‘why can’t i have my life back?’: in puerto rico, living and learning in the dark - smart board for home

Samaso, Puerto Rico-
17-1 warm morningyear-
Old Neda Ortiz Torres wakes up in a tent outside her moldand mosquito-infested house.
She went in and walked through the living room where school portraits and academic medals were still hanging.
Wearing dark school uniforms and Converse sneakers, she relies on her mobile phone to shine.
Then it was delivered to the bus stop-
The remains and remains of the past, and the Crossroads scribbled by a desperate neighbor with white paint. O. S.
Melon/rich, neccesitamos "(
"We need water/food ")—
Go to a high school that is still struggling to cope with intermittent power outages and water outages. And her 7-year-
September, Hurricane Maria hit, brother Julio suffered heavy losses
Clothing and homework, books and anime drawings from Neida, then, the days and days of the school after the flood receded.
Julio did not return to the classroom until the end of October, and Neida was also in classNovember.
They are lucky.
In other parts of the island, children who disappeared for nearly three months did not return until December.
Even so, things are not normal.
After the storm, Neda's English teacher left the island and was not replaced for weeks.
Julio's school still has no power.
"Why can't I get my life back? " Neida asked.
Hurricane Maria destroyed one of the largest and poorest school systems in the United States, with about 347,000 students in the region and almost all of them eligible for free meals.
Even now, the storm is holding this day back. to-
The daily operation of the school.
When classes resume after the winter vacation, the island's education department has decided to close 21 schools because of school damage or a decrease in enrollment.
Of the 1,110 companies still open, almost one
The third one has no power.
More than 25,000 students fled the island.
Many people have no parents.
Seek more stable education on the US mainland.
Nearly 200 educators joined them, adding to the shortage of teachers and leaving dozens of students unattended during part of school day.
Teachers have a hard time getting the basic resources they need to get the job done and when the cafeteria runs out, they pay for their own food and also pay for projectors and air conditioners.
"It is unjust," said Ada Dias, chairman of a teacher's union in Puerto Rico.
"We want to give [children]
The best, but this is impossible.
The floods that swept the inner Da and Julio's family flooded Julio's school --
Escoola Agapito Lopez Flores, a block concrete building sandwiched between the lake and the coast.
After the storm, teachers on the island were called to the school to clean up mud and debris and carry out repairs.
Some people gathered at Julio's school and organized a pair of out-of-
Factory staff, firefighters and National Guard.
Kindergarten teacher Sonia Basquez cried when she first opened the door --Floor classroom.
Educational toys, books, worksheets-
A teacher has accumulated all the difficulties and endings in class for more than 20 years. were ruined.
Mold has begun to sprout and rust is eroding the legs of the small chair and table in her room.
"My classroom was destroyed," said Basquez . ".
Only when she tries to track down the students does she start to understand the real number of people.
When the parents appear at the school and ask when the school will reopen, she will take a sigh of relief and take a note next to the children's name --
They're coming back.
The news that the others arrived was that they planned to leave the Storm
Destroyed Island
Finally, eight of her 22 students traveled to the continental United States and five others ended elsewhere on the island. It was a heart-
Teachers and principals throughout Puerto Rico have repeatedly practiced in pain.
Danielle quinies, principal of a high school in Rio Grande City, said the students poured into her office and lamented their plans to leave the island.
A student came here with "tears falling from his face.
"She doesn't want to go," said quinnez.
Schools without power, such as Escuela Agapito Lopez Flores, marked the beginning of the day when the teacher rang the bell --
A relic that has to be resurrected because the electronic clock system still cannot operate.
Puerto Rico is the region with the longest power outage in modern America. S.
History, all aspects of school day are affected by the campus without power.
Administrators hand-draft official documents in the dark office, and students gather near windows so they can read it effortlessly.
For teachers on the continental United States, some regions even offer laptops and tablets to their youngest students to carry out school Day activities without basic technology --
Even the overhead lights
Seems incredible.
Schools should teach students how to use technology in daily life
How to navigate and conduct research on the Internet, how to write blog articles and emails, and how to judge good sources of information from bad information.
Textbooks and quizzes have been migrated online.
Of the schools where hundreds of lights are still off, none of this will happen.
Computers and projectors in school are useless.
