Ms Beth Anderson Molde
Reflections from the 2009 Toyota International Teacher Program to Costa Rica
Anderson-Molde, front, takes part in a service project to build a pedestrian bridge in Monteverde.
Participation in the Toyota International Teacher Program has motivated and enhanced my teaching about the environmental issues. Thus, it also influences my student and their families’ lives. After returning from Costa Rica with my authentic experiences, photos, and souvenirs, I was able to teach my students about the area, culture, and the environmental issues that plague this area. My students fell in love with my sloth pictures. They asked questions, research sloths, wrote stories about sloths, made travel brochures, and drew pictures of sloths. Through this newfound knowledge about a rainforest animal, I was able to connect the relevancy of preserving the environment, so their children could also observe sloths in Costa Rica.
After the students’ read a story on how the Children’s Eternal Rainforest/Bosque Eterno de Los Niños (B.E.N.) was formed, my students wanted to do something to help save the sloths. My students decided that they wanted to sell root beer floats for one dollar apiece. Students in my social studies classes made posters, contacted the newspaper, were interviewed on the local radio station, asked their parents for assistance, and invited everyone in town they saw, to help save the rainforests. For every roof beer float sold, they would be able to purchase one square meter of rainforest. My students proudly donated $302.00 to B.E.N. to purchase 302 square meters of rainforest in Costa Rica. Our classroom theme was, “Everyone can do something, and those some things add up to BIG THINGS!”