Feb 10, 2011

Greetings all from Jeanne

Wanted to let you know that we have new photos and a short film posted on my facebook. The film is of the panorama we saw last evening as the sun was setting over the volcano.  There is a small hill north of where we live and we strolled over to see the sunset and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. We could see all of Antigua and the mountains in the distance.  It was breathtaking indeed.

I have figured out how to catch the school bus outside our place and ride back and forth with some students from the school, two of whom let me take their picture, Lauren and Casey. Lauren is my new bus buddy and we talk about math and school in general. It is great to get the student's perspective on what I am observing from 8-2 every day.  I am ecstatic to get this additional bonus information.

Today began the annual art festival and we attended the opening art exhibit that showed the works of Carlos Merida, whose work was on display at the museum in the Santo Domingo hotel, which is built in an ancient Colonial convent and displays excavations throughout the hotel grounds. It is extraordinary.  Monday we'll be celebrating Valentine's day there, so I hope to get some pictures of the place, which I will post on facebook, since it can hold more pictures than here.

Today we walked through town to the public market and I practiced my Spanish, buying fruits and vegetables.  It is good to finally take this risk.  More to come.

I have become very comfortable at the school, wandering from room to room, observing the teaching of math, sitting in kid size desks, typing away on my ipad, drawing with my penultimate app when the need arises.  I am learning many things and just this week my theory of disconnection is beginning to play out.  The teacher has been teaching about Roman decimals and Mayan decimals.  It is a very interesting process, but I was confused for three days. Today, when a student challenged her, it finally came to light why I was confused. She is representing the factorization of large numbers by divisions of the exponential of 20, calling this decimals.  She explained to the student who challenged her that the numbers beyond the decimal, which she briefly wrote on the board, as decimos, which was distinguished from decimals.  It was exciting to have this float out of the observations. She seems very open to having me there, so this is very nice. The kids are getting used to me being around, so that helps as well.  It is a terrific experience.  I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Have a grand weekend and stay in touch.  jt