Lister Academy Costa Rica Class

Welcome

My name is Kristine Tirone. My goal is to do something I never thought I'd be able to do. Meaning, I never thought I'd even get close to having the opportunity to leave the country, or be involved with a class in this way. Setting standards for myself and working towards something is a new thing for me. I'm writing this blog to raise money to send my class to Costa Rica. Our class, as a whole, is trying to fundraise over $15,000. This will fund everything from our food, a place to stay, to our flight.

I'm getting a new understanding of what it's like to deserve what you work for. Before, I would sit back and let everyone do the work and I would take the credit. My personal struggles got in the way of my everyday functioning. My focus on education was lost to my other struggles. Not only was I not understanding the work, but I had an increasingly low work ethic. This all started to change over the summer of 2010. Bryan, my teacher, makes it known that he has an extremely low tolerance for slackers. I didn't want to disappoint him, and this motivation was new to me.

I realize as my interactions with people started to change, I started to as well. Bryan always expected nothing but good things from me, and I've given him nothing but that. I suppose if you feel a certain way or act a certain way, you become a certain way. From there it's history, ever since I've excelled in my school work and always do what I say I will. You're only as good as your word.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Research Project!

Over the first half of the school year we learned marketing and economics. The Costa Rica class learned a lot about Costa Rica, and now we're going to learn about certain things that interest us about Costa Rica. For example, my research project is going to be a little different from the others but still have the same idea. For my other classmates there project is about a comparison between NH and Costa Rica. My project is progressive education vs traditional, and the idea that it's the whole reason that this class was even possible.

Without Bryan's knowledge of progressive education the Costa Rica class would most likely not exist. My project will have to do a lot with this class in general. I want to video tape all the hands on things we do and the independence we get from this class. I want to show people what a helpful way of learning progressive education is. John Dewey is the founder of progressive education. One of his famous slogans is " Learn by Doing." For so many of us at Robert J Lister Academy, learning by doing has helped a great deal.

Costa Rica here we come, full force and ready to research. The end result for my project will hopefully look a lot like Bryan's when he went to Costa Rica. It's the video that sold all of us to join the class. To have a video of all of the class, and so everyone that's followed us and supported us can see and follow us in Costa Rica. Check out Bryan's YOUTUBE page so you can see all the videos.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

MONEYS!

Chapter 10 of "Walking with Wolf," talks alot about the different species of animals. In the Costa Rica Class theres kind of a joke with the monkeys and me. I tell everyone that once we get there I'm going on a hunt to find the cutest monkey and have it as a pet! Bryan especially tells me that , that will not happen. My class mates just let me dream.

There are four different species of monkeys in Costa Rica. The White Faced Capuchin, Howler, the Squirrel Monkey, and the Spider monkey. The monkey in this picture is a White Faced Capuchin or the (mono carablanca.) All the monkeys co- exsist with each other, and rely heavily on fruit.

The Spider monkeys are very active thoughout the day. They jump from tree to tree, and are scattered throughout the rain forrest. The Howler monkey loves to lay up in the trees and soak up the sun, they eat leaves, and all types of fruit. Howlers are called "howlers" because of the sounds that the adult males make.They howl when the troops postison is changing. White Faced Capuchin monkeys rely on fruit but heavily on insects. Some of there favorites are frogs, birds, and lizards.

Im so excited to go to Costa Rica I probably sound like a broken record. I want to climb the trees with the monkeys and live freely, Costa Rica seems like the perfect place to do that. We have made it to $11,650 and still have a few thousand to go. If you'd like to help you can check out our websites. Youtube , Blogger , and Paypal .