Funny The Way It Is

As our first week of teaching comes to a close, I have been trying to reflect on what challeneges I've faced these past several days. There have been minor challenges--like forming a schedule and adjusting it for absent students. Teaching without Internet was difficult, but the staff at Isla Bonita graciously gave me access to their wifi, greatly expanding my resources. Finding a place to teach seemed challenging at first, but now I love not knowing where we're going to work...at the picnic tables, maybe? In the conference room? The balcony? The playground? We've done it all...

All those small issues are not really problems, just me settling into the San Pedro educational culture. It's very relaxed and informal here, and I love that. And, unrelated, I absolutely love riding my bike to and from school; I wish I could do that easily at home!

My biggest challenge here so far is finding opportunities to compare my teaching practice to those comparable in nature here in Belize. Special education is building rapidly in the United States and is obviously what I specialize in. Many of the wonderful educators at Isla Bonita have not received training in teaching students with disabilities, so I haven't been able to form an accurate comparison of our work.

I have, however, observed most of the classrooms at Isla Bonita Elementary School and at a tutoring center in Caye Caulker (more about that to come!), and I've been able to make comparisons between these classes and the general education classrooms in the States. They are very different from each other, and I find that so interesting. In the U.S., we are so concerned with research-based programs and approaches, and while I know that the teaching methods I've been taught to use work effectively, I have to wonder: don't the instructional strategies used here in Belize get the job done in the end? I understand the need for structure in special education classrooms, but I can't help but feel that the American educational system (and just America in general) needs to learn from San Pedro and relax a bit.