Nicaragua Alternative Spring Break 2009 - MAT Delegation

Science, Mathematics and Language Arts Units

All the members of the Quinnipiac University MAT Nicaragua Service-Learning Team, under the guidance of Dr. Cheryl Kerison, will present the Sixth Annual Teacher Training Conference from March 14, 2011 to March 16, 2011 in León, Nicaragua. The MAT Nicaragua Service-Learning Team will conduct workshops in the areas of Mathematics, Science and Language Arts.

The topic of the Science workshop for the 2011 conference is motion, force and energy. The workshop will provide the Nicaraguan teachers with useful experiments and hands-on learning activities they can share with their own students.

The theme for Mathematics is the coordinate system and ordered pairs. The workshop will focus on teaching children how to plot and identify ordered pairs.

The Language Arts Team will focus on folklore. The workshop will assist teachers with teaching children how to use oral tradition as a tool to communicate effectively. 

Successful Event

THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support our ASB Almost Midnight Breakfast event!!! It was a huge success! We had music playing to create an enjoyable atmosphere and a slideshow with pictures from past trips. 

At 7:30pm when we started there was a line for pancakes all the way to the SGA office in the upper area of the cafeteria. 

There was another line on the opposite side for omelettes made to order.

Everyone there enjoyed delicious chocolate chip and/or sprinkle pancakes, omelettes, muffins, brownies, fruit, orange juice and coffee. 

David Ives created his infamous animal pancakes! 

It was wonderful to have the chance to talk with people waiting in line and while I was making them pancakes.

 This event was a fantastic way for the whole Nica Team to get to know each other better and work together to serve everyone.  

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Supply Drive

We are greatly in need of the items below to provide to the Nicaraguan teachers. If you wish to donate any of the supplies listed please either email me at samantha.sardella@quinnipiac.edu or contact another member of the Nica team. Thanks so much!

·         3 ring binders (1 ½ in to 2 in)

·         8 pack of dividers

·         Pencils

·         Pens

·         Notebooks of paper

·         Expo Markers*****(lots please)

·         Overhead Projector Markers

·         Sheet Protectors (Heavy duty)

·         NO crayons (they melt in the heat)

Almost Midnight Breakfast

It's that time of year again! 

Come to the Cafe on Mt Carmel Campus on Wed December 8th from 7:30-11pm for all you can eat breakfast for only $5....we will be having eggs, bagels, muffins, fruit juice, coffee and David Ive's famous animal pancakes, both real and mythical!

David Ives making his famous animal pancakes

octopus pancake

elephant pancake

This event is sponsored by the Albert Schweitzer Institute and Chartwells.

We will be selling tickets and raffles in the student center starting Dec. 1^st. We’ll also have tickets and raffles available at the door.

We have fantastic hammocks & beautiful bracelets and earring from Nicaragua to sell! Don’t miss out on your chance to score some of these wonderful items…perfect gifts for the holiday season!

Please join this event on Facebook and invite all your friends

NICA VIDEO by Taylor Roberts

Working Directly with the Community

Both the MAT and Agriculture teams are working directly with the Nicaraguan community. Team leaders and faculty travel to Nicaragua in October, months before the March ASB trip, to find out from the community what specific knowledge the Nicaraguans teachers need to gain for their professional development at the conference and what projects the school in La Ceiba needs assistance with. We listen to what the Nicaraguan people tell us they need rather than airlifting ourselves there, doing projects, and leaving. The team leaders and faculty return to Quinnipiac with this information and incorporate the needs of the Nicaraguan community into the framework of the workshops and projects for the ASB trip in March. 

For example, this year at the school in La Ceiba, one of the projects the Agriculture team will be working on is building a retaining wall to reduce the amount of water from a nearby river that floods the school during the rainy season. We hire local artisans and contractors to oversee the project. We work under their guidance during the ASB trip and after we leave, they continue to work on the projects until completion. These workers would not have the funds or supplies to complete these projects on their own without our help.

Empowering Women and Girls

2011 MAT Team

MAT team with some Nicaraguan teachers

I believe that it is important not to overlook the fact that the MAT team is composed of all women and the majority of the people the team will be working with at the 3 Day Professional Development Teachers Conference are women. 

