“Friends…like teachers affect the future!

“A life is not important, except the impact it has on other lives…”  by Jackie Robinson

As Angela says…”school is in full swing!” It is a time of joy for us “Friends” when the Learning Center is in session. We are excited when the young folks of Copey are in school busy learning.

Maria, the new volunteer, is already busy helping the students learn their ABCs. If I am not mistaken, at least one of the students pictured is an AGB Scholarship recipient. Wonderful!

The Learning Center has provided me a movie version of their instruction to share with you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpmwmN9XnfNejc4akxkNDJMdkk/view?usp=drive_web.

Click on the link above, then click on the arrow on the picture that comes up and wait about ten seconds for the link to load. It works for me and should work for you. You will be very pleased to see this short tape of the students learning their alphabet and on their way to learning to speak, read, and write English. I have mentioned before how happy these students always seem to be. The joy of learning, which many of you current and past teachers can easily relate to, is priceless. When students are excited and happy about what is going on in the classroom setting, learning really takes place. I have seen a lot of photos from the Learning Center and never do I see students who appear to be unpleasant. They are some great looking students and I look forward to meeting many of them one day.

I am adding another photo of students working on learning their numbers in English. I invite any of the “Friends” to travel to Costa Rica and see first hand the energy and excitement both staff and students have for education. In a future Post, I will try to highlight two of the volunteers whom I think come from the US.

Other News

Lisa Baldwin is one of our biggest supporters and “Friend of Copey”. She has been our leader in the Pen Pal Program. We all want to congratulate her for the new teaching assignment she now has. She will be leaving her classroom at High Point Elementary School in Bristol, Virginia, to become the traveling music teacher for five schools in her district.

She is elated to have this opportunity to work with kids through music full time. As you know, Lisa is an accomplished singer and composer along with her husband Dave. This must be a dream come true for Lisa as she will now have the opportunity to combine her passion for teaching and her passion for music. We hope she will continue to find the time to work with the Pen Pal Program and find ways to include the students at the Learning Center with her music and students. For more information about Lisa Baldwin and husband Dave, check out http://www.baldwinhaney.com/?page_id=33

NASCAR UPDATE

Jeff Gordon started today with serious aspirations of winning at the Indy Track. He has five wins at this track, the most among the NASCAR drivers. Before halfway through the race, he was unfortunately involved in a fender bender that resulted in the loss of any hopes Jeff had of winning today’s race. As the race winds down, he currently holds on to next to last place. This is a big disappointment for him and of course his fans. We are now worried about him having any chance of making it into the final cut for the championship later in the year. We just keep hoping for better days….!