Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Crocodile Invasion

I suppose the crocodiles haven't invaded, but Miriam, an intern with the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary (ACES), did come to visit our students at Isla Bonita today. I'll get to that in a moment. First, I'd like to discuss the past two weeks at IBES, and how they've been for me as a student teacher. Last week, I discussed some of the difficulties I've faced regarding the lack of material resources. This week I'd like to discuss the things that have gone (sometimes suprisingly!) well. 

Students during break

I have been teaching math each day, as well as pulling four students for extra help with phonics during the language arts period. I know that teaching these subjects is my responsibility, and I plan accordingly. However, there have been some occasions when I have not planned to teach a lesson, but I've been asked to do so "on the fly." It has usually gone pretty well, and it's nice to know that I can figure out how and what to teach with little to no preparation.

Drop Everything And Read (DEAR)

I've been keeping children's books, sticky notes, construction paper, and markers in my little teacher's bag for such occasions. Having even a few simple materials makes it easier to come up with activities for my students spontaneously. Today, my teacher left to go on a trip before the day ended. I knew he was going, and I knew he wouldn't be here tomorrow for the annual Easter beach party (yes, the whole school will be spending the day at the beach!), but I had no idea he wouldn't be teaching last period. On Thursdays, last period is "library." However, there is no library at IBES. We ended up reading the book from my bag, and I introduced the idea of a story map.

KWL chart on crocodiles

Now I'll get back the crocodile presentation by ACES. As I mentioned in my last post, I will be going crocodile hunting this weekend. The organization that does the tours is ACES, and they are all about conserving and protecting local wildlife, particularly the crocodiles. Randall and I are actually doing a short documentary on ACES while we're here. Miriam is one of their interns and she is staying at Pedro's, so we've gotten to know her a little bit. Kindly, she agreed to come present her wealth of crocodile knowledge to our students today. I started a KWL chart with my kids before we went outside for the presentation, and then finished it after we got back into the classroom. We brainstormed things we Knew about crocodiles, what we Wanted to know, and then what we Learned from Miriam.

Miriam showing off a crocodile skull

The kids were absolutely enthralled with her and what she had to say about these captivating reptiles! It was a really neat way to spend part of their last regular school day before the two-week Easter break. I even got to hold one of the little crocodiles to pose for a picture with my Standard II class. I was so proud of how well-behaved they were for the presentation. They were attentive, quiet, and genuinely interested! 

Listening to the presentation
Getting to touch the skull!
Crocodile scoot
Showing the kids a real-life croc!

Miss Samantha, Standard II, and a baby croc



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