1/31/13

Bitter Sweet

Yesterday another student came back to camp.  He had a family emergency and therefore missed Monday and Tuesday.  He picked up right from where we left off.  Randall, the regional English adviser, came yesterday to help with recreo (recess).  He taught the students a game that they really liked.  We also learned a song using the prepositions of location.  I didn't know if my lack of singing talent would hinder the learning process.  The students didn't cover their ears and they learned the song.  In fact they learned it so well that they sang it off and on the rest of the class.  We did an activity using school supplies.  In pairs, the students had to organize the items and then describe their location to the other pair.  The other pair had to organize the items according to the description.  When both sides are ready they remove the barriers and compare.  Here is a photo of the activity in process.



Today yet another student came back to camp.  Turns out that his bicycle was broken for a while.  Since we didn't have use of the UNA mini-bus he wasn't able to come to camp.  Having missed 3 days this week proved difficult for him.

Randall, came to camp again today and supervised recreo.  He suggested that they create a new game, but the students liked yesterdays game so much that they played it again today.  We made our Thank You cards and letters for all of the donors that made JumpStart CRUSA Sarapiqui possible.  The students also created sale advertisements to review clothing, colors and numbers.

Tomorrow is our last class together.  I think that we are all experiencing mixed feelings.  We have all grown and learned so much this month.  Personally, I am really excited for their parents to see how much they have learned in one month.  Graduation will be at 11:00 tomorrow morning.  The students will receive t-shirts, notebooks, pencils, graduations certificates.  We will also have cookies and drinks.  Staff from Costa Rica Multilingue and CRUSA are coming for the graduation.  I'm really excited for the students and sad because I will miss them.  As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end".

¡El inglés...con las Ciencias!

Esta semana, JumpStart Costa Rica 2013 cuenta con el apoyo de dos invitados especiales del Programa Adopte un Talento (PAUTA) de México, Janet Verjovsky y Richard Cisneros. En cinco regiones de México, PAUTA trabaja con jóvenes de escasos recursos que demuestran talento académico, para brindarles oportunidades educativas en las ciencias y la matemática en colaboración con algunos de los principales escolares del país. Además, PAUTA ofrece capacitaciones a profesores para mejorar la enseñanza de dichas materias en las aulas. La organización promueve un modelo académico donde el profesor, en vez de explicarles todo a sus estudiantes, les presenta un problema y los reta a identificar el cómo y el por qué mediante actividades dinámicas e interactivas,  ayudándolos así  a desarrollar destrezas vitales como el pensamiento crítico y la creatividad.

Richard con estudiantes en Sabalito
 Bueno, pero ¿qué tiene que ver dicho programa con JumpStart? En cuanto a las ciencias y la matemática, el inglés es la lengua franca de la investigación. Para un estudiante que espera ser doctor, químico,  ingeniero,  o profesional en casi cualquier otro sector del campo científico o relacionado con números,  es casi inevitable que se tope con el inglés durante la universidad. No saber el idioma puede ser una muleta. Al contrario, poder manejarlo le permite acceder de pleno a los nuevos desarrollos dentro de su carrera. En Costa Rica Multilingüe siempre trabajamos con la meta de promover la competitividad y la empleabilidad del pueblo costarricense. Integrar las ciencias a nuestros campamentos JumpStart nos parece una buena manera de asegurar que nuestros niños--especialmente los que vienen de zona rural y escuela pequeña--tengan oportunidades que los preparen para sobresalir en las carreras que más se demandan.

Janet en La Cruz
El viernes pasado en San José, Janet y Richard expusieron con Marta Blanco, Directora Ejecutiva de CRML, sobre el vínculo entre el inglés y las ciencias en la Conferencia Nacional para Profesores de Inglés (NCTE). Después de una visita el sábado al Volcán Irazú y a Cartago, salieron en direcciones distintas desde la capital para realizar lecciones de PAUTA en las clases de dos diferentes campamentos JumpStart. Richard está ahora trabajando con Darien, voluntaria del Cuerpo de Paz (EE.UU.), en el campamento en Sabalito de Coto Brus. Al otro lado del país, Janet está trabajando con otra voluntaria, Taylor, en La Cruz de Guanacaste. Con los estudiantes en esas comunidades, Janet y Richard están facilitando actividades sobre temas científicos que van de la astronomía a la física. En México ellos suelen enseñar en español, pero acá están incorporando el inglés. 

