07.25.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 8:45 pm by Greg
So I finished up my three weeks of classes here in Escazu. It was tons of fun, and I learned a ton. When I get time I will write you all an email in Spanish. I had another fantastic week down here. I found out the name of the awesome band I saw last week; they are called Malpais. I bought their most recent live CD. It is pretty chill. Anyways, so I am finally starting to understand what people are saying and actually communicate to other people. That is massively exciting. Also, I will be spending the next four weeks in an isolated region where they dont speak hardly any English. This should force me to practice and only help to improve my Spanish.
Last night we went to a fancy dinner up on the top of the mountains overlooking San Jose. We ordered a spectacular traditional meal for sharing and spit it. There was tons of chicken, steak, sausage, fried bananas, fried yuca, fried plantains, four different ensalads, beans and tortilla chips. It was muy rico. Anyways, after dinner there was traditional Costa Rican dancing by natives in sweet costumes (traditional clothes). They managed to enter the crowd and bring people up to dance with them (yes I was one…). But, after that, there is a vista balcony that is truely breathtaking. You look down the face of the steep mountain into the valley below; it is glowing and shimmering with the lights of distant houses and cars. The air has the fresh smell of rain, and the whole thing is pretty sublime.
Today Christian and I went white water rafting. It was sweet as hell. Because of all the rain, the rivers and really powerful and the currents and booking down the mountains. One boat in our group capsized about three minutes into the tour. It was awesome (no one was hurt, but the rapids were great). We had a wonderful time barreling through the waves and cheering. Our ‘guide’ was really friendly, and he taught us some inappropriate Spanish chants to tease the other boats as we passed them. During some of the slowerly more tranquil sections of the ride, we got to jump overboard and swim in the river. I was really impressed with how strong the current was. I could not swim upstream; I was trying, but when I looked over at the shore, I was moving backwards. Ridiculous. Anyways, It was an adrenaline pumping good time.
I have to pack up tonight and get ready to leave tomorrow (what a rockin’ Friday). But, if there is an internet cafe in the town where I am going I will keep you all posted.
P.S. Beard Fans, I have a hippy beard rocking for now. We’ll see how long it lasts
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Posted in Personal Reflections at 7:42 pm by Greg
So I had another spectucular weekend down here in Costa Rica. On Friday night I went out to the jazz club again and saw a really awesome Costa Rican jam band (Malpais). They were spectucular; think of the dead but with salsa and reggae influence. I dont remember the name of the band, but they played at a bar called Jazz Cafe Escazu. Me and this guy Chris(tian) are going there again tonight for jazz jam sessions every Monday. But, Im getting ahead of myself.
I took a walking tour of San Jose by myself on Saturday afternoon for about three hours. The city is pretty small and I got lost enough times to feel like I got a good feel of it. So, there are no street signs, and the map I had isnt exactly accurate. There was a lot of guestimation and trial and error to find things. All said and done I ended up visiting just about all the major highlights. I found about 5 different one block parks with various statues, buildings, and fountains. I took a breif tour of the National Theatre and National Museum. Both are pretty small, but neat in their own right. I then walked up and down a long stip of stores. The road is blocked off to traffic and people are peddling all kinds of goods (socks, bootleg DVDs, cuban cigars, fruit, massages with happy endings—the only English spoken—t-shits). There are mobs of people and places seems a little dangerous and dirty, but Im glad I experienced it. Anyways, Ill show you guys pictures when I get back. Saturday night, a couple of us tourists/volunteers had a little party at our house (there were four of us there now). We sang and played guitar then went out and just talked till about 2am. Then I had to cash in because I signed up to take a tour of laz paz waterfall gardens.
The gardens are breathtaking. We started out with a tour of a bird aviary. I had a tucan land on me. There were spectacular colored parrots, hummingbirds, and more than 30 other species I couldnt begin to tell you about. But wow, they were beautiful. Then we took a tour of the worlds largest butterfly garden. There were thousand of insects fluttering about, drinking nectar, mating, and just streching their wings. I was trying to get a picture of the butterflies with blue wings, because they were especially pretty. Finally one landed on my knee. It took it about 5 more minutes before it spread its wings, but it was pretty sweet. After that, we ate some traditional Costa Rican food. Then we took the actual tour of the waterfalls. They are located in the mountain (cloud/rain) forests. We got to climb down pretty streep and narrow paths through the dense dark trees and vinces to see them. They were awesome. The water cascading from the tops of the fresh mountain stream added a refreshing mist and smell to the air. The noise of the water crashing down was powerful and tranquil all at the same time. I took about 100 pictures, but Im just sending a few. After we saw the three falls on our tour, the clouds set in and created a beautiful and eerie scene. It was great to see the air just turn opaque and the temperature drop a few degrees in about 5 minutes. Wow, it was great.
When I got back I had a new roommate who is going to be staying with me for a week. His name is Christian, and hes from Germany. He is in the middle of his epic end of college preworking vaccacion. We swapped pictures and stories with each other and the family for a few hours. He is a pretty chill dude.
