Tuesday, July 28th - Madre Marcelena

We arrived at the school this morning to find students playing in the courtyard, and doing homework before classes.  

The Sister took us on a tour of the facility first thing in the morning.  There is a home for the elderly that is a part of the school community.  We were able to walk around and see not only the facility, but meet the people living there.  There is one woman that is 106 years old!  Whenever Sister entered a room, all of the the elderly women's faces lit up!  They were so happy to see her!  There are several levels of care in the facility...those that need complete care, those that need some care, and those that are ambulatory.  They also have a separate floor for the elders that have the ability to pay for their rooms.  The Sister was explaining to us how many of the elderly are abandoned at the facility.  She takes all of them in and finds a space!  She was trying to explain that there are many families that simply cannot afford to keep them at home so they know they will be well cared for at the facility.  It all seems so incredibly sad to me...but she was trying to emphasize that the families are doing what they think is best to take care of their parents.

Dormitory room

Desayuno!  Breakfast time!

This is the order of the Church and school

Where the Order exists in the world.

Visiting and meeting the women1

A view of the courtyard

Interior courtyard

Primary children working in the courtyard!

View of the port from the Church facility

Sister with the primary children!

They just love her so much!  She honestly exudes love and joy wherever she is!  I asked her about her feeling about Pope Francis today and her entire being lit up!  She adores him!  She expressed how she loves the way that he is bringing the values of Christianity back to where they were intended to be!!!!

Interior courtyard of school - grades 3-11

English Class - 8th grade - We participated in a lesson where we all introduced ourselves.  Each student had to say their name and then do some type of movement.  The next student would have to say that students name...do the movement and then do the same for themselves.  That continued all around the circle.  Jason and I were about halfway through the circle and there was no way we were going to remember all the names and movements...so he said the names and I did the movements!  The kids got a kick out of it...and so did we!

Sign in the hallway that says...It's not that women philosophers have not existed, it's that they have not been acknowledged or celebrated for their ideas.

Sideways...sorry...but students doing work in the hallways!

6th grade English Class - Jesus, the teacher, was incredibly dynamic!  The lesson was on questions words. 

Jesus used the bear to tell a story and then asked the students questions about the story he told.  After that he discussed question words such as "what"..."why"..."which"...and "who."  The students not only worked on the English, but made direct connections to the question words in Spanish.  This lesson was really authentic learning!  Not to mention that he was so unbelievably dynamic!!!  The girls were engaged 100% of the time!

9th Grade English - One of the teachers is a volunteer from the UK.  Although he's never taught before coming to the school 2 weeks ago...he definitely tried to connect with the students.  He was using a Lemonheads song to get them to connect languaage.  On the paper that he gave the students with the lyrics, the lines were mixed up...so as they listened to the song they had to match the correct lyrics.

They day was really wonderful!  Tomorrow we are back at the school for what should be a really interesting day!  There is a faculty meeting in the morning where the teachers are being told about a new directive from the Minister of Education of Colombia.  Their school will be starting to be completely full day...and completely bilingual!  It should be interesting to see how the teachers react. After that, my colleagues and I are facilitating a workshop on what it means to be Globally Competent.  In the afternoon, we are having a discussion with teachers on challenges that we face and solutions that we have found to be effective.  I am really looking forward to it!  I'll keep you posted!!