Nosotros en CRML no podríamos estar más emocionados para esta nueva colaboración y las oportunidades que presenta para el futuro de JumpStart. Este viernes, Janet estará en Liberia para el cierre del campamento, y Richard estará en Puerto Jiménez. Poco después estarán regresando juntos a México. ¡Estaremos en contacto con ellos para un futuro!

The Final Thursday


Today was a day packed with review games, 'bubbleology' science experiment, and finally painting the student's desks! What a day! 

We began with reviewing direction, numbers, and body parts with the kids three favorite activities...all outside and really active. Part I of the day consisted of Janet's activity called Bubble-ology. The kids were given a variety of soaps and different types of instruments to create bubbles: straws, cups, spatulas, serving spoons, wires, etc. We measured the bubbles and found the biggest bubbles can be made by poking a straw in a plastic bubble and blowing through the straw. We were so impressed with the kids creativity!

Next, with our donated paints and paintbrushes, the students finally got to design and paint their desks. We had some amazing creations: lots of JumpStart desks, hearts, flowers, a few Rastafarian themed desks and even a little mouse! They were given the themes of English, science, or nature and had to paint within those boundaries... 

Tomorrow is the big day! I think more than the certificates, the kids are most excited about their peer voted superlatives...hopefully all will go well with the cake and pizza surprise for the last day!!

Final update tomorrow...


- Taylor Westfall

Superstars!

Often, we write and talk about our projects, the curriculum, the successes we frequently find, mention our partners and sponsors, among many other great things we are doing, but we sometimes forget the beautiful faces that make our project a reality; the faces that have made our project possible.

Here are the fourteen faces of Jump Start Osa who have shined as SUPERSTARS for the last month! And Osa-English-Teaching-Extraordinaire Barton.

The glamorous Leonela!
Mr. Kevin (He has a very special talent for EL)

Ms. Katherine from Monterrey. Sometimes she tries to hide her smile, but eventually it always surfaces.
Keiler and Freisel! 
Ms. Jeymi!
The Steven Tandem (Reyes and Jimenez) 




Daniel from Bambu!
Rosa, a rising superstar, from Amapola!
The Fabulous Hellen from Agujas.
The Two Sandalo Estrellas, Lady and Rachel.

Marlon has his back turned! 
Co-Teacher Barton!
This Picture Is Just Way Too Cute Not To Upload! Hellen and Steven.





Some Help From World Teach Panama!

First, I would like to offer an apology for not blogging during week three of Jump Start Osa.

Famous Osa-English-Teaching-Extraordinaire Barton Rode and I were off perusing in San Jose at the Costa Rica National English Teaching Conference. We saw a great opportunity to be able to gain some English Teaching Strategies we could use for Jump Start, so we jumped at the opportunity to attend on behalf of the Peace Corps. Don't fret though folks, World Teach Panama and Jump Start Osa were able to coordinate together to ensure our lovely fourteen students didn't miss any class time! 

A very great teacher, friend, and program director of World Teach Panama, Amanda, volunteered some time to come travel to Puerto Jiménez from Veraguas, Panamá and teach the week of classes. Amanda has a lot of experience working in Latin America, speaks beautiful Puerto Rican Spanish, and taught TEFL classes for several years before being hired by World Teach to direct programs in Panama, and most recently in India. Amanda was just transferred to lead the program in India. 

