St. Mary's College of Maryland



		This site best viewed using Mozilla Firefox. The teaching internship in Costa Rica provides pre-service teachers an opportunity to experience living and teaching in another culture. This Web site provides much of the information you need regarding the program, logistics, and country to determine if a teaching experience in Costa Rica is right for you. Costa Rica is located in Central America and is bordered by Nicaragua, the Caribbean Sea, Panama, and the Pacific Ocean. The country offers a tropical climate, beautiful beaches, a variety of wildlife, great food, kind people and a simple way of life. Top
		Program Director Dr. Dian Dudderar is the Director of Teacher Internships and Placements and Liaison for Professional Development in St. Mary’s County Public Schools for St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She specializes in early childhood education, curriculum design, school change, and innovation. Dr. Dudderar has taught Early Childhood Methods, Child in America, Senior Seminar, and Science/Methods, which are all courses leading to the Professional Semester in Education where the internship takes place. Dr. Dudderar's special interests and projects are student teaching opportunities in Costa Rica where she maintains a permanent residence. In 1991 she became involved with Atenas PreSchool, founded by Mirthala Jenkins and Rocio Quesada, owned by Dr. Dudderar. Eventually in 1998, the school became a placement site for early childhood international teacher interns under Dr. Dudderar’s supervision. Since then there have been over 75 US teacher interns who have participated in Costa Rican teaching experiences. In 1999, the school expanded to grades 1-6 and relocated, becoming Atenas PreSchool y Escuela Colina Azul. Dr. Dudderar has also participated in in-service teacher workshops in Costa Rica for public and private school teachers. She is currently a consultant for the Foundation for International Education, which is a private non-profit organization. The foundation accepts students into international teaching placements in Australia, England, India, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Thailand and Costa Rica. Dr. Dudderar collaborates with the foundation and other colleges where she helps set up internships in Costa Rica.
		Top
		Program Goal and Objectives Goal: The teaching internship will provide preservice teachers an opportunity to experience living and teaching in another culture. Objectives: The interns should be able to: apply current teaching techniques and strategies for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in a school where the majority of the students speak another language as their primary language; live and interact within the country to develop and understanding of all aspects of the culture; participate in program planned workshops and inservice teacher training at their host school; represent the United States and St. Mary's College of Maryland as ambassadors of goodwill; ultimately affect their future teaching, through this experience and their personal interactions within another culture, at a global level for their students; and develop a professionally designed technology presentation on their internship in Costa Rica to be delivered to their peers and other interested students. Top
		Contact Us Dr. Dian Dudderar Director of Teacher Internships and Placements St. Mary's College of Maryland 19852 E. Fisher Road St. Mary's City, MD 20686 USA Phone: 240.895.4465 Fax: 240.895.4436 E-mail: ddudderar@smcm.edu Dr. Lois Stover Department Chair and Professor of Education St. Mary's College of Maryland 19852 E. Fisher Road St. Mary's City, MD 20686 USA Phone: 240.895.4451 Fax: 240.895.4436 E-mail: ltstover@smcm.edu Top