My Student Teaching in Costa Rica
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Megan Butterman, and I am raising funds to student teach in Costa Rica. I am a top student at Fort Lewis College in their wonderful Teacher Education Program. This opportunity is a unique and incredible chance to explore the world, meet new people, immerse myself in a culture, and teach in a prestigious international school while I work towards my Bachelors Degree and Colorado Teaching License. I will be graduating with a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Endorsement on my license as well. This opportunity; however, also comes with costs.
I have already worked very hard to save money and win scholarships. I have already estimated that I can cover a large percentage of the funds, but I really need help in raising the last $1500 in order to safely and securely live in Costa Rica for my 4 month student teaching position. I need funds and a safety net in order to purchase plane tickets, pay rent, cover teaching expenses, travel to see other parts of Costa Rica, and to be prepared for possible medical expenses. I am extremely grateful for any money (every penny counts!) at all that you can donate to help support my student teaching adventure. This opportunity will broaden my teaching skills and career, and I will benefit so immensely from immersing myself in another culture and language. Thank you so much for reading and donating!
Below is an estimated cost for this 4 month experience.
Tuition
$8,036 + $1300 in Student Fees
Housing
$5000 includes room, board, and laundry service for the entire semester
Meals
Meals at the homestay are included in the housing cost; lunches may be purchased at school. Meals while travel are on me.
Airfare
$600-1200
Basic In-country Transportation
Daily bus to school (approx.. 50 cents)
Departure tax $29 for leaving and entering Costa Rica
Estimated Tourist Travel
$1000-2500
Misc. Expenses
$2000
Estimated Total Expenses
$20,000
Below, you can read more about my rationales, about the school, and callenges I will face. I has also included a link to my teaching portfolio.
Teaching Portfolio
http://meganbutterman.weebly.com/
Professional Rationale:
Professionally, I am seeking a student teaching experience that is unique. It surprised me how much I enjoyed working with my ELL students last semester at Miller Middle School. The Pan-American School is a dual-language school that produces bilingual citizens. I have a goal to become bilingual in order to better my teaching and communication skills. I have always had the utmost respect and admiration for people who speak multiple languages, and I hope to become fluent in Spanish as I begin my teaching career. Being immersed in the Spanish language and Costa Rican culture will help speed up my acquisition of the language.
Additionally, this opportunity would allow me to expand my teaching repertoire. Having never been abroad before, I have a limited perspective on the world. I hope to expand my knowledge and life experiences while living in Costa Rica in order to make myself a more well-rounded and experienced teacher and leader. Furthermore, one of my professional goals is to increase my efficacy in multicultural education, and allow me to implement culturally responsive pedagogy in a new environment than what I’m used to. This experience will give me ample hands-on application of these skills in a very diverse classroom. No school here in Durango has the language learning needs that the Pan-American School has.
I do recognize that I am also going to be missing out on some experiences by leaving the country to student teach. I am extremely interested in implementing and working in a project-based setting. If I student teach in Costa Rica, I will be missing out on the chance to student teach at Mountain Middle School. Though this experience would be amazing, I feel that I will gain more life experience from student teaching abroad. I am also missing out on the amazing faculty of Fort Lewis College being able to observe me in person. I look up to my professors and respect their advice; that is something that I will miss the most with the distance.
Personal Rationale:
I find it difficult to separate my personal rationale from my professional rationale; they have a lot of similarities. To begin, since I have never left the country before, I am aching to explore the world and increase my life experiences. One of my managers at a flower shop I worked at gave me an inspirational quote that I have had hanging in my window for 4 years now. It says, “The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been, and the memories we’ve made along the way.” I want to create more experiences for myself, travel to more places, and make more memories. This opportunity is a once in a lifetime event.
Additionally, within this past year, I realized how much I desired to be able to speak another language. In taking Professor Rider’s ED 333 class, I realized how possible it’d be to learn Spanish, if I put in the effort and applied it in real life. Then, while working closely with my English Language Learners last semester, I started practicing and using my Spanish more in order to communicate and relate to my students. I was learning from them, while they were learning from me. Once I realized that I could possibly immerse myself in the language while student teaching in an incredible location, I became set on learning Spanish. I hope to be fluent in Spanish within the next 5 to 10 years. This goal is partly professional and partly personal.