Before leaving for India, this is what Amanda had to say about Jump Start Osa: 
"It was inspiring for me to be part of such a well put together program. As a teacher, it touched me to be part of a classroom again, especially with the great kids that have volunteered their time this summer to take English classes. As the director of a volunteer program in Panama, I was struck by the ingenuity and dedication of the Peace Corps volunteers conducting the camp. Jumpstart offers an amazing opportunity to empower youth through education while fully engaging the energies and skills of their teachers. Participating in this program has been a great treat for me. Now, to start one in Panama..."
Team Work!
When Barton and I returned to camp, we asked the kids about her classes, the common response we received was the confession that they liked her better, because she didn't assign homework. :) It was very evident that the students all responded very positively to her teaching methods and practices.

Thank you, Amanda! Everyone at Jump Start Osa wishes you the best for your future endeavors, and extends a warm thanks for helping carry out Costa Rica Multilingue's, the US Embassy, and Peace Corps vision of helping these kids work to attain a better future through English learning.

1/30/13

Cantando * Singing

We've learned a few songs along the way to help us learn vocabulary and remember how to pronounce new words. On one of the first days of camp, I asked the kids who liked to sing. They looked at me suspiciously and asked "Why?!" Almost all of them told me that they didn't really like to sing. But just take a look at their faces... they seem to be enjoying themselves! Which is good, since we usually start our days with a song, or two... or three. 

Hemos aprendido algunas canciones que nos ayudan a aprender vocabulario y recordar cómo pronunciar palabras nuevas. En uno de los primeros días del campamento, les pregunté a los niños a quienes les gustaba cantar. Me miraron con desconfianza y me preguntaron "¿Por qué?" Casi todos me dijeron que no les gustaba mucho cantar. Pero sólo tiene que mirar a las caras... parecen estar disfrutando! Lo cual es bueno, ya que por lo general comienzan nuestros días con una canción o dos ... o tres.

Good Morning! (canción de los saludos)
 

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (canción de las partes del cuerpo)

Days of the Week (días de la semana)

English...and Science!

This week, the JumpStart Costa Rica 2013 team is joined by two special guests from Mexico´s Adopt a Talent Program (PAUTA), Janet Verjovsky and Richard Cisneros. In Mexico, PAUTA works with underprivileged youth who demonstrate academic talent by providing them with educational opportunities in science and math designed in collaboration with some of the nation´s top scholars. Additionally, PAUTA offers training to teachers to improve how science and math courses are taught in schools. The organization promotes an academic model whereby the teacher takes on the role of facilitator instead of providing students with all the answers. PAUTA´s lessons present kids with a problem and then challenge them to discover a solution, thereby pushing them to think critically and be creative.

Richard from PAUTA working with JumpStart
students in Sabalito de Coto Brus
So, why involve an organization focused on science education with JumpStart? In science, English is the lingua franca of research. For an engineer, doctor, mathematician, chemist, or professional working in virtually any other field of science or math, fluency in English can make him her her better poised to contribute to and learn from the international conversation surrounding their speciality. For that reason, we´re working to turn JumpStart into a program that provides students in Costa Rica with support in both English and science, and that also promotes greater collaboration between teachers of those two subjects.

Janet from PAUTA in La Cruz de Guanacaste
Las Friday, Janet and Richard presented alongside Marta Blanco, our Executive Director here at Costa Rica Multilingüe, about the relationship between English and science at Costa Rica´s annual National Conference for Teachers of English (NCTE). After a trip to the Irazú Volcano on Saturday, they headed in separate directions to integrate PAUTA lessons into two of this year´s JumpStart camps. Currently Richard is working with Darien, the Peace Corps Volunteer in Sabalito, at her JumpStart camp in the local high school. Janet, on the other hand, is on the opposite end of the country working with Taylor in La Cruz. With students in these communities, Janet and Richard are facilitating lessons on topics ranging from astronomy to physics. In Mexico they teach exclusively in Spanish. For JumpStart, however, they are integrating English into their science activities.

