Diamond Lake teacher to bring the tropics to Mundelein
Without question, second-grade teacher Kati VanZeeland will enjoy the beaches, active volcanoes and rain forests filled with tropical wildlife in Costa Rica.
But the Mundelein resident and English Language Learners teacher at Diamond Lake School isn't going on vacation. Instead, her departure on Wednesday, Jan. 7 marks the beginning of a yearlong adventure of a different sort.
She has secured a leave of absence and will be teaching English to kids from kindergarten through fifth grade at a bilingual school in Zeta Trece, home to a high migrant population.
She studied in the Dominican Republic for four months in 2002 through a University of Illinois program, and spent a week in Costa Rica in July 2007 painting buildings for a church project. But that's the extent of the Mundelein native's world travel.
"As it approaches, I'm getting a lot more anxious but excited as well," said VanZeeland, who has taught at the Mundelein school for four years. She also attended the school as a student.
The ELL program in Diamond Lake District 76 is taught in English to students whose first language at home is not English. Versed but not fluent in Spanish, VanZeeland says she had a dream of teaching abroad and began looking for opportunities on the Internet.
She says she came upon a lot of opportunities for paid employment but was seeking a volunteer effort. She connected with World Teach of Harvard University's Center for International Development last spring.
"They're all over the world," VanZeeland said.
She had considered Africa but that was for a high school program.
"This program was more elementary-based, which is my area of expertise," she said. "All things considered, Costa Rica was the best fit."
Part of the process was writing a formal request for a leave of absence, which guarantees her job will be secure upon her return in January 2010 for approval by Supt. Roger Prosise and the school board.
Staff and administrators in Diamond Lake District 76 were supportive, VanZeeland said.
"As a result of this experience, Kati will grow as a teacher and person and will have some rich experiences to share with her students," Prosise said.
Her students were not quite sure what to make of her departure, so VanZeeland came up with a partial solution to her absence.
"I'm bringing a Webcam with me," she said. Details are to be worked out but she hopes to link live with her Diamond Lake students about once a week from Costa Rica.
"I think after telling the news to my students and seeing their disappointment and trying to ease the transition, the idea kind of came to me," she said. The local parent teacher organization donated the cost.
"I think it's a great opportunity not just for her but her current rent students at Diamond Lake to watch her down there," said Principal Jodie Benton.
"A lot of our kids may not have computers at home. It will be a great hand-on technology lesson."
VanZeeland will be living with a host family in a town called LaFortuna, which is "kind of a touristy area," she said. The school is a bilingual school that is part of a larger school.
World Teach literature describes the country as a favorite vacation spot, about the size of West Virginia with a population of about 4 million.
The country prides itself on education and has a literacy rate of 96 percent. The philosophy of Costa Rica is pura vida, or pure life.
"One thing they did emphasize was getting used to the lack of emphasis on time there. It's very different. I'm a very scheduled person so it will be an adjustment," she said.
Another Diamond Lake teacher, Laetitia Dubois, will leave this summer for six months teaching in Ecuador, also through the World Teach program.
"I feel really fortunate our district supports things like this," Benton said.