Education Faculty News: Dr. Ellen Skilton-Sylvester

February 20, 2012 • Susan Gettlin

On sabbatical in 2011-12, Dr. Skilton-Sylvester is living in Monteverde in a cloud forest in Costa Rica this year exploring language learning first hand.  In addition to her own Spanish classes and daily cross-cultural and multilingual interactions (in taxis, grocery stores, and coffee shops), she is volunteering at the bilingual Cloud Forest School where her daughters are in fourth grade.

During the current semester, she is also supervising Amanda McGirr ('12) who is student teaching in a kindergarten classroom at the school.  Last Friday, while Amanda successfully orchestrated calendar time, show-and-tell and learning centers with a room full of five and six year olds, Dr. Skilton-Sylvester was her assistant.  As Costa Ricans like to say, "Pura Vida!" (It’s all good!). The Cloud Forest School is now posting job openings. More information can be found at http://cloudforestschool.org/?page_id=43.

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