Anyways, class is going well. I have learned a ton of Spanish, but it still seems frustrating because I have so much more to go. It is remarkable how much I know considering it has been two weeks. I can ask for directions, say hello, talk about myself, give descriptions of simple things, and ask basic questions. Each day I learn somethings more that seems epically huge into helping me communicate, but I still learn that there is so much more to go.
P.S. There is no English spell check on the computer I use. Also, the keyboards have very different punctuation, and I still cant find an apostrophe anywhere. So no, I don not take the time to proofread for all of you grammar police. And no, an English degree is not a proofreading degree. Peace.
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07.14.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 2:41 pm by Greg
Playa de Quepos
This past weekend, 6 of us volunteers took a trip to Quepos and Maneul Antonio National Park. Bus rides down here are sorta funny. You show up at the station with your ticket and the bus leaves around (+/- 30 mins) whenever it is supposed to. Also, with all the mountains and narrow roads, you are going massively slow or not at all sometimes. Anyways, once we got there things were fine. We stayed in pretty decent hotel. It was the first building I have seen with air conditioning; the funny thing is that we didn’t use it.
The beaches here are just beautiful. We swim in the surf, got some sun, and ate awesome food right at the beach. The area is developing quickly and so there are many tourists. Because of that there are venders and people with little restaurants in tents right on the sand. We walked up to one and got an amazing freshly cooked meal for under $5. We did the whole touristy night club thing (which was not exactly my scene: tons of underage American girls getting way too drunk. Way to make us foreigners look bad. We took some funny photos though).
Sunday we went to the park. Oh man. Oh man. Being in the rainforest is just spectacular. The trees are incomprehensibly large and dense. There is plant life and greenery everywhere. Animals buzzing, cawing, howling, chirping, and moving around provide a peaceful susurrus of background noise. When we first walked along some of the paths we saw a few sloths ¨moving¨ in the trees. Moving is not really the right word because they only go about 100 feet per day. But we saw their arms twitch. I started taking pictures, but then my camera ran out of batteries (the girls got a hold of it the night before). Anyways, further down the path we saw a family of monkeys. They are hilarious. They are really active and curious creatures. They watched us as much as we watched them. I think they are so ugly and tiny that they become cute again. There are some beaches in the park too. You know those photos of exotic beaches to go vacation at. That what it was like. The Pacific ocean cut through an outcrop of rocks about 1/4 mile out into harsh and angular shapes. The waves then roll in along a crescent beach with a natural mix of white and black sand. The jungle is about 10 yards from the beach and provides a contrasting green backdrop to the dark blue water. In the sand we found literally 100s of hermit crabs, a dozen or so iguanas, raccoons, a snake, various insects, and other creatures I cant identify. While we were at the beach a monkey came out of the forest and stole my friends banana from her bag. Funniest thing every.
Anyways, I am told that where I am staying I will be able to see tons more life and take pictures of them, so I´m not too worried. My problems with my camera continue. I’m at an internet cafe, and I do not have the necessary cable to connect my camera to the computer. If I can find one in a store down here I will start to share some photos.
More classes this week in the afternoon and exploring San Jose at night (Apparently I am going to a karaoke bar and singing in Spanish tomorrow).
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07.10.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 3:18 pm by Greg
Poas Volcano National Park
So, I have lived for about a week now in Costa Rica. Things are going wonderfully. My host family is ver friendly. It is there two week ¨winter¨vacation down here so my Host father (I forgot his name…. how embarrasing) took off work. The family is really nice and helpful. Margarri is a stay at home mom, and cooks and watches over some of their neices and nephews for a couple months a year. I help her cook dinner and she helps me speak in Spanish. I usually end up making a fool of myself and we laugh. I have eaten more food than I ever thought possible. Every day, there is a huge breakfast of rice, beans, fresh fruit (mango, papaya, bannan, guanabana, pineapple, etc), freshly made juice, and strong coffee. Sometimes there is even eggs or bacon. For dinner there is usally some combination of rice, beans, salsa, onions, chiles, garlic, and mean along with a salad of some sort. Muy Bein. (this is the most I have thought in English for a while).
If you can believe it, I have not taken a warm shower here. Also, none of my showers have lasted more than 10 minutes (that might be due to the fact that there is no hot water). I´ll tell you, a cold shower is about as envigorating as a cup of strong black Costa Rican coffee. Appearently hot water heaters are not necessary for living. I am learning to agree. Also, Everyone is water garbage and water consciencious. It is neat to see how different peoples live just fine without all of the American waste.
My classes are going farily well I think. I know a ton more than I did before I arrived, but I still have a tremendous amount to learn. Everyday though it seems I am able to actually participate in the conversations more and more. So that is great news. The weather here is pretty consistant; it is sunny and beautiful in the morning, then in the afternoon is rains. I mean it rains tons. We dont get rain like this in the US. I am going out tonight to another bar to see some live music and have a few drinks. It should be fun, and this weekend four of us from the class (monica=swiss; anna=swiss; serge=french; and myself=gringo) are heading to Quenbo beach. It is on the Pacific and supposedly very beautiful.
