In June of 2015, I was privileged to join my wife and several other swim school owners on a service trip to the island of Roatan, in Honduras. The purpose of the trip was to provide much-needed toys & supplies to some of the public schools there, and to raise physical fitness awareness.

Of the nearly fifty swim school owners, instructors and family members that made up our group, I was the only school teacher, therefore, I viewed the experience through a different lens than the others. I also made several connections with the teachers and was able to observe one do an outstanding job of teaching 1-digit subtraction. Watch the video below and you will be as equally impressed. The surprise for me was learning later that the class was 4th grade (in the U.S. this topic is taught in 2nd).

Video Link

My Guest Lesson

I also had a unique opportunity to teach a brief high school math lesson. I could see on the board that the lesson was about the surface area of a sphere. The teacher had written the formula A = 4πr² and there was an example showing how to calculate the area given the radius. I saw the students doing guided practice in their notebooks. The teacher learned that I also taught math and offered to have me show something on the board. From her limited English, the teacher translated for me. I kept it simple, checking for understanding via head nods after each step… I drew a sphere, then a hemisphere, then the Great Circle. I asked how many of these circles would it take to cover the surface of the sphere. We took a finger vote. Most of the class claimed “2.” I claimed that the teacher already showed them… in the formula … 4 circles (πr²). I then applauded the teacher for knowing that. (You can see me building her up to her students, in the picture below. They all applauded her.)

 

Schools in Roatan

25% of all Roatan children do not have the means to attend to school. Of those that do, 30% do not continue beyond the 6th grade. This will change as the economy improves. Thirty years ago, there was no electricity and no paved roads on the island. Progress on Roatan has a strong upward trajectory that can be accelerated with a little bit of help.

Our 2015 Visit

We visited six schools:

• Victor Stanley West End School
• Froylan Turcios School
• Escuela Juan Lindo
• Garby Nelson
  
• Thomas McField
• Isidro Sabio

We provided donations from the swim school owners and from the clients of the schools.The outpouring of generousity was amazing. The supplies ranged from desks to soccer balls to toothbrushes to backpacks.

Another intention of the trip was to provide physical fitness awareness. The kids had a great deal of fun with both the new exercises and the activities.

Many of the students greeted us warmly. We learned that many kids had not seen pictures of themselves, so they got a kick out of us showing them their images on our phones.

 

The trip ended with the Swim Celebration on the beach at Half Moon Bay in the West End. I was surprised on an island how children didn’t know how to float. The lessons were readily accepted, as was the swimming gear (swim suits, intertubes and goggles). As you can see, my wife fell in love with the Honduran children.

Our group will be returning to the amazing land and people of Roatan in the summer of 2017.