I have found that I am much closer with my second host family than the first. I feel so much safer walking around in Monteverde. The entire atmosphere is so different. People say hello to you as you pass by, it is a very small town and the community stays very close. Also a huge difference is that there are no bars outside houses, which means less crime. My host mother is extremely caring and goes out of her way daily to make sure I am comfortable. I found out that she and her husband are unable to have children physically, so I think having students is a great outlet for them to care for people. Both parents stand over me nightly and help me with my homework. They would make excellent parents. My mother, Mayela is a stay at home mother and has never traveled anywhere besides Monteverde; she also tells me that she is very jealous of my world experiences. Edwardo my father told me that he has been on an airplane once but he did not enjoy it and also he would not do it again. They really have no reason to travel beyond Monteverde, everything they need is there in the town. I asked Edwardo whether he preferred San Jose, which is much more urban or Moteverde which is very rural. Edwardo told me he preferred Monteverde because there are no autobuses, less people and it is more tranquil. Not only has my host mom her bought me a beautiful necklace, but also handmade me a bracelet with my name sewn into it. My mom and dad both greet me like family and I feel extremely comfortable here.
We traveled to a lake today to visit our cute friends, the alligator. We viewed them from afar on the bridge. Everyone thought that was our surprise of the day, but to our surprise it was not. We got back on the bus with our amazing bus driver Roy and drove further where we kept seeing signs for an alligator excursion. As we arrived at this small dock everyone loaded into boat where we made our way into the lake seeing beautiful wildlife of every kind. Every child has his or her breaking point and I think the point of this was to in some ways reach our breaking point, not as people but as students. As ELL students or even everyday students we try and learn as much as we can, however; some students may have more motivation than others. We have a common goal as teachers it’s to help our students achieve academic performance. However how this is handled makes a huge difference. Thursday in Spanish class we started learning about a new topic and it was quite difficult for everyone in our group to understand and comprehend. As we learned in class maybe the reason for a child putting their head down is not because they are tired but because they do not comprehend the material. I remember in math class my senior year I went through “learned helplessness” which is where you think you cannot learn a subject and convince yourself you are not able to learn it. I convinced myself I was no longer able to learn math due to my previous test grades and classes and no teacher told me otherwise. As teachers one of the biggest things we need to understand is when a student has hit that point of where they have not only given up but also when it becomes learned helplessness. This is important because we have to work extra hard to strive and help the child learn and understand the material. As the teacher you have to work from the bottom up, from the very first concept. Becoming a teacher is a dream for me, but also I would never want a child to feel like I felt in my math class, so close to tears trying to comprehend the material so desperately but yet it wasn’t working. We want children to strive to learn but yet as Dr. Powell had said also it takes work, endurance, and maybe late nights up studying. Intelligence does not come naturally for most people and even most people who are naturally intelligent struggle in other areas. We want our future generations of children to want to learn and strive to know more.
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