Last Meeting with our Coordinators!

Wednesday was full of goodbyes and great reflection on our fabulous experiences here in Mondragon.

Us girls started the day off by going to an Educational Museum in Bergara called Laboratorium Bergara. We walked in knowing we should ask for a specific guy, but we had all forgotten his name. But when we explained to the receptionist about what we needed, she said they were expecting us. They handed us two tablets that were set to have displayed explained in English for us. The museum started with a video that talked about how the Basque country began to use world-wide technology. There were many displays that had interactive screens to watch or play games on. Then there were cases full of science tools, animals, and books with discoveries. I spent time checking out all cases and played with all interactive screens. It walked us through the secret Society of Basque people. I found one that allowed me to discover Wolfram, which was actually discovered in Bergara. Wolfram was the 23rd element found on the periodic table. I was able to view all around the room to pick up the element, crush it, heat it up, and then find the new element through this program. I loved how interactive it was and I was very engaged. There were a few interactive screens that were only available in Basque or Spanish, but those languages are most used here. There was even a section about how Charles Darwin's work influenced the scientists and community in Bergara. The last video was encouraging everyone to realize that so much information is at our fingertips, but that doesn't mean that we all should stop searching for new information and being curious.

If you want to find out more about this museum, check out this link: http://www.bergara.eus/es/laboratorium

After this, we were able to explore Bergara more than before. We were in this town on Monday when we visited the deaf school, AransGi. Today it was beautiful, sunny, and warm outside; thus, we all sat on a bench for about 30 minutes taking in the beauty of this town. As per usual, we were on a time crunch and we were all hungry. After a few failed attempts to find food we liked, we made our way to Eskoriatza, where we had a meeting with Tane and Sinead, our coordinators.

Luckily, Tane was able to set up a time for us girls to see an infant school that has students ranging from 0 until they are 6 years old. This building was incredible and looked like a treehouse on the inside. There were 4 levels in this building and it had the youngest on the bottom and oldest on the upper floors. In this school, they have recently changed their teaching approaches and that included the change in layout of the rooms. The bottom floor had the babies to 1 year olds. These rooms were set up for them to explore all different types of textures and materials that are natural, such as wood, steel pots, grass, and bread crumbs. We met the 1 year olds outside, and I scared one so they all weren't fans of us. We made our way upstairs where I made friends with a few of the little boys who made faces at me. They began to laugh and talk in Basque.

The next level had even older kids who were working on cutting and coloring. They showed us a room that was supposed to expose these students to explore 3D by playing with these different level obstacle courses. The set up was amazing and I would have loved to have played with this as a child. There were materials in the other room were also natural and very stimulating. The teachers change out these materials every few days unless they are very interested in them.

Later the women explained that the students are able to explore throughout the whole day with what they are most interested in. The older students pick projects to work on that can take as short and or as long as they want. This mindset reminds me of Montessori and Dewey. Students are able to learn math through centers such as working with money at grocery stores and or with number sticks. Each level had the sand-tables filled with different materials such as sand with beads, bread crumbs, sand with lights underneath, and sand with pasta. We kept walking through classrooms to see all the students. Many of them were joking with me with noises and funny faces. They all were so excited to see us and were ready to communicate with us, but Tane did the talking for us. There was one level that had a climbing wall, play house, and mats to create structures with. All these materials were very stimulating and made me excited for items I could have in my own classroom. I just love all the texture stations and saw many opportunities to teach letters, words, numbers etc.

Overall, I absolutely loved this school and wish we had more time to visit, but we had more to do. I loved all the opportunities for these students to explore and feel materials. Tane and Sinead said that I should consider teaching the younger students because I was making friends all over the place. I just love the little kiddos. When we all were leaving, a little boy called down and said we were the prettiest girls in Spain! There were so many cool places in this school, below I will post extra pictures.

 

Our meeting with Tane and Sinead was a wrap up to our whole experience. We gave suggestions on what kinds of experiences we want future TCU students to have here in Mondragon. I loved my school and suggested that we all still have a main school, but asked if we could have seen other schools like this infant and deaf school before the last week when we want to see our kids for the last time. In addition, we all talked about how all students have struggles with the language barrier and that's what makes this experience so impactful for all involved. As a group, we talked about the special education school and saw a video. I wish we had more time here so we could all visit each other's school for lessons. I also suggested that us TCU students should have had lessons on Basque so I could say more than just hi, bye, and thank you to my students. Everyone agreed and hopefully that will happen in the future. Overall, I highly suggest any TCU student to come to Mondragon/Basque Country to learn about their education system and fall in love with the beauty of the mountains.

Until next post,
Jillian