In order to print the worksheet, the teacher shipped the computer and printer to the nearby Burger King --
One of the few attractions of power and WiFi.
In the dimly lit classroom of Julio, doors and windows must be kept open in order to be in the sun and air --
But noise and mosquitoes can also invade.
His teacher, Sonya Rosario, asked the class about what they had done during the holidays.
One girl lamented that during the three kings holiday this year, she was given less gifts than she had received in the previous year.
Rosario gently replied: "In this crisis, when we have no electricity, the most important thing is how much love we have in our family.
"The power outage means Rosario can no longer use her projector, so she uses the poster board when she tells the story of a boy taking a train model, and then puts the children around a group
Charged laptop for watching video.
Kindergarten teacher Vazquez had to completely change the way she taught the school's youngest students.
Her day usually includes songs and videos.
Research shows that 5-year-
Older people learn best when the course involves multiple senses.
Before the storm, she often used the smart motherboard --
Projection screen with touch function
Screen sensitivity-
Keep the students busy.
One day in January, when she taught a class about the family in a dark classroom, she drew the outline of the family members and asked the students to tape them on expensive equipment.
For many students, trauma also complicates the school, and they become fearful and difficult to concentrate when it rains.
The teachers have turned to the head of the storm
On: Some people are teaching the science behind the hurricane, and a high school in Rio Grande assigns students to use their first-hand knowledge to write a guide On recovery from natural disasters.
Even for young students, the teacher cannot ignore the storm.
"When it rains, they will worry about the flooding of schools," said Basquez . ".
"You have to calm them down.
"In many schools, students wander around the yard because they don't have teachers --
No replacement.
For some subjects.
Before Hurricane Maria, it was a growing problem, with schools on the continental United States turning to the island to find bilingual educators for difficult studentsto-fill English-language-
The position of learners, attracting them to leave with a higher salary.
At Rio Grande High School, about 30 minutes from San Juan, there are two special schools
The education teacher has left, which means there is only one serving 90 students.
Only 30 people were served.
So other people who are eligible for special events
Education services
Such as extra tutoring-go without.
Vivian Toledo taught a class at school to help students explore the possibilities of work.
There is an urgent need for people on the island to stay and rebuild, and educators want their classes to prepare students to stay, rather than joining thousands of Puerto Ricans who have to find opportunities elsewhere.
Before the hurricane, Toledo's students searched the internet for recruitment ads, but without electricity, her students sat in front of a dim monitor and cut off ads from the newspaper.
"What is the labor demand in Puerto Rico after Maria?
Toledo asked the class.
Her goal is to help them imagine life on the island and learn accordingly.
"Of course, I want them to stay," Toledo said . ".
On an Island suffering from natural disasters and long-term disasters.
The long-term financial crisis, the risk of the school is very large.
Those who have lost a large number of students are worried that they may be closed.
Last week, the government confirmed these concerns.
Ricardo Rosello announced that his goal is to close more than 300 schools, as the number of students enrolled in the coming academic year is expected to drop by 10%.
Many of the students who left arrived in Florida, the center of Puerto Rico's exodus.
In recent months, schools in Orlando have recruited nearly 3,000 students from the island.
So many young people landed in the city of Central Florida that the school district sent staff to the airport to recruit students and recruit teachers who left the island.
Oxzin castcast rodeitz, 16year-
The old man from Lin Kong was one of those who made a painful decision to leave his mother and stepfather and live in Orlando with his father and go to school there.
"Professionals think I will get a good education," Oxzuen said . ".
"The downside is my family, my friends, my roots in Puerto Rico.
"He, like many in Florida, has a perfect apartment that is sealed in hot tropical weather.
He attended Colonial High School, which enrolled at least 100 displaced Puerto Rican students.
The huge School is several times as many as the one he attended in Puerto Rico, and there are other differences: the classroom is equipped with the latest technology and each student has a laptop
No one is worried about a power outage.
Oxford University seniors have been admitted to a community University in Florida.
For those who remain in Puerto Rico, the future seems to be even more bleak.
Neda, who wants to become a gynecologist, is worried about how she will be in the college entrance examination in February.
She is determined to maintain her academic position, but it will take 60 hours of volunteer work.
It was a difficult prospect when she had to rush to finish her homework before the sun went down.
Irene Jimenez contributed to the report.