Cuentos del Caribe: Montessori Teacher Training in Esperanza

Monday, May 7, 2012

Montessori Teacher Training in Esperanza

Recently I recapped a teacher training we were able to do at a friend’s school in the Miches area, and how much I and the teachers enjoyed the experience of traveling and sharing what we’ve been working on for over a year as a school with other interested teachers. Since that trip, Marina and Isabel, the two teachers who did the training, have been planning more Montessori trainings and exchanges with neighboring schools. We organized a visit to a Special Ed. school in Esperanza, a neighboring town about fifteen minutes or so from Mao. The schools have had exchanges and visits before because our towns are so close. We prepared a similar presentation to our first training - Montessori instruction in basic language didactic activities - and brought supplies with us to leave with the Esperanza school so that they could have a base off which to incorporate these and similar materials into their classroom.

The Special Ed. school in Esperanza is a little different than our own. The school is part of the elementary school, but is located in a separate building. So ideally, students could integrate between the buildings, but as of now that isn’t happening too much. The school is located in a corner of the main school’s property. The building itself looks like a little house as you’ll see in the pictures and has one large classroom inside and a covered space behind the school functioning as a separate classroom. All classrooms are traditional in the sense that they are lined with rows of desks and chairs. Looking at the school and thinking of our own reminds me just how fortunate IDENE was in receiving a sponsor. This school in Esperanza, though obviously much smaller, is also fortunate in the sense that it has its own building and doesn’t pay rent on it. Many schools in the DR often rent out land space or houses to conduct their school. Other schools are on rented land that the DR's Ministry of Education will pay for month to month in lieu of building a school...but I digress... In IDENE's case, before 2009 when Banelino built IDENE, the school had been running out of rented homes for about 10 years. My point is - it was interesting to notice the differences between the two neighboring Special Ed. schools, and realize once again the impact that school sponsorship and the banana have had on IDENE, and by extension my experience with the community I have been a part of for over 2 years.

The training itself went well. Teachers and directors from both the elementary and the Special Ed. school participated in our Montessori training, and Marina and Isabel conducted the whole presentation just as they had done the last time. I was really happy after our first training because it was such a good event for all involved, so it was a blessing to be able to repeat the traveling teacher training experience with another school.

Enjoy our photos!