MJ

There's a new generation of MJ fanatics, and one of them is in my classroom. Today, I saw her bust some unreal MJ dance moves in front of 300 plus people during a field trip to a hip hop performance.

Progressive education

 We've taught you that the earth is round
That red and white make pink
And something else that matters more
We've taught you how to think
-Diffendoofer Day


 My thoughts are a-brewing about next steps. Get excited, world. 

Did I mention?

That my kids this year are brilliant? Oh, and this class of fifth graders also happens to be the Say Yes class, which means, among other things, they have college paid for to any university they choose to attend when they graduate from high school.

Rules we live by:

Work Hard. Love Learning. Respect our Community.


To set the tone for the class:

Day one:
Read Up the Learning Tree, a story about a slave boy who wasn't allowed to read and climbed a tree every day to learn to spy on a teacher's lessons and carved letters into the tree.

Day two:
Introduced these images of a bus school program in the slums of India.

Homework:
Draw connections between Henry in Up the Learning Tree and the students in India.


Start of Day Three:

Beautifully brilliant discussion about Henry and the students in India. Students started the discussion by talking about how grateful both Henry and the students in India were to just have the opportunity to learn and how they took advantage of any resources they had, even if they didn't have much to work with. They talked about how much they wanted to learn. They also talked about how the school in India had varying ages and that it must be hard to teach all those different ages on their correct levels. Then, we started talking about what this makes us think about the opportunities we have. The students talked about how lucky they were to have what they have and especially with Say Yes. Then, one girl said: We could start a program like Say Yes for the students in India! This sparked what one of my students called "an explosion of our minds!" Where literally every single student had their hands raised with ideas about what we could do to make the education experience for students in India and students around the world better. Their ideas included:

-Creating a Say Yes Program in India
-Building them a school
-Sending them our extra books and resources
-Building a classroom inside an RV for the students
-Creating a charity
-Going to India as a class and teaching the students what we know
-Bringing the students to our class for a year
-Creating a program for retired teachers to go teach in India
-Creating a program for teachers in the summer to go teach in India.

My mind was literally blown. They were such brilliant thinkers and social entrepreneurs I couldn't get over it! The beautiful thing is they were having a discussion in which they built off of each other's ideas and used accountable talk prompts like, "I agree with ____," or, "to add onto what ____" said....they were communicating better than 95% of adults communicate with one another. I kept telling them how floored I was with their ideas! I asked them how many of them were just in love with the conversation and all of their hands shot up, some shot both hands up. Some of them were having a hard time with the idea of "loving learning" on day 1. I told them that THIS is what loving learning feels like, and it was like a light bulb clicked in their heads. I asked if they were just in love with learning at that moment and again all hands shot up.

I could not ask for a better way to end week 1. What a beautiful thing to witness.

Making the classroom a happy place

Here is my classroom, eagerly awaiting 25 new faces to enter its doors tomorrow:

Quick Blurb

There is a lot of ridiculousness happening right now, and all will be blogged shortly, but this I had to get down:

Every Tico I have spoken to has lied to me about their age. And the number of kids/wives/girlfriends they have.

Real suave guys.

Surfing, Yoga, Pilates and five forties

Yesterday was a blissfully perfect day. It started off early with some surfing, and Gabby even got a little riskay and paddled out! I on the other hand, enjoyed some olas tranquílas in the white wash, soaked in the sun and salt water, and let the salt water cure my cold. I even caught a wave or two, which was nice.

We headed back to Escuela del Mundo, went and got some local food at the soda (gallo pinto, juevos, ensalada, jugo de limón), and then cooked in the sun by the pool until yoga.

Yoga time thoroughly kicked my ass and cleansed my body and soul. I have never sweated so much in my life, and it felt great. I had so much energy during class, and did some poses that I have never been able to do. This also did a good deal on my cold, and by the end, I felt nice and refreshed.

Through some connections, we were able to go to a free two hour pilates class en Playa Hermosa, which is a much more laid back beach than Jaco. We did half of the pilates class right on the beach, and the rest on a second floor hut overlooking the beach. Our sivasina was to thundering tropical rain surrounding us and ocean waves crashing against the sand. When class was done, we chatted with Ali, the entrepreneur that is opening this new pilates studio, and we watched the most incredible sunset from her boyfriend's restaurant next door. This is when we decided that it might be a good idea to extend our stay...

But, a night a Friday in Jacó isn't complete without some debauchery, so, to balance out a morning of health and happiness, we bought 5 forties of imperial and had ourselves a good ol' time with some beerpong and flipcup. Let´s just say team America held their own. Fuck ya. And, to cap of the night, in true baller fashion, not one, but TWO guys at the house got their third nipples pierced. Yes...their third nipples. No further comments are necessary.

I'm sad to see some of the coolest people we've met here head back, but I suppose that's all part of the traveling experience. It also gives us an excuse to have a reunion in the not-so-distant future.

Now, we're off on a few day adventure on the Caribbean coast.

¡Pura Vida!

A miracle

Yesterday, something miraculous happened. Yesterday, I stood up on my surfboard and rode not one, but a few Costa Rican waves. It wasn't pretty, nor was it graceful, and yes there were injuries, but man, it happened, and it felt good.

Truth be told, it would have been quite embarrassing had I not stood up yesterday. I mean, our instructor, Yeudi, is the baby amongst the instructors, and we have an inkling (or more than an inkling) that he was getting shit for our shittiness, which is, by the way, clearly our fault and not at all his fault.

So basically we decided it was time to stop being an embarrassment to our surfing instructor. Thus, the miracle.