On a global level, the conference is an example of women empowering women. The book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by husband-and-wife Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009) argues that the key to economic progress in the world is empowering women. Here is a review of the book from the New York Times. This book discusses the Half the Sky Movement which focuses on supporting women in developing nations. I love the quote from the book: "Women aren't the problem, they are the solution along with men" because it has been proven over and over again with statistical data that the best way to overcome poverty and extremism is to empower women and girls (Kristof & WuDunn 2009).

There is a direct correlation between women’s education and total rate of fertility in developing nations like Nicaragua. “Education is key because educated women are more likely to know what social, community, and health services, including family planning, are available and to have the confidence to use them. In addition, women with more education have more opportunities outside the home and can see the benefits of education for their children” (Population Reference Bureau 2010). Below is a graph from PRB (2010) that illustrates this tread in developing nations (PRB.org):

Women's Education and Family Size in Selected Countries, 2000s
The Alternative Spring Break Program supports empowering girls (and boys) in La Ceiba by improving the infrastructure of the school which enhances the learning environment. Improving the infrastructure is so important because it meets the students’ basic needs such as being protected from the sun and creates a motivational & engaging climate. 

The long-term effects are that the students will obtain a higher quality education by not worrying about their basic needs and these positive experiences will encourage them to continue their education career. The Alternative Spring Break Program program is also empowering women in Nicaragua by providing professional teacher development for the teachers, who are predominantly female. The conference supports Nicaraguan teachers because most teachers would not be able to acquire these skills, strategies and teaching techniques otherwise.

Story of the Seed

A teacher held up a seed for all of his students to see and said, “What do you see?” The responses were unanimous; the students claimed they saw a simple seed. “What else do you see?” The teacher was apparently looking for a different answer.

The class was silent and the teacher began to speak:
Look beyond this seed. What do you see? I bet you can see a plant. You can even see a tree, or an entire forest of trees! And in the forest, you can see the animals that inhabit the forest. If we look beyond this simple seed, do you see what our imaginations are capable of?

This small seed has the ability to grow into something incredible; it represents infinite possibilities. What we are looking at here is the capacity to change, the growth of life. Remember this seed. It stands for all opportunities and most importantly the manifestation of something bigger. In life, we must look beyond the seed. Let us start with something so simple and with a bit of imagination envision something great.

(From Meghan Cousin's post on Facebook 2010)

“Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.” -Truman Capote

Nicaraguan children are not “those” children. They are our children. The color of their skin, their language and their socioeconomic status does not negate the fact that they deserve to learn through effective teaching methods. Their socioeconomic background has no bearing on their intelligence or potential. Love for our children in our global community extends beyond borders, dictatorships, civil wars, natural disasters, and poverty. The desire to teach and learn connects us all on the deepest human level.

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." ~ Edward Everett Hale

I have always dreamed of being selected for this program. For me, I could not think of a better way to spend my spring break than serving others and making a difference. Being selected for the MAT Service Learning Program to Nicaragua is one-in-a-lifetime chance to not only help others, but for me to grow as a person. Through this program, I will gain a different perspective of the world by working with diverse groups of educators, the local Nicaraguan community and from my teammates who share common goals. Additionally, I will have the chance to participate in a leadership role and promote awareness in the Quinnipiac community.

By going to Nicaragua, I will have the chance to learn from professional teachers who deal with limited resources and supplies every day. I will better understand how they overcome this type of adversity and how to make the best with what one has. The Nicaraguan teachers do not let their challenges get the best of them and never give up on their students. The teachers attending the conference in March are far more experienced than me in the classroom and therefore have a lot of knowledge to impart on me. To me, they are role models because they are participating in the conference to continue their life-long learning and create better classroom environments for their students. Their passion and dedication is evident. I want to meet them and hear their stories and experiences in teaching firsthand. I want to learn about their point of views. I am looking forward to learning about their set of values.

At the conference, I will have the opportunity to share my knowledge and experiences I have been fortunate enough to gain as a Teacher Candidate in the MAT program with Nicaraguan teachers. Sharing information encourages using new techniques and strategies to develop a responsive & engaging classroom. The Nicaraguan teachers have limit access to resources to improve their abilities and therefore come willing to learn as much as possible. They also want to become mastery level professionals in their craft. Through our assistance, I believe we will help them step closer to that goal.