Meeting "my" students

Jan 31
I think I am going to learn a lot about how Special Ed works in Belize. I’m already getting some perspective by traveling with Elodia, seeing her talk to the teachers, and doing assessments with her. I feel privileged this semester to be working with two incredibly dedicated women who are great teachers (and great examples for me). Today, Elodia took me to meet the students, teachers, and principals that I will be working with.

First, I met Evelyn, a Deaf girl who is mainstreamed with no interpreter, and no one to teach her sign language. She does math well, but spends the rest of the day copying things off the board that she may or may not understand. My heart broke for her. I left one of the Signing Illustrated textbooks (which First Menno donated--thanks!) with her teacher so he can learn and teach her too, but he has a multi-grade class of like 40 students so I don’t know where he’ll find the time.
After spending the morning with Evelyn at Cristo Rey Elementary, Elodia and I went to Mary Hill, where there are 3 Deaf children. At this school, one of the teachers has tried hard to learn to sign (Nancy was her teacher), and is doing quite well with the kids- Carlos (12), Ana (15), and Christopher (10?). It was great to be in that environment where they get a lot of support, espcially after coming from Evelyn’s school, where everyone has the best intentions but she’s the only Deaf student and there’s just no one available to focus on her language needs.
We ended the day by stopping by San Narciso Elementary, where I met Mitchel (7) and Leisha (4), a Deaf brother and sister. Their cousin Rubia is a good friend of Elodia’s, so I met their mom and older Deaf sister Nadia (25) as well. Elodia and I hashed things over for a while on the way back to Orange Walk and we're hoping Evelyn’s parents might be able to bring her to Mary Hill with the 3 other Deaf students for school 2 days a week. That way I all 4 kids get more language exposure from me and each other, and Miss Lupita (the teacher who is signing with her students already) can give Evelyn the educational support she needs that I have no experience in. Since Lupita is eager to learn, hopefully I could maximize my short time in Belize and support her ASL efforts so that the kids keep benefiting even after my internship's over. I’m really here for such a short time...
In any case, I think I’ll spend one day a week at San Narciso with the teacher there, and Nadia said she’d come in and help teach the kids too, which would be excellent. I’m learning a lot about how to work in an educational team, and how to offer the linguistic knowledge I have in a way that’s helpful without overstepping my knowledge-base as someone who has never taken an education class. Elodia, for example, is really good at firmly but empathetically conveying to parents how important it is that their children come to school, even when things are not easy for them because of various disabilities, and she is willing to go an extra 5 miles for each student to try to get them what they need to be successful in school. Nancy is the same way-- driving 3 hrs every morning to pick up Deaf church members, giving workshops and doing home visits for families with Deaf children, being a little bit Mom, a little bit Teacher, a little bit Pastor, a little bit..whatever else someone needs at the moment. She’s another great role model for me of someone who knows how to meet a person where s/he is and go from there (a lot like Myron and his constant stream of Deaf-culture-impaired students:) ). This is definitely a place where you feel both like the task at hand is too big to take on, and also that with the necessary skills/equipment you could make a significant difference in the lives of many of the students.