From Island Boy to Professor: An Educational Journey

By Alberto Luis August

This book captures the educational journey of a humble boy who once run around on an island and worked his way up to running around on university campuses as a professor. It illustrates the many challenges as a student, as a teacher, and in an educational system with traditional values. It tracks his elementary life, high school life, university life, then his professional life in education. After seeing a system filled with educational limitations, he decided to establish a school to promote child friendly practices and to encourage a small society to change educational practice to that of classrooms conducive to learning. Going through this process alone posted many challenges, but he was very successful. After the success of establishing a school with contemporary practices, far from the norm, the next challenge was to keep the school open. This book serves as motivation to any student, teacher, or leader of education. After reading, one will be inspired to strive to overcome any challenges in education that one may face.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796073836

Alberto Luis August

Dr. Alberto Luis August is an assistant professor and coordinator of the Master of Education programme in the Education Department with the School of Education at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. He is the founder of La Isla Cariñosa Academy, a preschool and elementary school on Caye Caulker in Belize, and held the roles as principal and manager. For 3 years, he served as the coordinator and dean of the School of Education at Galen University where he successfully re-launched a Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education programme for principals and teachers. For 4 years, he carried out the role of assistant professor and the national coordinator for the teacher internship programme at the University of Belize. He holds a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership and a Master Degree in Secondary Education from the University of North Florida. He has 25+ years of teaching-learning experience at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. He conducted extended research in the field of early childhood education and development, teacher development, and facilitated principals’ and teachers’ workshops across Belize, as well as published and presented at conferences and seminars advocating for children of all ages. His passion is to develop teachers and school leaders to be creative and critical thinkers as education evolves into the new age of technology. He pledges to work with teachers and school leaders to be skilled educators using innovative teaching and learning strategies, to guide them to be caring individuals in a child friendly environment, and at the same time, encourages them to embrace the ever changing world with the consideration of sustainable development of a nation. His passion is teaching and he hopes to change his community and by extension his country to be a positive place for Belizeans and all to enjoy.

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Copyright © 2019 by Alberto Luis August.

Library of Congress Control Number:   PENDING

ISBN:              Hardcover              978-1-7960-7382-9

                        Softcover                978-1-7960-7381-2

                        eBook                     978-1-7960-7383-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 11/21/2019

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1     Primary School Years

Chapter 2     High School Years

Chapter 3     Junior College Years

Chapter 4     Teaching Baptism

Chapter 5     Working with Challenging Students

Chapter 6     Master’s Degree Programme

Chapter 7     Life with Sport

Chapter 8     International Doctoral Student

Chapter 9     Surviving and Living as a Doctoral Student

Chapter 10   Data Collection in Belize

Chapter 11   Doctoral Graduation

Chapter 12   Service to Belize Commencement

Chapter 13   Life at a Public University

Chapter 14   Private University Adventure

Chapter 15   Journey to Establish a Quality School

Chapter 16   LICA: A Challenging First Year

Chapter 17   Return to the Classroom at LICA

Chapter 18   Strengthening LICA

About the Author

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wonderful daughter, Kalina Xiania August. She is my life, my breath of fresh air, my energy booster, and my hero. Even though she is only nine years old, she has saved my life in so many ways. She is a very intelligent, kind, and sweet child. I love her with all my brain. I want to wish her the very best in life and to be whatever she wants to be. I also want her to know that she will always have my complete support until I take my last breath.

I love you Nena.

Preface

The content of this book provides my life through my educational journey. It is my sole thoughts, experiences, perceptions, and opinions during my life as an educator and influenced by no other. It is not based on research or any empirical study. I did not conduct interviews with any person for any ideas. Some of the inserts are from correspondences received during my journey as an educator. It highlights my personal philosophy and impression of education, my experiences, and my practices as an educator. That is my disclaimer.

Since I first stepped in the classroom back in 1992, I encourage children to have a voice in the classroom. It is our duty as educator to guide their voice to be powerful, yet, charismatic. As educators, it is our obligation to assist parents with ideas to discipline children and to ensure that we keep the bridge between the home and the school intact. As educational leaders, we are to practice instructional leadership and to be servants to our teachers and the children in our care. I have a simple formula to make the social environment of the school a positive one. It starts with the leader making the teachers happy. If teachers are happy, they will deliver good lessons and make children happy. If children are happy, they go home expressing to parents that they had a good time and parents become happy. If parents are happy, they report to principal that the school is doing a great job and the happiness returns to the principal. The cycle continues.

