Preschool friends. February 10, 2009
I’ve helped teach the preschoolers for two days in a row now. They are so cute and have so much curiosity and energy. Two of the boys, including the son of the Head of the School, are noticeably more hyperactive than the rest of the group, unable to sit for more than about 20 seconds at a time. They are SO wiggly, squirmy, and jumpy. There is only so much a teacher can do to keep them occupied and out of trouble, though I do wonder if they would do better in a Montessori classroom where they could move around freely and be proactive learners. “Circle time,” where the kids have to sit and listen or watch another kid do something, is torture for these two boys. One is no longer expected to participate in circle time; the other sits in the teacher’s lap as she massages his arms and back and tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep him from wriggling away.
Today, we took the group outside to show them the trees the 5th graders planted when they were preschoolers. They had fun comparing the height of a five year old child to a five year-old tree. We also collected seeds from one of the trees, which this group will raise to seedlings and then plant themselves in an area of the campus that still requires reforestation. I suggested that each child make a tag for his/her tree with name, date, and type of tree on it. They should be encouraged to follow the growth of their tree for the next 12 years until they graduate. I was surprised to hear that kids have not been marking the trees they plant, and I encouraged Milton to have older kids return to trees they remember planting and make a tag with at least the year they planted the tree if not the exact date on which they planted it. The potential for experiments and data collection on these trees is huge, and could quite possibly be meaningful to the larger community.
This morning, I attended a meeting of school administrators. The discussion largely revolved around finances. The global recession is of concern, and Scott wants to maintain diverse streams of income to keep the school afloat. They rely on tuition, various fundraisers, such as an annual run/walk and selling posters of Monteverde sights, charging foreign students a premium, and entertaining groups of visiting students from high schools and colleges in the U.S. Volunteers, student teachers, and interns pay for the experience of working at the school, too. Several people remarked that the number of revenue-producing activities is unwieldy and requires sacrifices that no one has really measured. Others suggested it is unfair to charge volunteers to give their time and skills to the school, and that the number of volunteers is likely to drop as rent and food costs increase. I have, and others have confirmed, a steep rise in prices for just about everything since I first visited the area last September.
This afternoon, I attended a meeting of high school staff. Topics discussed included: a boycott of the school uniform by 11th graders, a parent who was contesting a behavioral demerit issued to his son for lying to a teacher, short-term and long-term priorities for the high school (the schedule, the environmental science curriculum, working better as a team, retention of students, putting more policies in writing, and better communication both within and outside the school. ) A lot of ground was covered, but much is left to do. I was particularly impressed by how Scott handled one teacher who has been sort of hostile to him in these meetings because he feels that Scott is not making progress and needed changes quickly enough.
A friend of Dolly’s who is visiting from Wisconsin, taught the 8th and 9th graders about nature drawing. Kaz got to draw a plant while merely feeling the plant in a bag. Then, using charcoal, he drew some deer from a photograph. Dolly’s friend suggested to the kids that they turn their photos upside down and then draw. I decided to try that with them, and was happy with the result: I was able to draw a mouse that actually looks a lot like a mouse!
But the biggest news of the day is that the boyfriend of one of the teachers helped me fix our shower so we now have hot water there! There is still no hot water anywhere else in the house, but that is typical for here. Every once in awhile, I boil water with which I then clean the dishes so they do not feel so oily.
The other big news is that a bunch of us reported waking up at 5am today because of the sudden QUIET. The wind finally died down, and the change was so marked that it woke people up. Furthermore, today was the first day since we have been here that it did not rain at all. It was strange not to have to shout over the wind or bundle up against the constant rain. Tonight, it is windy and cold again, but I do believe the daytime weather may have turned a corner for us. Or maybe I am just hoping as much.