesh that house was beautiful! Last but not least was strike number 3, the monument and burial site of the sisters and Minerva’s husband Manolo. On the 40th anniversary of their death, Dede had their bodies moved from the cemetery and reburied on the museum grounds. We were literally walking over the graves of heroes and I personally didn’t feel worthy to do such a thing. In the house we could barely touch their beds or sit in the couch they used to sit in but you’re allowing me to walk over their graves like its fine and dandy?! That was it for me and I removed myself from that area. Fortunately for me, that was the last stop of the tour and our group reconvened at the gift shop. I can’t tell you the surge of emotions that I felt going through the tour because I don’t feel there are words to describe them. It was a combination of sadness anger but at different parts of the tour, my anger would overpower my sadness and vice versa. We also got to see the outside of the sisters’ childhood home and where Dede lived out her last days. This home was just as beautiful as the first one that we saw except the garden was magnificent. Dede planted so many flowers and plants and they just gave the home a certain ambiance. It was extremely calming being in the garden and it brought my emotions to a stable level. We weren’t allowed inside, which made me a bit sad but there are hopes that they are in the works of turning this house into a museum as well. There is a park right across the street dedicated to the Mirabal sisters. On the property is the frame of the jeep the sisters had died in as well as a monument that represents the three mariposas. Mariposas, Spanish for butterfly, was the codename given to the Mirabal sisters. Every time I saw a butterfly out in the garden I had this cheesy feeling that it was one of the Mirabal sisters watching over their homes and the people who went in them. This tour showed me the impact these three sisters had on the people of the Dominican Republic. These sisters were so young and brave enough to oppose the dictatorship of Trujillo, an infamous dictator, is more than just inspiring, it’s breathtaking! I am so happy that I got to learn more about the Mirabal sisters and got to see where they lived. This is the best educational experience I’ve had on this trip thus far. First Picture: Tee-Ahna, Bryanna, Fernanda, and myself in the garden at the Mirabal sisters' childhood home. Second picture: The monument dedicated to the Mariposas at their childhood home. Thirds picture: Statues of the Mirabal sisters. I have spent two full days in the Dominican Republic and I must say it feels like home (Jamaica). My parents were both born and raised in Jamaica and I have been going there since I was a baby. The only different between the Dominican Republic and Jamaica is the language barrier. In retrospect, I was a bit saddened by this because I wanted to experience something new. Granted, the cultures are different but there are a lot more similarities than there are differences. Although I am a bit disappointed, I am grateful to be here and not in the snow or cold. On Monday we visited a home in the country/ farms known as a campo. This place was a culture shock for me because there was no indoor plumbing within the house but there was satellite TV. Patricia, the director of the Mariposa foundation, told us the family didn’t want indoor plumbing and that they were content with their way of life. I cannot agree more with Tricia because the family had nothing but smiles on their faces and they were just genuinely happy people. After a tour of the area and looking at different plants and fruit trees, the host family prepared lunch for us. We had arroz y guandules con pollo (rice and beans with chicken) and it was amazing. I was able to taste the cocoa fruit itself (it reminded me of a guinep fruit) then harvest the cocoa seed itself and grind it into powder then a paste. I even received a cup of fresh hot cocoa from the host family of that day. Today we finally went to the Mariposa foundation and we had our first Spanish class. Just some background information: I took four years of Spanish and wanted to be a Spanish teacher once upon a time ago. Spanish class was unlike any other class I have been too. We learn that students learn best when they’re physically engaged but how often is it actually incorporated within the classroom? As class time went on, a lot of the Spanish that I learned started to come back to me and I could talk to the natives in Spanish and they would actually understand me! Besides Spanish class, I learned how much of an impact the Mariposa foundation has on its girls. This foundation provides its girls with the support they need in every aspect; and God forbid you give the director a new idea, she will do everything in her power to get her girls access to it no matter what! The Mariposa girls have access to English classes, reading help, cooking classes, swimming classes, and much more. I hope to find a non - for - profit organization like the Mariposa foundation near me in the U.S. To end my workday, we took a tour through a town within Cabarete, which is where we are staying and where the foundation is located. I saw a lot of the homes where a few of the Mariposa girls live and some of their homes weren’t the best. After a month of continuous rain, some of the families in this neighborhood had to up and leave their homes because of the flooding. I could begin to see why some of these girls were so happy to be at the foundation site because it’s like a home away from home. Since the children are on vacation form school, most, if not all, of the students are home. I saw a Mariposita (a young Mariposa girl) taking care of her younger siblings while her mother was at work; keep in mind, this girl is no more than 8 or 9 years of age. Imagine the every day lives of these girls if they didn’t have the Mariposa foundation. Would they even attend school every day and learn as many skills as they do while at the foundation or would they stay at home every day to help out their mother and take care of their younger siblings? Being in the Dominican Republic has showed me how appreciative these girls are to have access to a fully rounded education. This is something that we take for granted in the U.S. and it’s actually very sad. People always talk about how eye - opening these experiences are but you have to be in our position to fully understand where we are coming from. I strongly advise you to add a voluntary experience of some sort to your bucket list. Join me next time as I tell you more about my adventure as I cross this experience off my bucket list. |
AuthorHola! My name is Shanelle and I am a current senior at SUNY College at Buffalo. My major is Childhood Education and Mathematics (7-9). I've dreamt of becoming a teacher for as long as I can remember and now that's dream is becoming a reality. I'm anxious to go to the Dominican Republic and work with children in a differently environment and language. I hope you'll follow me along my journey in Cabarete. ¡Hasta luego! ArchivesCategories |