NEWS

from Durango School District 9-R

Release Date: Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

Animas Valley teacher experiences teaching in Costa Rica

Micki Rhodes, a first-grade teacher at Animas Valley, is spending her 18th year with Durango School District 9-R on sabbatical leave as a literacy coach and art teacher at Monteverde Friends School in the mountains of Costa Rica. She’s living two miles from the pristine old-growth rainforest Monteverde Biological Reserve, and she recently shared some of her photos with her Animas Valley students.

Rhodes’ home is located next to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, a large tract of land that was purchased with donations from thousands of elementary school students from around the world, including Durango School District 9-R’s Riverview Elementary School. She teaches art and is a literacy coach at the Friends School, a multicultural, bilingual Quaker school.

Most homeroom instruction is taught in English, and all students attend daily classes in their second language, either English or Spanish, depending on their native tongue. Students participate in many administrative decisions during weekly town meetings, where students discuss concerns, present them to teachers, then reach a consensus. Students also have their own discipline committee. At the end of each school day, the entire student body participates in cleaning and organizing the classroom and school grounds before going home. The students are a close-knit group with older students often caring for and playing with the younger students during lunchtime and recess. Responsibility, kindness, and caring are emphasized throughout the school year.

An exotic assortment of creatures visit Rhodes’ porch daily, including monkeys, coatis, agoutis, and grey foxes. She has also been forced to befriend many insects and reptiles, including ants that cover her floor for weeks at a time and a snake that sheds its skin every month under her sink.

To learn more about Rhodes’ experiences and follow her adventure, log onto her blog at http://creatingaconnection@blogspot.com/2007/12/quaker-school.html

To view some of Micki Rhodes’ photos log on to: http://durangoschools.org/pio/news2007_08/micki_rhodes.wmv

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