I charted my struggles from my elementary years to the university and securing the highest degree in education. Thereafter, I presented my services as a servant for teachers and working with them to be great teachers. I described myself as a champion for children. Teachers play the most important role in educating children in the formal education setting. Since education builds a nation and teachers are the reason for all other careers, they must be valued and treated with the utmost respect. In this book, you will note the appreciation I expressed to all those who positively influenced my life. I presented those who supported my journey. You will also read of the utmost disrespect by few. These minds are unhealthy for a developing society, and I sometimes wonder if they have a conscience to reflect on their words and actions. These people are living in our society and contributing, with their thoughtless actions, to a broken system, in the home setting, in the educational arena, and in the wider society.

I carry on since my ultimate goal and mission is to share a significant contribution to make Belize a better place. My campaign for a better country will continue so long as I step foot on Belizean soil.

My success as an educator and educational leader is due to several persons. My father and mother taught me the value of hard work. My high school teachers such as Ms. Prince, Mrs. Esquivel, Ms. Felix, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Pacheco, and Mr. Bennett taught me to love learning. My college teachers such as Mr. Green, Mrs. Rosado, Ms. Eiley, Ms. Robateau, Mr. Middleton, and Mrs. Pasos taught me to love teaching. My great friends including Orlando, Eleanor, Maria, Shane, Malcom, Robert, Joseph, Carmen R., Sharmayne, Carmen S., Iris, Apo, Lenny, Miriam B., Bertha, Miriam C., Wayne, Derrick, and Rosita taught me to enjoy learning. My university professors namely Dr. Pritchy Smith, Dr. Katherine Kasten, Dr. Otilia Salmon, Dr. Janice Wood, Dr. Larry Daniel, Dr. Betty Bennett, Dr. Paul Eggan, Dr. Madeline Cosgrove, Dr. Cheryl Fountain, Dr. Afesha Adams, Dr. John Kemppainen, and Dr. Bronwyn McLemore taught me the art of leadership and professionalism. My colleagues specifically Dr. Priscilla Lopez, Mr. Leonardo Pott, Dr. Rosemarie Modera, Dr. June Young, Ms. Carolyn Williams, Ms. Ethnilda Paulino, Ms. Elma Arzu, Mr. Eulalio Torres, Mr. Osmond Martinez, Ms. Golda Swift, Ms. Luciola Rosado, Mr. Enrique Barrera, Ms. Teresita Levy, Ms. Enelda Rosado, Ms. Maria Roches, Ms. Maria Scott-Young, and Dr. Louis Zabaneh gave me the passion to never stop contributing to make the educational system in Belize a better one.

All these persons and more contributed in some significant way to make me the person that I am today and I am eternally grateful to each of them. Some names in my autobiography remained because they made a positive impact in my life and I needed to share my appreciation. I excluded some names simply to keep the peace and to give those persons a content mind.

The content of this book took me five year to write. This is a testimony to all and especially to educators, never give up on your dreams. Set your expectations very high. Let no one bring you down. I dedicate it to all the children of Belize. I hope that in the very near future, all our Belizean children will be receiving a high quality education from caring and wonderful teachers in a community of supportive parents and stakeholders. Thank you and Be Nice.

Chapter One

Primary School Years

Caye Caulker is located twenty-six miles away from mainland Belize City in the country of Belize. This small island is four miles long and about one mile wide at the widest point. The second largest living Barrier Reef in the world is only about one mile to the east. With the cool sea breeze blowing on this tropical island paradise, the glittery emerald Caribbean Sea makes a perfect place for my childhood years.

I lived on the middle street about two hundred yards from my primary school. My playground was the sandy streets, sandy beach, and especially my uncle’s hotel property called Tom’s Hotel.

I was an average student who attended the public school on the island. I clearly remember my first day of infant one. I went to school, put down my bag outside, and lost my bag. I cannot remember how I got it back, but that was the first clue that told me that I was not the most intelligent human.

