Aero: Patricia Wallace – Costa Rica 2013 – Life at School
Aero: Patricia Wallace – Costa Rica 2013 – Life at School
Aero: Patricia Wallace – Costa Rica 2013 – Life at School
While walking into the classroom on the first day, I realized I had no idea what to expect. I took out my notebook as I would have done for class back in the States. For the most part, our Spanish class consisted of just the eight of us. Coming from a small high school and college I was comfortable and relieved that class only consisted of my new friends. The owner of the school, Oscar, taught our first class. As he rapidly spoke in Spanish I strained to pick out familiar words that I learned back in high school. Along with my notebook I quickly realized I would also need my translator books.
The remainder of our classes was taught by Ana. All professors have their unique way of teaching students. Ana used many different techniques to teach us Spanish. She would have us write down sentences and share them with the class. Then she would quiz us to see if we could remember what everyone said. Other times she would right new verbs and verb endings on the white board and have us verbally fill in the blank with the correct word conjugation. I enjoyed playing her simple games the most. During one game, we were assigned a famous person and had to ask our classmates yes or no questions to figure out our identity. Ana’s variety of teaching methods kept class interesting.
The physical classroom resembled a variety of differences from the classrooms I am used to. There were no windows or posters on the walls, just fans to keep us cool during the hot afternoons. Instead of PowerPoints, projectors, and Smartboards there was just a white board. One time a television was brought up from downstairs in order for us to watch short films. No hand-outs were given, Ana would just read her book to us. The school was resourceful with the materials they had and did not waste anything.
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The great part about school life was that it did not always take place inside the classroom. One day we spent time at the zoo and held class there after we visited all of the animal exhibits. The flock of dancing peacocks surrounding our group certainly put an interesting twist on learning. Another class session involved going to the central park and completing a series of tasks. These included finding foreign items in the grocery store, asking for directions, writing down our observations, and speaking with individuals about restaurant recommendations. Our last class was held at an extraordinary country club. We held half of class in the sunny lawn and the other under a rented pavilion. The freedom of learning outside of the school’s physical classroom was a great change in pace.
One of the most rewarding aspects of school in Costa Rica was watching our teacher learn with us. While Ana lectured in Spanish, she would stop to ask if we understood what she was teaching. Ana was certainly good at giving English explanations but would sometime get caught up on a word and ask us for clarification. For instance, one day we taught her the words “belly button” and “pomegranate”. Just as we learn Spanish words she took these two words, repeated them and asked us throughout the class to tell her what they were again. In conclusion, school life was a comfortable atmosphere where it was okay to make mistakes and take chances.
– Patricia Wallace
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