Honduran teachers participate in a group-writing activity where each person writes one portion of a story.

Antioch teachers doing their own group writing!

 Teachers participate in an activity where they become the pages of a story.

Dramatic readings!

Saturday, May 21

Workshop with PAILI

Stay tuned….The teachers are at this moment in a conference with PIALI in Honduras. It is a non-profit Honduran organization that promotes literacy in the classrooms through books, storytelling, puppetry, and art. We are six Antioch teachers and nine Honduras teachers together at the Banana Inn for what is hopefully the first of many conferences to come for this group of Honduran teachers.

We will return to the village this afternoon, far from blogs and any internet, for our final week of classroom adventures and teacher workshops. We will post again next Friday! Have a great week! Thanks for supporting us- sending you all lots of sunshine from Honduras.

Hasta Prontisimo!

The adventure continues...back to San Pedro

Greg in the truck, rolling out to San Pedro

Teachers from outer villages ready to head out Friday Morning!

Arrival to Libreria Coello in San Pedro where the teachers chose books to include in the community library and the traveling library. 

Friday May 20th

by Greg

It took us gringos a little bit to get started as the bus leaving El Rosario to La Lima was waiting for us with all of the Honduran teachers inside.  But nobody worried as a small “church group” style bus and a rented flatbed truck set sail for San Pedro Sula/ El Rosario down the rutty dusty road with plenty of time to spare. 

I spent a half hour in the bus, knowing full well that Honduran drivers were much more aggressive (to say the least) than American drivers.  I was not disappointed.  The hired driver of the bus would take mountain road corners at max speed, spending most of his time in the oncoming traffic lane, veering back just before hitting a car coming right at us.  Towns would set up roadblocks made of chord and caution signs stretched all the way across the road.  He would incessantly blow right through them at full speed.  It scared the crap out of us Americans in front.  Needless to say, I switched from the Honduran driven bus to the American driven truck.  I heard later that he was just in a hurry to get back to Yoro for another job.  Even Hondurans are selfish, sometimes.

We get to the Banana Inn, a quaint and nice hotel for being in such a boisterous community as La Lima.  The owners are very accommodating to everyone and the place is very well maintained.  The teachers are exhausted, but part of this trip went on the stipulation that we visit this bookstore to procure more material for the traveling library.  So everyone meets Emily, one of the American teachers who has been there from the night before, we have a quick sit down in the lobby, and we are off to the bookstore in the truck and a different bus.  This driver, I was told, was much better.

The teachers seemed excited to be at this store.  The owner was, too.  ACTS spent a lot of money.  It seemed nice that most of the materials in the store were geared towards teaching, pedagogy, and school subjects.  They did have some other sections that were much smaller but very good.  So as opposed to most American bookstores who’s focus mainly on the best sellers and mainstream books, the bestseller shelf in this store was about the size of an armoire. 

We get back to the Banana Inn and we have 45 minutes to relax before the health skit, which Trevor and Alison, the medics, have prepared for the Honduran teachers.  We wait… no Trevor and Alison.  We hop in the pool (no Hondurans went in the pool.  This doesn’t surprise me)… no Trevor and Alison.  Hurry up and wait.  That is the battle cry of Latin America.  They finally arrive when the dinner is ready.  Just in time.

We have a nice dinner and put on the skit.  Earlier in the week, the teachers expressed interest in learning about general first aid, so it was great that we had the doctor, the nurse, and most of the teachers present to exchange such information.  Since the skit was for the Hondurans, the gringos did all of the acting.  Most of the cast had some goofy way that they got burned, cut, or bitten by bugs and Lisa, who played the medic, had a goofy way of properly taking care of the situation.  Everyone had fun.  The real treat was that all of the schools received first aid kits as well as thorough instructions for care (in Spanish, of course).

It’s Saturday morning, here at the Banana Inn.  The new day brings new adventures.  Up next, a fabulous, daylong literature workshop followed by a good journey back to the hills of El Rosario.

Day Three... WOW!

 One of the local insects that joins us on our shower curtain

The front porch of the bunk house where we sleep, eat and hold meetings everyday. Antioch teachers are taking a moment to journal about the trip before heading out to schools in outer villages.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

by Alice

Day Three…Wow. So much happens every day that it’s hard to believe only three days have passed. It rained fast and furious overnight, bringing a cool freshness to the morning air. Smoke and haze have hung thick since our arrival, so this morning’s touch of fresh air was welcome. We start every day with the best coffee I’ve ever had (lo siento, Costa Rica), grown locally by our friend, Nelson. We slammed our coffee and hit the trail, capitalizing on the coolness of the morning to get some exercise. Team Run led the way down the dirt road that winds through el Rosario’s crop fields, with Team Walk ambling along behind them, taking pictures and discussing the landscape. It was a beautiful way to start the day and rev up for a hearty breakfast. This morning we had pancakes, fruit, yogurt and granola.