My mom was a housewife and my dad was a fisherman. We lived in a little wooden house, very humble. All our beds were in one little area. Our door was a curtain. My mother reminded me on a daily basis to do my homework and to study. I preferred running to the beach, burying my feet in the hot, white sand, and playing all sorts of games with my cousins. Games such as cantaro (That was a game with a ball and after being caught, we were freed after someone sneaked to kick the ball from the catcher.), steal the bacon, top, marbles, hop skotch, and police and prisoner were very popular. Even during our 11:30am to 1pm lunch break, I used to run to my uncle’s dock, fish a little, or swim a little, go home for lunch, then return to school. It was a very fun childhood.

Most of my primary school days were gratifying. Apart from the usual academic life, our early mornings, breaks, and afterschool activities were filled with many, many exciting games. We played our version of baseball with a piece of stick and a tennis ball and we called the game bat. I had a great hand and could throw a ball at someone or a base and hit it on the spot. With that ball in my hand, no one dared to move. We played football on the sandy field behind the school building. I played well, but was not the best player. One of my classmates had a great left foot and could curve the ball from the corner spot directly into the goal posts. We played chase under the building in the soft brown sand. It was not my favourite game unless we were playing the game called cantaro. We indulged in playing marbles and top on the street in front of the church. I had a very mean top. It could break a top in two and the boys were very afraid of my toy. Two of the boys in my class were also very good at dancing their tops and hitting tops to leave the mark of their galvanized nail in someone else’s top.

Sometimes the boys, and girls, were mean. At the age of nine, I was badly burned on a Christmas Day when I was helping to light a grill for a group of British soldiers. It was a cool morning and I was very excited to help. We started to light the grill. The fire was fine, but then it extinguished. A sponge was soaked in a container of gasoline. It was sprinkled on the glow in the coconut husk. I was looking from behind. Suddenly, the sponge ignited. The sponge was tossed behind. The flaming soaked sponge fell on my head. My head blazed with flame, burning my skull. My aunt said she heard me screaming and ran out of uncle’s house. I was thrown to the ground and sand was used to extinguish the flame. Moments later, my dad carried me to his boat, The Miracle, and took me to Belize City.

My aunt drove me to my private doctor who took care of me at his home office. I woke up at my aunt’s home in Belize City and saw the scars on my face, my hair burned away, and my wrinkled ear. All my friends now called me a range of names about my burned right ear. I was teased on a daily basis. At that time, I had no idea about the concept of bullying. Every day at school was a torturing day. As a child, I did everything I could to make my right ear back to normal, but failed at all attempts. Every day after school, I remembered massaging it for hours hoping it would go back to normal, but of no avail. I grew my hair long to cover my ear. I attended my evangelical church every Sunday and prayed for a miracle, but it never happened. I cried many nights because of the bullying. I became isolated and profoundly withdrawn in my little world. In my mind, I did not let it affect my academic goals. Someday, I was going to show them that I would be a great person. I wanted to be a lawyer from a very young age and I focused on my goal as an introvert.

In the classroom, we sat in pairs behind a wooden desk and a bench. It was about twenty-six students, but three different class levels together, standard four, standard five, and standard six with one teacher, the principal. She was strict. She stood up front, wrote notes on the chalkboard, and we had to write and study. Every week, we would get a list of twenty spelling words to study. Since I did not like studying, I devised a strategy to copy my spelling words during every test by imprinting them on my folder sheet the night before. I could see the words clearly as the teacher called them off her list. Eventually, I started studying since I wanted to stop cheating.

My teacher, although strict, created some excitement. In the afternoons, she would take us outside on the school’s veranda to read us a story. My favourite storybook was Charlotte’s Web. I was not a good reader, but I enjoyed listening to her read in the cool tropical breeze. I said to myself, Someday I will be able to read just like her.

During the weekends, I went to Belize City to have my cousin coach me for the national exam. He taught me a few new concepts and a few strategies to take an examination especially since I was not a good reader.

The day for the national exam was the most nervous day in my life. We went to Belize City to sit the exam at one of the all girls’ high school.