Day 5 of Teaching: San Pablo Village and the Trip to Cockscomb Basin

          Teaching day five was very exciting, not only because it was great to see our students after a long weekend, but we had the opportunity because of an early release day to go to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary. Our day at San Pablo was shortened due to it being Teacher Appreciation Week and the teachers were all traveling to a conference. Our day started with whole school devotional. All the students then went back to their classrooms to start learning. My class is Infant I, where most of my students are 6 years old and this is their first year in school.

          Today our day started by singing our days of the week song which we sang in English and Spanish. My students really enjoy singing and dancing, so during transitions and to engage students in the learning process, my teacher and I often teach through songs. Today, during math we read books and reviewed addition and subtraction. Dr. Pentecost joined our class to practicing counting. She led my students around the classroom marching, singing, and counting to the song “The Ants Go Marching.” They were all very excited. After we sang and danced, we read a book and subtracted along with the words in the story. Time passed quickly and the day was over before we knew it. 

          We packed our belongings in the van as the students quizzed us on counting numbers 1-10 in Ketchi, a language that most of the students in the village speak. Then, we were off to hike in the rainforest! We met up with the others coming from Red Bank and traveled about 45 minutes away to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary. Once we arrived we ate lunch, and started to hike. The first trail we hiked was the Waterfall Trail, which led us to a waterfall with a small pool of water underneath. Jordan, Kelsey C., Trinity and I all took advantage of the unique opportunity to swim in the waterfall.

          After visiting the waterfall, almost everyone walked up a very strenuous, steep trail to the top of a mountain called Ben's Bluff Trail. There were many pictures taken, laughs to be had, and complaints made along the way, but everyone that attempted the trail made it, and we all agree it was worth the difficult climb! The view from the top was absolutely amazing. After probably close to 100 pictures were taken, the trek back down began. It was almost as difficult going down the hill as it was going up, but we all made it together. Like many of the experiences we have had so far this week, today was another wonderful day to add to the list.

-Christina Burkhardt