Teaching at Tumul K'in

As most of you know from previous posts and/or conversations with me, I’m living and working at a residential Maya high school in the rural Toledo district called Tumul K’in Center of Learning. My dissertation questions are archaeological (what was the nature of ancient Maya household identity in southern Belize and if it changed over time; how integrated were rural households with broader regional social and political systems) but the project is being carried out as part of the 3^rd year Maya history class at Tumul K’in. Their semester started at the end of January.

The school has been very accommodating and supportive of this class – they emphasize experiential learning so they are excited about a hands-on history class. I had come up with a syllabus and met with the regular history teacher (Filberto Rash) to plan our classes. Filberto is a good teacher who is interested in Maya history and archaeology, but has lacked the educational resources to really explore it. We designed the class schedule keeping in mind that we would be doing fieldwork later on in the semester, so it starts first thing in the morning – around here that means 6:45am -12:30pm. Being in the classroom for that long is daunting, but generally we didn’t start until just after 7, and stopped whenever we were done.

We have five boys in the class who are bright and engaging. They are slightly rambunctious and they play a mean marimba (I’ll post videos eventually!). To start out we did an activity to gauge their knowledge and interest in archaeology – first they had to write down what they already knew about the ancient Maya, and then what they wanted to know. We did the same thing with archaeology.

They knew a little bit about the ancient Maya, that they built temples, and that they lived in Belize. They wanted to know more about where the Maya came from; that was the biggest question, which I thought was interesting. They also wanted to know about their religion.

Their answers about archaeology were interesting. I should first say that archaeology is everywhere in Belize. Not only is it a draw for tourists, but archaeological sites and artifacts are ubiquitous. In southern Belize there are small mounds (the remains of ancient buildings) on nearly every hilltop. Farmers dig artifacts out of fields as they plow, anyone who explores a cave will likely see pots sherds, if not entire pots. Looting of ancient sites is very common. The students have grown up in Toledo and have visited archaeological sites before. And yet, when I asked them what archaeology was, they couldn’t tell me. This could be because they didn’t know the exact definition. I was surprised for all the reasons I just mentioned – it’s everywhere in this country. Even though the education system doesn’t emphasize archaeology specifically, I assumed a general definition would have come up at some point.

Like I said, these are bright kids that are like sponges for interesting information. We are working by time period, starting with the people of the Americas and the Popol Vuh, to answer the question of where the Maya came from. I’m teaching from powerpoints and using a lot of videos and readings. They love the pictures and movies of course, though the readings are more difficult for them. While education is valued in Belize, schools are under-funded and resources are slim, especially in rural areas. Books and school supplies are expensive and rural families don’t have them lying around the house like most Americans do. Consequently, my students haven’t been encouraged to read or study in an intensive way. So, we do short readings and talk about them extensively in class – I have them underline words they don’t know, and that sparks good discussions. I’m trying to keep it as straightforward as possible so they don’t get overwhelmed by too much information. The glossary of terms I gave them is helping with that, I think.

One of the best parts of teaching the class has been working with Filberto. He is good at explaining things to the students when they don’t understand me, and he asks really good questions. His questions are fantastic because the students learn from the discussions the two of us have; it also models for the students how to be a successful learner. Filberto and I were making copies the other day of an academic article on household archaeology in northern Belize – I was having them read just part of it, but he wanted to read the rest because he thought it was so interesting. The class is serving as teacher training for his future classes, which I’m really happy with.

Part of the challenge with the class is teaching a balance of culture history and methods, since they will be in the field with me eventually. I decided to start by talking about how you find archaeological sites in the first place, and how archaeologists do research. After explaining about archaeological survey, their homework was to look up three terms: research, evidence, and hypothesis. The next class we discussed those terms and I told them to formulate a hypothesis about where to find archaeological sites around Tumul K’in if the settlement pattern to the north was that sites were built on hilltops. Sort of an obvious question, but they got it, and off we went to explore the hilltops surrounding Tumul K’in’s campus. That was a fun day – they are handy with machetes so we went on an hour-long hike up and down a couple hills. We didn’t find anything, but they told me about other hills where they had seen metate fragments (grinding stones for corn and cacao).

Survey!

We also talked about maps. I have topo maps of Toledo, so we did a map exercise and then systematically surveyed part of the campus. They flagged all the cultural material they saw and then made sketch maps of some of the buildings. Also a fun day!

Surveying and mapping the campus

We’ve had them on site with us twice now, and they are really excited to get to work. Now that I’m doing more fieldwork, I can see it will be hard to balance the classroom side of things. We’re nowhere near done reading about the ancient Maya (we’re barely through the Classic period!) but it’s clear that they prefer to be outside being active – I can’t blame them but they still need to do coursework. I’m considering having discussions of the readings at the site early in the morning before we start fieldwork.

If any teachers are reading, please share your thoughts on out-of-the-box teaching strategies. Especially how to get them to read more. I have this young adult novel about cultural heritage and archaeology and I really want them to read the whole thing, but I’m not sure they will because it will be too much reading.

Pictures are coming soon!