Escuela La Lucha - TabLab's Pilot Project

Escuela La Lucha was TabLab's pilot project.  Located in a rural community outside of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, the small school and it's principal/teacher Ana were eager to start working with the tablets.

They had a teacher trainer for an entire year helping out with the tablets and classes, for that matter.  La Lucha is a school with very little resources and the 2 full time teachers that they have work with multiple grades or groups at the same time daily.  On Thursdays and Fridays, they have 2 English teachers who come for those specific classes.

When I arrived the other day, there was no one there to unlock the classrooms.  We sat outside and played some English games until someone came to unlock the door.  Also, one of the teachers was sick, so her students were dismissed for the day.  These are the kind of obstacles that the students here have to overcome almost on a daily basis.  Every resource they have - from classroom materials to staff - is limited.  It makes the presence of TabLab and all other forms of educational support so special and greatly appreciated.

The students here are so sweet.  They light up with excitement when I arrive.  They LOVE using the tablets and they LOVE visitors. They are also very helpful with their teachers to move the large case of tablets, keep them charged and other housekeeping duties.

The tablets are a perfect way to occupy one group with independent or small group learning while working directly with the other grade of students.

The younger students are learning to read and write so the application Raz Kids has been a great resource.  There are so many books, many of which are in English, but many in Spanish also.  The kids can not only listen to the stories being read to them, but they can record themselves reading the stories to work on pronunciation.  They earn points for completing books and advance in levels.  Then they can redeem their points to play games - which is of course everyone's goal!

La Lucha is a special little school with a tight knit community of families where they still ring a hand held bell in between classes.   They are planning an event next week to raise money for the school. A band of mothers arrived the other day to plan the menu and wrap bingo prizes.  The students are often seen walking to and from the school on the dusty gravel road together in groups or riding on bike handlebars with a friend.  In recess, you can't tell which grade is what, as they all take off sprinting to the yard to play games all together. There is a real sense of community here that transcends family and grade boundaries.  

I love that TabLab is here to enrich the lives of these special kids from hard working families.  

TabLab Progress

I was excited to find out when I arrived last week at El Paraiso that the tablets were already being used!  Poco a poco the teachers and students are gaining more confidence with and excitement for the opportunities on the iPads.  Of course, the photo booth, videos and collage makers are always a hit with the highschoolers, especially all of the funky filters and stickers they can play around with.  But they are getting some real use out of the educational content.  Sometimes it takes that initial half hour of free time and playing to get the excitement out of their system and get them ready to focus on a lesson at hand.

Eddy is the Industrial Arts teacher and he really likes using the tablets.  "The mechanical and engineering apps are so useful for my classes.  They can really see the process instead of just talking about them," he told me.  He teaches his students about engineering, electrical wiring, automotive and bicycle mechanics and word working.  The visual and virtual "hands on" applications like Simple Circuits and Electricidad are both fun and practical for the students.

In English, the students are completing their own books.  They used Book Creator to make short stories and brief autobiographies to share with some fellow students in Canada.  We've also been using a lot of DuoLingo - a personal favorite that I use for Spanish.  This app helps users practice a new language.  You can start from a basic beginning level or take a placement exam to skip to an appropriate level.  You can practice reading, writing, translating both ways and even speaking.  It's a great resource for conversational English classes.  Students can make groups and track each other's progress or compete with one another for language learning goals.  Even the teachers are hooked!

The Spanish classes are using Powerpoint and Prezi to create presentations on a story they read.  They love searching for photos on the internet to represent the different characters and settings they read about in Isabelle Allende's Clarisa.  

In Math, Sylvia had her 7th grade Math students, many who have never used a tablet, research some of the practical applications of statistics.  Some of the students never considered the practical use of numbers and statistics in Education, Medicine, Biology or their favorite, Sports.  They will be collecting data and creating some attractive spreadsheets and graphs using the Numbers app.

El Paraiso is lacking a science teacher right now.  In most schools, this would mean a sub would be hired for the interim.  But here, the students are simply without a class during those periods.  A group of them were sitting in the Comedor during this unofficial free time and I asked if they wanted to use the tablets.  They were so excited to use them, and that time was made into something more productive.  All they need is a little motivation and supervision, and they are off exploring all that they want to on the tablets.  They can explore the human body inside and out, from the skeletal to the nervous system with Cuerpo Virtual.  They can also delve deep into the body with the 3D Organs and Cell World apps.

It has been fun to get to know the students.  The more time I spend with them, the more questions they ask.  I also enjoy encouraging some of the less eager teachers to take part.  Jorge, for example, would probably not have used the tablets had I not specifically asked him when he was going to do so.  After just a few minutes of going over some options and discussing how students could make something as simple as a powerpoint presentation with sounds, images and videos, he was so excited. It made that wait worthwhile.

I am looking forward to continuing to support the teachers and students here in this little paraiso de tierra caliente.