My sea turtle volunteer project has been changed from Ostional to Osa penninsula. I guess the turtles are not in season due to global warming over at ostional. Osa is supposed to be trenendous. It has one of the largest protected rainforests in the Americas and has one of the world´s highest levels of biodiversity. I have attach the information brochure that I got at the sea turtle ¨headquaters¨ (project wildcast). Anyways, there will only be power there for 2 hours a day, and I will be walking a ton at night along the beaches. The nearest town is an hour away by ¨taxi¨ (a bench mounted in the bed of a pickup). I will be completely cut off for most of the time while I am down there. Despite that, it should be sweet as hell. During the day, we can wander around the rainforst and see monkies macas, parrots, and all kind of other wildlife. All of the locals say that it should be an awesome experience.
When I get to Osa I will start taking more pictures. Until then, I hope all is well with everyone. Pura Vida.
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02.25.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 8:48 pm by Greg
Insight
This section of reading was not anything new or profound for me, but it did reinforce ideas and beliefs that we have learned about reform education and management. I read this section because I have recently had the worst time with management so far in one of my classes. I felt like I was teaching last year all over again. This reading is aligned with a lack of extrinsic motivators and reinforcers–which is relieving after hearing a guidance counselor argue the subtle nuances between rewards and incentives. However, Bob Peterson nails it when he opens this section with a shift in the frame of the discipline question from “how do we get kids to obey” to “what are the needs of the kids, how might we meet those needs, and how can we build a community of serious learners who respect one another” (174).
This continued focus on what is best for the kids is what student centered teaching is all about. Building our whole class around the kids is what our whole goal of reform education is about. Even when dealing with especially difficult students “…I’ve never had success adopting a more traditional, repressive, or threatening approach. To the degree I slide down that slippery slope, the problem almost always gets worse” (184). Peterson suggests true buy in and community building by having the students be part of the rule building and structure setting (things we have discussed in our Mater’s program). Anyways reinforcement and stories of success from other about the things I am trying–that aren’t always working–is nice to hear.
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02.16.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 6:46 pm by Greg
Time Line
There be pirates here. So, I’m supposed to say how I am going to write my action research paper by march 5th. So, I’m also going to use parallel writing structures by saying “so”. Anyhow, enough of that. Over this break I am going to start writing everything about my research that does not involve my data collection and analysis. I am going to do the overview of the innovation, a description of the context, outline my collection tools, and informally describe some narratives and results so far. I hope to start this on monday morning. I’ll try to work on this for a few hours every other day. Hopefully, by next Wednesday I will have collected my “final” survey for this action research.
It seems odd to say finally, because I feel that the project is really just beginning. Everyday in class, the culture surrounding the blog is growing and changing. I am focusing my efforts on trying to foster the growth and development of this new culture in our class. I have two keyboards hooked up to the same computer. On friday, there were two girls talking together to write the class narrative on the wireless keyboard. While they were writing another student sat down at the laptop itself to participate in a constructive way. He didnt mess them up and move stuff. He waited for them to finish and then added spaces after periods and a few commas. It was awesome to see the kids step up and start editing and helping each other out. I do not have a formal “plan” for the website, and so far I am very pleased with how it is growing naturally and organically. I think the quality of the posts are improving too.
Because of the growing nature of my innovation (which I am becoming incredibly pumped about) I am not so concerned with publishing my findings right now, but I am focused on trying to make this experience more meaningful. I think I might have to set up two more blogs for my other classes too… We’ll see, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I think I am going to sit down and work out a way to use the material the kids are writing as data too. That is also part of my plan for this break. I think Orlando and I met set up a writing date on Sat, March 1st to help us focus and get cracking. Then, monday (by the way, capitalizing days of the week is stupid. I know they’re proper nouns, but there are so many mondays that it seems silly that each one deserves the privileges of a big ‘ole letter) I will revisit it to hopefully bring out the 2nd or 3rd revision.
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02.05.08
Posted in Personal Reflections at 7:33 pm by Greg
First Post!
Today I finally stated my innovation. I have been struggling with what my exact implementation of the class website would look like. At first I was hoping to completely overhaul my classroom expectations and rituals. I envisioned using the blog/website for bellwork, warm ups, directions, discussions, reflections, and everything. After lots of consideration. I have realized that I do not use the internet as my medium for these activities because it is not the best media to use. If blogging was truly a superior method for doing these things, more people would be doing it. I think–after some reflection–that this initial notion would be simply technology for technology’s sake.
Instead, in a more heat of the moment less planned manner I have begun my innovation by grabbing a student today. I told her that I wanted her to tell me in her words what we did today. I was going to type what she said and post it on the class website. I then gave her my dital camera and told her to take a picture of her work. This first post is now available.
Even though the post is short and not altogether deep in rigor or connections to the content and standards, it is a monumentous event. I have finally found a way to enable my students to author and voice the class. I believe that this will finally open up the website as a medium for real class participation and reflection. Hopefully through talking their thoughts out and possibly reisiting it the next day, that we can use the blog as a reflection tool for learning. This is a long term goal. In the short term, I think I can now use the blog to carry out my action research question: how does the website affect student’s perception of their participation.
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