Here at CRML we are so excited for this new collaboration and the opportunities it presents for the future! This Friday, Janet will be in Liberia for the JumpStart graduation ceremony there, and Richard will be in Puerto Jiménez. Shortly after they´ll be heading back to Mexico. We will definitely be staying in touch!

1/29/13

Conocé a Rachel!


Rachel y Keiler trabajando
El primer día del campamento, Barton y yo estuvimos tratando de aprender todos los nombres de nuestros estudiantes, estábamos intentando de conocer a los chiquillos, y averiguar todos los motivos y las razones que tenían por asistir el campamento. Ya todos saben que el campamento se ha realizado durante sus días libres mientras están de vacaciones. ¿Por qué quieren ir a aprender el inglés cuando no hay clases? Obviamente todos tienen sus propias justificaciones, pero nos gustaría que todos tuvieran la oportunidad de conocer a Rachel. Es una de los catorce aspirantes del campamento, Jump Start Osa. Rachel es bien concentrada y tiene una historia demasiada bella.

Haciendo un dialogo.
Rachel es hija única y vive con sus padres. Su mamá es ama de casa y su papá es pensionado. Rachel vive en Sándalo, un pueblito demasiado pequeño que tiene muy poco ofrecer, en la península de Osa. Rachel nunca había tenido clases de inglés antes de que empezara este curso de inglés. Según a Rachel, aprender el inglés es un poco difícil, muy divertido, y bien útil e imperativo para su futuro y sus estudios. Nos dijo que “es simple, en realidad, entendemos porque debemos aprender el inglés.” Rachel nos contó que la vida puede ser muy difícil, si no se hace las decisiones correctas durante la vida.

Rachel es alumna de primera generación; es la primera persona de su familia que asistirá al colegio. Para mí, aprender eso es increíble. Como Latino quien viene de las partes desfavorecidas, de un barrio desamparado, me puedo relacionar con, o sea concibo, la realidad de Rachel y la vida de los alumnos de primera generación. Ese primer día, no supe mucho de esta muchacha tan valiente, pero inmediatamente me di cuenta que no era como los demás. Era más tímida, introvertida, y calmada. Rachel se sostenía muy callada, no quiso participar mucho, pero propagaba genialidad como nunca había visto antes en un alumno.


Rachel tiene un poco de verguenza por su compañero
Como los días se convirtieron en semanas, Rachel, y su dominio, floreció y surgió como una de los más probables de agarrar la lengua, lo más rápido que sea posible. Ahora, Rachel, participa en las clases sin problema, nunca falla, tiene buena pronunciación, y es modela de lo que debería ser un alumno de inglés. Es menos tímida y confía mucho en sus compañeros. No sé cuando se transformó, pero yo les puedo decir que el resultado es por Jump Start Osa y el proyecto de Costa Rica Multilingüe. Antes del campamento, Rachel, sumamente, era buena estudiante, pero ahora me parece que Rachel maneja el trabajo del curso con facilidad y con confianza en sí misma. Jump Start continúa de ser un paso demasiado importante como una introducción a sus nuevos compañeros y el ambiente del colegio del porvenir.

Home Stretch


It is the last week of JUMPSTART and the good news keeps coming.
First, JUMPSTART Liberia is now completely funded by CRUSA, a foundation that encourages the cooperation and collaboration between the U.S. and Costa Rica. This is an amazing opportunity for JUMPSTART and CRUSA. I cannot thank CRUSA enough for giving us the chance to prove that JUMPSTART is a worthy program. And hopefully this will be just the beginning of a long relationship between JUMPSTART and CRUSA.

Second, we had the honor of hosting two visitors at camp today. The director of Costa Rica Multilingue, Marta Blanca, helped me out all day. She was fantastic in the class and the students really enjoyed having her participate in the activities. We also were able to share with the Minister of Tourism for Guanacaste, Don Alvaro. He spoke to the students about the many opportunities available to people that speak English, not only in tourism, but in any job that involves people from another country, which is becoming more and more prominent.


Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to the Science Center at EARTH University. The Science Center is a collaboration between the U.S. Embassy and EARTH University, a private, non-profit, international university. We will be able to tour the center and campus and continue with class there. The University is about ten minutes down the road and none of the students have ever been. It will be really cool to see their faces as the step onto a university campus and hear about the opportunities that are available to them with a quick bus ride.

Thursday and Friday will be filled with review games, awards, and graduation. It is incredible how fast these four weeks have gone, and how much more we have to do in the last three days.

As always, thank you for your support, encouragement and love.


                                                                                                                        Labeling Body Parts                                                                                                 



                                         Town Map and Directions  
                  Reviewing Clothing 






                                                                                      Mine Field Directions



Playing Games! 



Annie Mott
Peace Corps Volunteer - TEFL
mottanna1@gmail.com 

Cloudy & Rainy

Today we had the same 16 students as yesterday.  This leads me to believe that the four 3 absent from yesterday will not be returning since none of them have contacted me.  I'm sad about their absence but sometimes there are circumstances that cannot be changed.  Today was the second day this week that we have had to use public transportation or bicycles.

We worked solid from 7:30 to 10:45 without a break.  The students from San Bernardino needed to catch the 11:00 bus so we finished a little early today.  It all worked out nicely.  So far we do not have transportation provided to us for tomorrow either.  Those of us on bicycles are getting a nice daily workout.  The regional English adviser said that he would come to our camp tomorrow.  If he comes the students may get a break to play.  We are planning a mini-graduation party for Friday.  Most of the students said that their parents are more than willing t attend.  It will a good time for everyone.

These photos are when we were learning the body parts.







Pictures from Week One!

Student teacher Albin helps his group order sentences

Student teacher Minor reviews vocab

Student teachers Albin and Kevin act out new vocab

Students and student teachers pose in front of the score board

Students perform their team cheer for the group in English














Ordering sentences as a group

10 circle game

Presenting their dialogues

Studying by candlelight in the dorms at night

Number race!

1/28/13

New Paths

Group Work!
I can’t believe we have already finished one JumpStart Camp and we are in the second week of our second camp! The month has flown by. The students have been a blast to have in class and we have laughed a lot. This summer camp has been a unique opportunity for them. When I asked the students what they normally do during their summer vacation, their answers ranged from picking coffee to help with their family earnings, to visiting family members in nearby towns, to watching TV at home.




Learning Numbers in a game like "Musical Chairs"
In our first JumpStart camp, the students came bounding off the buseta (minibus) after up to an hour and fifteen minutes of transport from their homes, ready to learn. When I asked if they were having fun during the camp, they all exclaimed, “YES!” One of their favorite games was learning numbers and walking around circles on the ground similar to “Musical Chairs.” We had a final count of 14 students who finished the JumpStart camp. They learned how to present themselves in English and ask each other basic questions. Hellen, Jay, and I were incredibly proud of the progress they made over the course of two weeks and only three hours a day. We went from having some students not speaking a word of English to all of the students being able to present themselves in front of the class in English for over a minute on graduation day. They told us they felt ready to enter high school. One student, Estiven told us after JumpStart he felt, "more prepared to enter high school and experience new paths."

Camp A Graduation!
Our second group of different kids has presented a different dynamic in the classroom. We now have 18 students in our camp and I am working with a different co-teacher, Diego. This time, our students’ favorite game has been learning professions with charades. They loved acting out the professions in front of their peers and guessing, “He is a doctor!” while the student acting would respond, “I am a doctor!” I told them, “You are all actors!” For this camp, we also have the opportunity of having a teacher-training expert from PAUTA (“Programa Adopte Un Talento”), an incredible Mexican organization that does science training for talented high-school students, to come to Costa Rica and work with our JumpStart students. The teacher-trainer, Richard, will be here for the week helping incorporate science into our English language learning. Today he led the students in a math and English activity strategy game with buttons and the students loved it. It will be fun to see what he has in store for them for the rest of the week!