Success for “Viva La Tortuga!”

Jayna, the teacher for the Bridge to English Class, placed the books on the tables and as the students began filtering in, they gravitated to the books. They were obviously engaged and excited. The energy in the room was palpable.

It was gratifying to see the books I had purchased for them being enjoyed. Their facial expressions and excited voices were like a paycheck for me. As a former middle and high school English teacher and elementary teacher, my heart was bursting with happiness watching them consume the books.

Soon it was time to get their attention and start the lesson. Jayna did a terrific job of imparting the main ideas and using the information I’d gathered for this purpose. Her enthusiasm was part of the reason I was over the moon with happiness about the lesson. She had a great lesson plan and delivered it with ease. The students were so excited and engaged. What teacher wouldn’t have been pleased?

Teach the kids to love the ocean and its animals, especially my favorite sea creature, the tortuga, and you will have a group of adults who protect the ocean environment and pass along their knowledge and love for it to their own children someday.

The medusa (jellyfish) is a favorite food of the sea turtle. They mistake plastic bags in the ocean for the jellyfish and consume them to their demise. Upon their death, there are no sea creatures examined that don’t have a lot of plastic in their stomachs. Micro plastics are some of the worst. Let’s do something about this. Together we can clean up the oceans.

The little girl in green above (Mayra) got up and came to me with a big hug. She said, “Thank you, Susan.” Oh my! My heart melted. How sweet.

The coloring books are a great opportunity to get the students involved. I put them together as bilingual, as these children are learning English poco a poco (little by little), thanks to The Palapa Learning Center in Todos Santos.

I made a set of different educational books for the older kids and they will be using them in their classes soon. I can’t wait. Jayna and I talked about having the older kids work with the younger ones too. If you can teach about a subject, it means you understand and learned it yourself. What better way to practice your skills and share your knowledge?

I brought the olive ridley sea turtle carapace that I had found on the beach about a year ago. Each child took turns touching and examining it. They were excited to have it placed on their own backs and pretend they were a sea turtle. Their little necks fit the spot where the turtle head would have been.

While it was sad that someone had slaughtered the turtle and left the shell (carapace) on the beach, I was able to use it for a good cause. When the students were labeling the parts of the turtle in English and Spanish from the coloring book, I walked around and let them see close up the scutes on the carapace, making it more meaningful and most likely memorable for them.

At the end of the fun-packed lesson, each student was allowed to take their book home. An added bonus: the colored pencils too. Their eyes got so big with delight when they learned they got to take those things home. “Share them with your family,” Jayna told them. I hope they do.