Today the bunk house was the site of two important meetings, where a lot of brainstorming took place. The Antioch teachers planned the rest of our time here, detailing what we will do with the Honduran students and teachers. This included planning the afternoon teacher workshops, the skit to introduce the Traveling Library, and the lesson plans that we will teach in the classrooms. Simultaneously, a community meeting was underway at the dining table to discuss education in El Rosario. This meeting included members of the Committee for Health and Development, The Committee for Vigilance and Transparency, Lisa from ACTS, Charlie and Rob from the Board of The Children’s Initiative (TCI), and our fearless interpreter, Patty, also with ACTS. I sat in on this meeting to learn how El Rosario is approaching community development, particularly how they are planning education in this rugged, remote region. For two hours, the community discussed how to further incorporate programming at the Learning Center, and how to potentially provide secondary education to the region in the near future. We just lost power and the computer battery is on reserve, so I’m out! 

 Hike up to the school in Carrizalito early Tuesday Morning

 Teacher workshop on Monday with teachers from El Rosario, Los Planes, La Concepcion and Coral Falso. Also joined by TCI board member Roberto. 

The Human Knot- Hanna ties it up with the Honduran teachers

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

by Hanna

Soy una maestra! The day has been full and multi-faceted, but the overarching theme has included a deep appreciation for teachers around the world and a thankfulness that I am entering the profession. Today, we woke early to hike up the mountain trail to Carrizalito.  The village is only accessible by a long foot trail that zags up the mountain and follows the ridge. We saw beautiful vistas and learned about the area’s birds (Montezuma Oropendola make teardrop-shaped nests), plants (Maguey is part of the agave family and its fibers can be made into rope), and insects (Leaf-cutter ants bring bits of leaves and flowers to their “jefes” who break them into pieces with their large cutters. If you stomp on their house, the ant bosses storm out). However, we were sweaty and sore by the time we reached the top. Imagine how humbled we were when we learned that the teacher in the village makes the trek every school day. Teachers are dedicated.

Later, our second teacher workshop kicked off with a lesson presented by Erika, the teacher in La Reinada. She wrote an addition word problem on the board and then used a place-value chart and small pieces of paper representing different units to demonstrate how to solve the problem. She also had a wooden box with different compartments for the ones place, tens place, hundreds place, etc. Students could use whatever objects were lying around to build the numbers.  All of us Antioch students were happily surprised to see teachers in another country using manipulatives and other teaching methods that we have been learning about in New Hampshire. Erika says she would give this problem to small groups of first-graders to solve together. Not only was her lesson clear and effective, it also used fewer materials than we do in the United States. We are so accustomed to needing plastic multi-link cubes or many copies of paper worksheets. If we teachers take the time, we can use what is around us to teach great lessons. Teachers are clever and resourceful.

We played several fun games and interactive activities with the Honduran teachers. All of them have centered on the books from the traveling library collection we are building. At first, I wasn’t sure how the games and lessons would go over. Were the teachers wanting something more serious? Would they be shy? Would they think we were just silly kids? Would they not appreciate the value of incorporating fun into learning? I had nothing to fear, though. The teachers jump right into games—laughing and bringing friendly competition to everything we do together. A highlight of today was watching the Honduran teachers look through the books we brought and listening to them share ideas for how the books could be useed in their classrooms: story books, natural science books, chapter books, books about health, books about math, books about music. Then someone found the song book and they all erupted into singing De Colores and other songs. Teachers are fun. 

Arriving in Honduras

El Rosario 2011

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Greg

Arriving in Honduras/El Rosario.

Four or so hours on a plane (I can’t remember exactly… I slept for most of it) and three hours in a truck and here we are.  First impressions of El Rosario were different then I expected. 

I was told that this place was poor beyond belief.  I rode in on rocky dirt roads with cavernous ruts (it was always an adventure navigating each one) through riverbeds and around mudslides to a place with the same dirt roads, livestock, feral chickens, and very few cars.  There were also concrete foundations, satellite dishes, some streetlights, and smiling people.

I was then informed that it did not used to have these amenities and it was largely due to the ACTS program that they were able to obtain them.  It seems to be a rarity at this day and age that people care about other people enough to help them out as such.

The people here are used to gringos.  They are patient, humble, and for the most part, they have pride for their village and their life.