Sugar Creek educators travel to Guatemala to Give and Teach

Seven local educators left last week for a trip to share their expertise with teachers in a developing country.

The group from Sugar Creek Elementary participated in the Give and Teach Mission Trip to Guatemala. There, they will host workshops to help elementary grade teachers learn new teaching techniques.

The nonprofit Give and Teach reports Guatemalan teachers mostly use a rote memory learning style of teaching. This means students are taught memorization as the best way to learn. This style, however, doesn’t work for all students. Teachers from Fort Mill will bring their knowledge and supplies to show teachers many other methods of teaching students.

It’s a trip that Principal Michelle Gritz was really looking forward to. She said it will be particularly challenging because Guatemalan teachers don’t have access to so many advanced methods and materials.

“We help them look at what they have, what they are able to do and listen to what our ideas are and tailor it to what they are able to do, based on resources and how their schools are designed,” she said.

The group from Sugar Creek raised the $3,000 required for the trip. The money will be used to help build a home for a Guatemalan family, which is the secondary purpose of the trip. Gritz said the group will work on the home in honor of Sugar Creek Elementary. She said the work they’ll perform there is an extension of what is practiced in the classrooms and hallways of the school each day.

“Something that we as a school are very strong in is recognizing differences and celebrating differences,” Gritz said.

“We are a ‘No Place For Hate’ school so one of the things we push for is respect and kindness. Doing something like this is outside the box for us but aligns with that same mentality.”

Give and Teach uses a comprehensive approach to eliminating poverty in Guatemala. The organization not only helps improve teaching standards, and therefore the future earning potential of students, but also helps build homes, chicken coops, and stoves. Food, eye exams and water filtration systems are also programs the organization heads up. Gritz, whose mother is from South America, says it’s a cause that’s near to her heart.

“To do something worldly and globally like this extends and stretches us as teachers and educators,” Gritz said.

“To be able to go on a mission trip, to really go somewhere and instill what you do so well is very exciting and inspirational.”

This story was originally published June 27, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Sugar Creek educators travel to Guatemala to Give and Teach."