Camino Claro Blog

A word from our new guest teacher

Allow me to introduce Melissa Smithers, Escuela Camino Claro’s guest teacher who has been volunteering for the month of August:

I came to Costa Rica at the beginning of July and I absolutely love it here in Pavones. I adore going to the library in the mornings and reading with the children, and I’ve been enjoying helping Jake with his classes as well as working with ECC’s English reading classes. I’ve been working with kids most of my life, starting when I was 12 years old helping out some of my parents’ friends who had young children. I grew up in Seattle, Washington and both of my parents work in the school district there, so it seems natural that I would be involved with kids myself. While I was at Seattle University studying for a BA in Liberal Studies, I volunteered for a developmental preschool and worked especially with kids who had autism and other behavior issues. I also traveled to Mexico for 9 months, in 2009, and volunteered for a number of different projects including a non-profit farm that cared for donated animals and a children’s orphanage. I also taught free English classes during my travels.

I love traveling and exploring new places, meeting new people, and trying new foods! When I’m not working with kids in the US, I’m generally working around food and have worked at several bakery/cafes in Seattle. I feel so lucky to be able to meet all these kids in Pavones and come experience life here! I hope to make it back some day to do more teaching.

Photo by Jake: “the kids have taken to Mel real quick, imagine that. the library is consistently filled with the murmur of reading and the miracle of childrens’ laughter.. ha ha, not joke. and for the most part neither are forced, but merely encouraged with prizes of candy or pencils. go Mel!”

A few years ago no one even knew how to work a digital camera…

…now Escuela Camino Claro students have their very own online photography blog! Jacob’s creativity and skill as an educator and photographer has brought this exciting new addition to ECC’s class repertoire.  The kids that are in his Computer Literacy and Digital Photography class are learning much more than the location of the computer’s power button and how to simply type in a word processing program- in a self-directed homework project they created their own photo journalism by taking pictures of their surroundings, writing stories about it, and even helping to upload the pics on the site. They are way ahead of the game when it comes to technology (still struggling with this myself!) AND they put their artistic talents and imagination to use. That’s what I like to see.

Click here to check out the blog. It’s pretty cute (see below) and surprisingly thoughtful. One of their projects was to find all the letters in their names in nature, very creative.

Here’s an example of what you will see- sorry if you don’t speak Spanish. At least the picture is pretty.

Una Flor

de Korana

Mi primera foto es una flor muy bonita yo la encontre en el jardin de mi casa.  Me gusta mucho su color y me gusta mucho su color y me gusta el sabor de la flor tambien por que es muy asida.  Mi mama lo tiene en dos colores en blanca y rosado.

Introducing Jacob Smithers and his first official post straight from the heart of the Costa Rican jungle… told you a new voice is refreshing ~Haley

I have the extreme pleasure of teaching the Adult ESL class with Gerardo, not to mention all of our wonderful students. This truly is a fine example of Escuela Camino Claro’s success! The students all come prepared and eager to learn…Gerardo keeps things interesting and enthusiastic…and last class, things even got a bit delicious.

I’m not gonna lie, two weeks ago when we talked about having a barbecue with the students I wasn’t sure if it’d happen or not. In Pavones, many things are talked about and only some of them are done. It’s for this reason that keeping the community interested in schools and classes can be quite challenging, and it’s for this reason that I didn’t know if we’d be grilling come Monday night – to be honest, I didn’t even know if it’d happen 15 minutes before class! But, Gerardo pulled through and before I knew it he was setting up the barbecue (which I believe was a hub-cap with a steel grate on top, haha) and bringing bags of food into the school. I was so stoked! He asked if I could cook and I humbly replied that I could. With the help of Raphel’s friend from Seattle, Jen, chicken was marinated and salsa was made fresh. While class was being taught, the grill was gettin’ warm, and as the lesson came to its end the barbecue began.

Oh, and how delicious it was!

