The Living Museum

At school on Thursday, the 2nd graders presented their Living Museum presentations. During the past month, they have chosen a historical figure from around the world, researched them, and then wrote a 2-3 minute script pretending to be the character. This is an awesome project for elementary students, but 73% of the students at this school are learning English, so imagine writing this report in your second language! My high school students would have flipped out if I had assigned something like this, and these students are only 8 and 9 years old...talk about impressive!

My cooperating teacher and I work with 8 or 9 second graders. They dressed up as Barack Obama, Christa McCauliffe, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Walt Disney among others. You can see in the pictures some of my students and how open the school is. Those covered walkways make up the hallways. Everything is outside. Notice Obama's face is painted...there were quite a few students who did this for their characters. Imagine what backlash this would have gotten in the U.S.!

From 8:30-9:30, they presented in various stations around the front of the school. All the parents came to see them and brough a lot of food for the reception afterwards. I've never seen so much Prada, Gucci, and other high-end brand name purses and sunglasses in my life. The students who attend this school pay over $10,000 per year for tuition, making it the most expensive school in Costa Rica. The combined wealth of all the parents in that courtyard area blew me away. I'm pretty sure the students' costumes where not hand-sewn like mine was when I presented my Laura Ingalls Wilder presentation like this in elementary.

On another note: Gary is back. Kristen's first night in the house was really fun and we all sat around talking. The other girls went to bed and Kristen and I continued planning our spring break excursions (which happens starting Saturday!). When we finished I told her to come to my room if she needed anything during the night. About 5 minutes later, she knocks on my door and tells me that there is a lizard on her window! Gary had crawled into her window throughout the day and when she went to pull her curtains shut, she saw he was trapped inside. We got him to move around so we could open the window, and shoo-ed him out.

I opened my window in my bathroom while I showered to let out the steam (because it gets so hot in there!) this morning, and forgot to close it before I left for school. I closed it when I got home last night, went to bed, and thought nothing of it. This morning I was talking with Geoff before he left for work and saw Gary climbing around my window. The bad news is that it's not the same window he came in, which means he had been crawling around my room all night long! Ewwww...Gary's a great guy and all, but really...I brushed up my courage, reached around him and opened up the window. Within a few minutes, he left the premises and I shut the window ever so tightly again. And that's how they will stay.

in God's love,

Molly