About the school:
As per discussions with my fellow student teacher, Cait, Pan-American School is located in Santa Anna, roughly a forty minute bus ride from the host family we will be staying with. The school houses Pre-k-11th grade and supports a dual language program that varies in instruction from English to Spanish, based on grade level. Students will graduate as bilingual, environmentally aware, and global citizens. A variety of extra-curricular activities such as ballet, karate, drawing, and cooking classes are offered. I took Kung Fu as a child, and I love cooking. In higher grades, students have the option to participate in an international exchange program in partnership with the United States and Canada.
Pan-American School received the Blue Flag distinction for its ecological commitment to the environment and an International accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) of the United States. The school is authorized as a World School to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB). This year, 100% of seniors earned the MEP National Baccalaureate Diploma. According to Di Ryter, these students often outperform the United States on the PISA exams. Pan-American School is also part of the Association of Private Education Schools (ACEP), the Association of American Schools of Central America (AASCA), and the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
Challenges:
This experience will be a huge challenge to tackle for me. I have never been outside the country, so this is a completely new process to me. I never knew much about Costa Rica until I started my research for this incredible opportunity. I will definitely face challenges with being isolated: from family, friends, professors, and home. I have spent my 21 years on this planet living in the Southwest, but I believe that I have the independence, maturity, and support system needed to make this successful.
As a sophomore in high school, I learned about the National Student Leadership Conference. I was recommended to be a part of the program. I worked hard and set my mind to going to a conference on engineering in Washington D.C., and I paid for the whole thing by working 3 jobs and asking for sponsors from leaders in my community. My parents did not have to fund any part of the nearly $3000 program. I flew across the country alone for my first time, stayed for ten days in Washington D.C., became close friends with people from all over the country, and experienced places I’d never been able to before. Though this success story does not compare remotely to how large student teaching in Costa Rica will be, it does show that I have the ability, independence, and maturity to face the past challenges of traveling alone in order to take part in an opportunity that I really believe to be useful and life-changing.
Furthermore, I have a support system of a few close friends, my professors, and my family that I will stay in contact with daily/weekly. With technology, I will be able to keep in touch with those back home and in my immersion cohort. I will miss my personal interactions with my cohort, friends, other Daniels Fund scholars, and professors; however, I will have resources at my disposal in order to push past that loneliness. I am used to not seeing my family for entire semesters, so that is something I have already become accustomed to.
I have already worked very hard to save money and win scholarships. I have already estimated that I can cover a large percentage of the funds, but I really need help in raising the last $1500 in order to safely and securely live in Costa Rica for my 4 month student teaching position. I need funds and a safety net in order to purchase plane tickets, pay rent, cover teaching expenses, travel to see other parts of Costa Rica, and to be prepared for possible medical expenses. I am extremely grateful for any money (every penny counts!) at all that you can donate to help support my student teaching adventure. This opportunity will broaden my teaching skills and career, and I will benefit so immensely from immersing myself in another culture and language. Thank you so much for reading and donating!
Below is an estimated cost for this 4 month experience.
Tuition
$8,036 + $1300 in Student Fees
Housing
$5000 includes room, board, and laundry service for the entire semester
Meals
Meals at the homestay are included in the housing cost; lunches may be purchased at school. Meals while travel are on me.
Airfare
$600-1200
Basic In-country Transportation
Daily bus to school (approx.. 50 cents)
Departure tax $29 for leaving and entering Costa Rica
Estimated Tourist Travel
$1000-2500
Misc. Expenses
$2000
Estimated Total Expenses
$20,000
Below, you can read more about my rationales, about the school, and callenges I will face. I has also included a link to my teaching portfolio.
Teaching Portfolio
http://meganbutterman.weebly.com/
Professional Rationale:
Professionally, I am seeking a student teaching experience that is unique. It surprised me how much I enjoyed working with my ELL students last semester at Miller Middle School. The Pan-American School is a dual-language school that produces bilingual citizens. I have a goal to become bilingual in order to better my teaching and communication skills. I have always had the utmost respect and admiration for people who speak multiple languages, and I hope to become fluent in Spanish as I begin my teaching career. Being immersed in the Spanish language and Costa Rican culture will help speed up my acquisition of the language.
