1st Week Living in the Cloud Forest

 We're now in Monteverde. It is a very different atmosphere from Heredia. It is a small little mountain town, where Heredia had more of a city feel. We all live a pretty good distance from CPI. My host family is also very different from the one I lived with in Heredia. We will see how it goes.
  Today we visited a primary school. Something I have noticed here in Costa Rica is that the schools are a lot more relaxed than the schools in the states. We have to be more willing to go with the flow when we arrive to do lessons because anything can change at any point from which grade level we will be with, to how many students, to how long we will have with the kids. It can be a little chaotic be we are learning to be more flexible. This morning we had a whole lesson planned only to get there and have our plans changed. We ended up observing classes for 40 minutes and then doing a modified version of our lesson with the preschoolers. They enjoyed it. I was observing a 5th grade math class. The class was very teacher directed. He wrote information on the board and the students copied it and worked alone at their desks. Towards the end, they did go up to the board to write their answers and share with the class, but there wasn´t alot of discussion. It was very black and white. Either you had the right answer or you had the wrong answer, there was no explanation.
  Also I have gathered some more information for my Inquiry Project on Sustainability through observation:
1. Less water pressure=hot water in the showers
2. Eco friendly lightbulbs everywhere
3. People are very conscientious of turning off lights in the house when they aren't in the rooms
4.People don't shower everyday
5. Food doesn't go to waste
6. Recycling is everywhere
7. Seem to be more eco friendly in Monteverde than Heredia

Pura Vida!