A 33 member Team from Colorado and other three States from the United States have completed a one week of voluntary service at four primary schools in the Cayo District. The literacy team arrived on October 12th and left on Sunday of this past weekend after spending time with teachers, students and parents in an attempt to improve their literacy levels.
“What strikes all of us is that the teachers in Belize are absolutely dedicated, how passionate they are about their children,” said Jean Kirsher, head of the literacy team from the United States of America and who is now on her eight visit to Belize.
During the past week the U.S citizens have been meeting with teachers and sharing with them various teaching strategies to enhance reading. The instructors joined the teachers in their classrooms where the skills were exchanged. One of those teaching methods was to divide the students in small guiding reading groups where developmental reading assessments are made and individualized instructions are then given. Teachers at Eden now have a variety of instructional material and reading first aids that have been brought by the U.S team to assist them with the teaching of reading.
While the 457 children at the SDA Primary School have been the main target for the enhanced reading practices, the U.S team has also spent time with parents to assist them in their adventure to discover new worlds in books. This special team of reading instructors has also been working with the Buena Vista Government School, the Hills of Promise and the Bullet Tree Falls Primary Schools running parallel reading instructional projects with them.
According to Jean Kirshner, the educational exchange and cross cultural pollination that occurs between the U.S instructors and Belizean teachers at such schools as the Eden Seventh Day Adventist Primary School SDA in Santa Elena Town has been ongoing since 2008 thanks to “some wonderful generous sponsors”. In April of every year, a group of teachers from SDA also travel to the homes of the U.S instructors to spend a week there and have a chance to be in the classroom with them and teach the children about such things as the Belize National Symbols.
“We are very grateful for this group; they have been coming here for years now…” said Tharine Gabourel, Principal of the SDA Primary School.