(My emphatic reaction to the tastiness of this BBQ may have something to do with my reduction in meat consumption, but you can be the judge of that). Everyone went home with food in their bellies, even the coals took a few morsels of chicken for themselves – which was so tragic to Raphel and I, but what can I say, short of sticking my fingers in the coals you can rest assured that everything we could’ve done to save those lost men (a.k.a. chicken) was done. So this one goes out to chicken! And to Escuela Camino Claro, too, I guess! And definitely to barbecues – even if they are hub caps!

(yeah, it looks like a hub-cap) Coming soon, more from ECC on Pavones’ end… by the way I think we have a professional photographer on our hands. NICE

Gerardo Mendoza Barrantes

Gerardo, born and raised in Pavones, is an excellent addition to Escuela Camino Claro’s team. He is an enthusiastic, talented, and experienced teacher who has already proven to be a valuable asset to our community education center. He is also well-respected in the community and active in local politics: basically, he’s a busy guy so we’re lucky to have swooped him up! Gerardo is teaching a variety of levels of ECC’s adult English classes, which have been a great success so far. In addition, he is planning on beginning weekend English classes for high school students, as well as Spanish classes for foreigners in the near future.

Folks, this is Gerardo!

Gerardo attended the area’s local schools and, upon graduating from Colegio Comte, enrolled in the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica in Paso Canoas. He finished his bachelor degree for teaching English and is currently obtaining his Licenciatura, or Masters Degree. Gerardo’s teaching experience is expansive, with three years working in the local public schools and teaching his practicum at Colegio Comte. He has also worked directly in Pavones and its surrounding communities by offering private courses in English and Spanish. Gerardo’s interest in traveling was inspired by his 8-month trip to the United States in 2006 to study the culture. In the future, he says, he hopes to learn more languages, continue teaching, and work in educational administration.

Keep up the good work, my friend!

It’s 7:30 on a Monday night and I’m sitting in Escuela Camino Claro waiting for the last class of the day to wind down. Gerardo is in the next room leading his adult English class in basic dialogues (“Hello, how are you? I’m fine, thank you, and you?”), so I thought I would take a moment to reflect on a few things that have happened during the first week of classes.

ECC started its 2010 school year on Monday, March 8th.  It feels amazing to see the tangible results of weeks of hard work and organization. Arranging class schedules, recruiting students, and integrating new teachers for the past month and a half was like putting together a tedious puzzle, but now that ECC is back in action, Raphel and I can unwind for a moment and enjoy being in the role of administrators. At several points last week I smiled and said proudly to myself “It’s working!” There are dozens of students of all ages learning under ECC’s roof!

A few highlights from week one:

1) Gerardo’s evening adult English class overflowed our limited teaching space when 20 students, some returning but mosty new, arrived last Monday night! We barely had enough chairs to go around, but a few people didn’t mind sitting in the kiddie chairs and everyone was able to squeeze in. Raphel and Gerardo’s bike recruit around town the week before definitely paid off! The challenge will be to keep all those students coming every week.

2) Stellar success for Lisa’s Pre-K, or Bilingual I class. Lisa also wasn’t expecting such a great turnout- thirteen 3½  to 5 year olds in one class- so she’s already hired a local high school student to be her assistant. These smallest students get the award for being the most excited to be in school. 

3) Never thought it would be such a joy to be a teacher’s assistant again! No lesson planning and less preparation time, but I still get to hang out and participate in the education. It’s great. I love my job, especially when there are good people working with us.

4) By taking on this new role as “supervisor”, and not “head teacher,” I’ve been able to realize how much teaching experience I’ve gained over the past years and that I have useful insight for the new teachers (who are actually, in many ways, much more qualified than me). Though we may be good teachers, I know Raphel and I can agree that our lack of business experience has made us not so savvy in this arena, but we learn as we go along and make it work somehow.

Up and coming

This week, as the teachers and students settle into the schedule, Gerardo will start his Spanish for Gringos class and Raphel and I will continue to help out, meanwhile getting other activities organized. Computer classes are in the mix (again, high speed internet, yippee), as well as developing community improvement projects for our intern Jacob to help coordinate.

