Today was our last day at the Stella Maris School in Belize!!! After our usual morning routine of breakfast and bus rides, we headed off to our classrooms to join the students for the last time! Since the morning had been filled with rain, many of the classrooms were missing quite a few students. My “infant” classroom started out with only 4 students, with one more joining us about 30 minutes after school started.
Since there were not many students, the teacher told me I could do any of the activities I had prepared with them. Throughout the week, the students were working on number identification and matching with dots. I created games with numbers attached with velcro on one side and sections with dots on the other. The child had to match the number with the number of dots. Since there were only 5 students, I was able to have them sit closely together and work on it together with my help. They seemed to really enjoy this activity. The classroom teachers even sat closely and watched everything I did. They asked questions about how I was doing things and where I got the activity. I was also able to utilize another thing I had taught the children yesterday. “Keep my hands to myself!” With the children sitting at such close proximity to each other, this was a great learning opportunity to go over what we had learned the day before. They were all really responsive to everything I did with them.
Throughout the day, I was able to have many conversations with the teacher about the Belize school system and compare it to the school system back in the US. Come to find out, many aspects of teaching were similar, if not the same. Hearing this teacher talk about what she wishes she could do to further help these special needs children was amazing. The passion all these teachers have for education is something to look up to!
Towards the end of the day, there was a school assembly in the cafeteria. The principle held this assembly to honor and thank our group for coming again this year! The assembly was beautiful and moving! The children all sang the songs “This Little Light of Mine” and “Open the Eyes of my Heart.” Hearing all these children sing at the top of their lungs made me tear up a bit. It was a moment that I could never forget!! After the singing, the principle said some very kind words then many of the students from each classroom got up and gave their student helper a gift. This was something none of us expected. These teachers showed us their appreciation for us with beautiful tokens to take back with us! One little boy even got the courage to go up and say a small speech to us. He thanked us for everything we did for them and told us he loved each and every one of us. This was the point when many of us started crying. Simply seeing the joy we have brought to this little school and everybody in it moved every single one of us.
We often tell each other that we have gotten more out of this experience than we could have ever imagined. The small acts of kindness the people of Belize have shown us will forever be in our hearts!
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