Additionally, this opportunity would allow me to expand my teaching repertoire. Having never been abroad before, I have a limited perspective on the world. I hope to expand my knowledge and life experiences while living in Costa Rica in order to make myself a more well-rounded and experienced teacher and leader. Furthermore, one of my professional goals is to increase my efficacy in multicultural education, and allow me to implement culturally responsive pedagogy in a new environment than what I’m used to. This experience will give me ample hands-on application of these skills in a very diverse classroom. No school here in Durango has the language learning needs that the Pan-American School has.
I do recognize that I am also going to be missing out on some experiences by leaving the country to student teach. I am extremely interested in implementing and working in a project-based setting. If I student teach in Costa Rica, I will be missing out on the chance to student teach at Mountain Middle School. Though this experience would be amazing, I feel that I will gain more life experience from student teaching abroad. I am also missing out on the amazing faculty of Fort Lewis College being able to observe me in person. I look up to my professors and respect their advice; that is something that I will miss the most with the distance.
Personal Rationale:
I find it difficult to separate my personal rationale from my professional rationale; they have a lot of similarities. To begin, since I have never left the country before, I am aching to explore the world and increase my life experiences. One of my managers at a flower shop I worked at gave me an inspirational quote that I have had hanging in my window for 4 years now. It says, “The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been, and the memories we’ve made along the way.” I want to create more experiences for myself, travel to more places, and make more memories. This opportunity is a once in a lifetime event.
Additionally, within this past year, I realized how much I desired to be able to speak another language. In taking Professor Rider’s ED 333 class, I realized how possible it’d be to learn Spanish, if I put in the effort and applied it in real life. Then, while working closely with my English Language Learners last semester, I started practicing and using my Spanish more in order to communicate and relate to my students. I was learning from them, while they were learning from me. Once I realized that I could possibly immerse myself in the language while student teaching in an incredible location, I became set on learning Spanish. I hope to be fluent in Spanish within the next 5 to 10 years. This goal is partly professional and partly personal.
About the school:
As per discussions with my fellow student teacher, Cait, Pan-American School is located in Santa Anna, roughly a forty minute bus ride from the host family we will be staying with. The school houses Pre-k-11th grade and supports a dual language program that varies in instruction from English to Spanish, based on grade level. Students will graduate as bilingual, environmentally aware, and global citizens. A variety of extra-curricular activities such as ballet, karate, drawing, and cooking classes are offered. I took Kung Fu as a child, and I love cooking. In higher grades, students have the option to participate in an international exchange program in partnership with the United States and Canada.
Pan-American School received the Blue Flag distinction for its ecological commitment to the environment and an International accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) of the United States. The school is authorized as a World School to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB). This year, 100% of seniors earned the MEP National Baccalaureate Diploma. According to Di Ryter, these students often outperform the United States on the PISA exams. Pan-American School is also part of the Association of Private Education Schools (ACEP), the Association of American Schools of Central America (AASCA), and the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
Challenges:
This experience will be a huge challenge to tackle for me. I have never been outside the country, so this is a completely new process to me. I never knew much about Costa Rica until I started my research for this incredible opportunity. I will definitely face challenges with being isolated: from family, friends, professors, and home. I have spent my 21 years on this planet living in the Southwest, but I believe that I have the independence, maturity, and support system needed to make this successful.
As a sophomore in high school, I learned about the National Student Leadership Conference. I was recommended to be a part of the program. I worked hard and set my mind to going to a conference on engineering in Washington D.C., and I paid for the whole thing by working 3 jobs and asking for sponsors from leaders in my community. My parents did not have to fund any part of the nearly $3000 program. I flew across the country alone for my first time, stayed for ten days in Washington D.C., became close friends with people from all over the country, and experienced places I’d never been able to before. Though this success story does not compare remotely to how large student teaching in Costa Rica will be, it does show that I have the ability, independence, and maturity to face the past challenges of traveling alone in order to take part in an opportunity that I really believe to be useful and life-changing.
Furthermore, I have a support system of a few close friends, my professors, and my family that I will stay in contact with daily/weekly. With technology, I will be able to keep in touch with those back home and in my immersion cohort. I will miss my personal interactions with my cohort, friends, other Daniels Fund scholars, and professors; however, I will have resources at my disposal in order to push past that loneliness. I am used to not seeing my family for entire semesters, so that is something I have already become accustomed to.
Organizer
Megan Butterman
Organizer
Durango, CO