Like I said, off to a great start!
Cheers, Haley

Sunday was the last minute teachers meeting to fine-tune a few things before Escuela Camino Claro’s classes started the next day- and they’re in session as we speak! In the past, of course, the prep work has been done by Raphel and me, but with Gerardo and Lisa as part of the team now, this meeting was actually worthy of documenting. Just take this post as a “practice” for me to jump back into blog-world (meaning, more tantalizing posts to come, so don’t worry).

At our “kickoff potluck” we cleaned, organized, and set up (and went a little staple gun-happy!) until we all felt that we were ready for this week to begin. It’s amazing how a little goes a long way: with the few resources we have here at ECC, as well as all the creative minds working together, the building continues to transform into a positive learning environment for an increasing number of students.

Also worth noting is ECC now has broadband high speed Internet that is working beautifully! A couple years ago no one here even had phones, so imagine the cyber madness that’s now taking place. This town is small enough that everyone is practically already at shouting distance, but when people discover Facebook, they really don’t have to leave the house. Pictured here are Raphel and Gerardo joyfully watching a YouTube video.

In the next room, the students from the Bilingual II class are doing an art project involving cutting out the days of the week in English and Spanish, must go take pictures!

Blog readers, allow me to introduce you to one of Escuela Camino Claro’s new additions this year:

Jacob Smithers, intern and volunteer teacher

Raphel and I are ecstatic to finally find ourselves able to open ECC’s doors to other individuals and expand the school’s reach into the community. We were connected with Jacob, who arrives in Pavones in April, as alumni of Seattle University. With his non-profit experience and enthusiasm (he has the travel bug too, much like Raphel and I did when we came to Costa Rica almost four years ago!), he is an excellent candidate for helping out at the school. During his six-month commitment, ECC will keep him busy while volunteering with our head ESL teacher, Gerardo Mendoza, as well as teaching one or more ESL classes of his own. In addition, he will be running the computer lab, tutoring home school, AND doing several projects at the public school’s library. Jake, we’re anticipating your arrival!

Let’s hear from Jake:

I was born and raised around Seattle, Washington. I graduated from Seattle University with a passion for understanding and building communities, which has increasingly become extended internationally. After my studies at SU, I found that the concern for our world’s environment went beyond an awareness of the human-nature relationship and is strongly seated in a need for communities that work together for justice both socially and ecologically. During and after my studies, I have been involved in many non-profit organizations, most of which concentrate on youth education. I have volunteered as a teacher and a documentary photographer for Seattle Tilth, the Seattle Arboretum, Bridges to Understanding, and Helping Link. I also worked with Divertigranja, a sustainable animal farm in Oaxaca, Mexico, for several months and spent a month working with Tram Chim National Park in Vietnam. After my time in Vietnam, I was a Fulbright scholarship finalist, intending to return to Tram Chim to work with the youth environmental education programs. I am currently studying Spanish and teaching English at the Seattle Refugee Women’s Alliance. My travels through the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have been invaluable and I’m excited to work with the community of Pavones — sure that my eyes will be opened and my mind expanded by the thoughts and views of the people there. I spend my free time with family, friends, and fútbol!
Indeed, we are excited to have you working with ECC!
Stay tuned for more posts as classes start next week…

Becky, you are a star!

Teaching English to a group of three to five-year-olds is not an easy feat, especially when a) you don’t know how many will show up on any given day, b) they all speak different levels (and versions) of English and Spanish, and c) their parents work next door so they can, in fact, decide to leave halfway through the class, with no real consequences. Which is why, on behalf of everyone here at Escuela Camino Claro,

Our hats go off to you, Becky!

Our pre-K class is designed to merge native English and Spanish speakers, ages 3-5, into a bilingual environment where basic English communication and comprehension are the objectives. The class is held three times a week for one hour. Throughout the 2009 school year, this class has been very consistent with between five and nine students per class, making it one of our largest classes. This success is hopeful for us because these children will easily be able to integrate into our more advanced ESL and Home School classes in future years. What a joy to hear all the little ones saying their colors, numbers, and even a “please” and “thank you” when cookies and juice are served.

Becky has been our wonderful and dedicated pre-K teacher all year and has done a GREAT JOB keeping everyone motivated with her good energy and creativity. Thank you for all your great work, and just look how cute they are!