Its Not Goodbye, its See You Later!

                               Note: Out of the 10 pictures this is the best, lesson: kindergartners move a lot. 

  Its been a long two weeks since I left Costa Rica, but I finally  have time to sit here and tell you all about my experiences in the classroom at the La Paz school. I would like to thank Ms. Shera and the other north campus teachers for making me feel welcome, and thank you Mr.Abel for giving me the opportunity to work with some amazing kids. A big thank you goes out to the kindergartners and first graders who really stole my heart in just a week and a half, I will miss you all and hope you all the best. Working with La Paz kids is truly an amazing experience that I recommend to anyone who loves to work with children.

  La Paz kids really know how to make someone feel welcome, on my first day in Ms. Beaverly's first grade class (also known as the Dolphins)  I was greeted with a unanimous "Good Morning Ms. Alex!"; which was followed up by a student named Mia giving me a big hug and sitting back down. Ms. Shera's kindergarten class wasn't much different, I was greeted with hellos and questions raging from how old are you to what is my favorite fruit (I am apparently very old at the age of 24).

  A typical day at La Paz for me would usually start in the first grade classroom where I would help with reading and writing. During these work shops a lot of the kids worked independently, while I only worked with a few kids at a time. These workshops called “centers” allow the kids to take their education into their own hands learning responsibility and independence. As a teachers assistant my job was to go around and spend time with just a few kids individually, which allowed me to see how those individuals were progressing and where they would need more help. What I love about the La Paz approach is that even when helping individual students, you are really helping them arrive at the answer themselves. I also often worked with parent volunteers, showing how dedicated La Paz parents can be to the kids and the school.

The next part of my day is probably my favorite part of the day, snack time! Not because of the snacks, but more because this is the time I really bonded with the kids. Snack time also included play time, which for me meant “Palapa Duty”. The palapa is essentially an outdoor studio with a thatch roof, which is used for yoga and dance classes, as well as other fun games. Once such game I played was an adaptation of tag featuring safe zones along the wall. I looked forward to playing this game everyday, because the kids were so excited to have me play.

 After snack and play time, I would work with the kindergartners also known as the Bunnies. Let me tell you these are some of the sweetest kids you will ever know, and they all have their own unique personalities. Even at the ages of five and six these kids were always on the ball (well almost always), they knew their schedule and all the songs that went with it. As you can imagine a large part of your day working with small kids involves a lot of songs, which to this day I will never be able to forget. Like the first graders the Bunnies learn to work independently in order to instill what they have learned in the classroom. Watching these kids work by themselves, and turning to one another for help made me realize we don't give kids a lot of the credit they deserve. Although every kid might not be at the same level, they are all capable of learning the material you want, without you actually giving them the answer but rather a set of tools (often in song form).

A lot of my time was also spent prepping materials for different centers or creating learning tools. I had a lot of fun creating some illustrations for writing workshop:

As you can see this is very educational. During a lot of my prep time the kids had other activities such as Art or P.E, and often switched between Spanish and English language. As kindergartners their day is split 50/50 between Spanish and English learning, a lot of this is possible through bilingual pairs. Each pair consists of a native English speaker and a native Spanish speaker, who help each other learn the language. I can honestly say I learned a lot of my Spanish from these kids.

La Paz is all about contributing and learning more about your community, which often results in weekly field trips. The Bunnies spend every Wednesday morning at the Farm (Granja) where they learn how to take care of the animals, and learn about all the resources animals give us. One week I got to go on an extra special field trip to a goat farm with the kids. It was a beautiful farm where the goats were fed a high quality home grown organic diet, in order to make delicious milk, cheeses, and yogurt. Let me tell you it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, I was unable to get as many pictures as I would have liked due to camera malfunction. This makes me sad because I missed all the good shots of the kids milking a goat!

I am truly sad that I only had a week and a half with these awesome kids, they are really a bright bunch and I see them doing amazing things in the future. If there is one thing I have learned working with kids, is that you tend to learn a whole lot more about yourself. I tended to find a little bit of myself in each of these kids, and they help remind you to have no fear. Kids aren't afraid to take risks or challenges, and its important to keep a certain level of that fearlessness alive.

My favorite day would have to be my last day at La Paz even though it was also sad. As discussed in previous blogs La Paz celebrates themes, and I was lucky enough to be there for the origins theme. It was a busy day getting ready for the origins party that would ensue later that day. I was prepared to be covered in glitter from arts and craft tables, and to also enjoy some international foods. Then just before the festivities were about to start I got an awesome surprise. I walked outside to the picnic tables were both the Dolphins and the Bunnies were gathered, and Ms. Shera holding a big yellow card. In big letters I could see the outside read “It's Not Goodbye”, followed by the words “It's See You Later! -Your La Paz Family” on the inside. What was even better was that the entire inside was full of the students signatures and little messages to me. What happened next really took a lot of will power for me not to cry, each of the Dolphins stood up and told me why they were thankful for me being there. This was all of course followed up with a big group hug with me in the middle. I definitely will never forget my time spent at La Paz and I am truly thankful that I am considered part of the family.

Don't forget to check out the La Paz Page and the Seeds to Trees Facebook!