Returning to BECA in a new role

I was originally a year long volunteer with BECA as a second grade teacher in 2018-2019. This being my first summer with no prior commitments I decided to return to BECA as a summer camp counselor and even though I wasn't working directly with my old students I would use the time to visit with my students families instead. I helped assist in the 3rd to 4th grade incoming students as I currently teach 4th grade. It was a great experience because I still got to work with my former students younger siblings and meet some new families as well. I was also able to reconnect with coworkers at the school or still in the community. The program was very thorough in designing a half day structure of English immersion skills with the camp theme being the Olympics. For the 5th to 6th grade students this meant more project based learning where they were able to use their English skills to study different themes around the olympics such as learning new countries or exploring characteristics such as perseverance and hope. For the 3rd to 4th grade students who were still developing their English abilities this meant reviewing skills they learned throughout the year but encouraging more English use. Students played games where they were taught commonly used phrases in school and were given the opportunity to practice and then we would build on them to more advanced conversation. The younger class also worked on the project based learning by making country flags and preforming a readers theatre presentation for the end of camp. All of these activities were supported by BECA staff and Volunteer collaboration. In between the two weeks of camp the group went on a bonding trip to the Copan ruins to learn more about the Honduran culture.
I stayed an extra week to work on the Pasitos to Literacy program, a program to help emergent readers and their families build literacy skills at home in both English and Spanish. This program was also half day and included working with preschool to 2nd grade students and their parents. It was so fun to work with this wide age range of students through out the program. Overall a great service learning program that incorporated the need for english immersion of students and building a connection to the school and their long term collaboration with BECA's year long teaching program but also learning about the culture and getting to build lasting relationships with the community members.