Adventure...what a word

It has definitely been interesting here and the word ADVENTURE takes on a different meaning every day. From the adventure of walking places, to sharing taxis; Adventure of students not listening, to shock the next day when they are super sweet. Adventure of lesson planning and doing grades. The adventure of sponsoring classes and organizations; adventure of a school Carnival.
So much happens on a daily basis that it is hard to keep track of it all, yet at the same time every day is just as routine as the day before it was. This, I suppose, is the beauty of teaching. You know what to expect as far as the order of classes goes, but how much and what you will accomplish in that day depends on the students and morning activities such as chapel and flag raising. It seems that you never quite accomplish everything you hoped for a day, yet you accomplish everything that needed to be accomplished for that day. Looking back I know what many of my teacher meant when they said that discussing topics of life are at times more valuable than the lesson they planned on teaching that day. I have found myself in the past couple of months at times stepping away from a lesson or taking a tangent to talk to my students about issues that are more important, such as respect, or responsibility. Probably the class that has the most divergences is Bible. We stay on topics that are related to the Bible itself, but at times it is more important to discuss things that are relevant to the students such as the impact of music, media or spiritualism, rather than talking about the theories of how the earth came to be. Both are important, but there is most definitely a time and a place for both.
About a month ago, on a long weekend Sunday, all of us teachers took a trip to Enimonet for the afternoon. Enimonet is an island on the opposite end of the atoll that is privately owned. The owner takes groups of people who wish to go there and so our principal made all the arrangement for us embarking on this great adventure. After a 30 minute boat ride the Enimonet, we docked at one of the most beautiful places in the Majuro atoll. The view of the palms and hut like buildings was gorgeous and on that beautiful, sunny, Sunday that it was, we put our stuff in some of these little huts. After we had lunch, we spent the afternoon socializing, playing rook and swimming. It was all the fun that could be imagined. It was a perfectly relaxing day, just the kind you need to get you over till the next break.
Since then we have had two Staff vs High School games. Later that same week, we had a Staff vs High School basketball game. The Senior basketball team played their hardest, kept up the competition, but at the end of the day, the Staff still beat them. It was a close game, but the Staff came through. About a week or so ago we had a Staff vs High School volleyball game. This time, though it was great competition and full effort, the High School team won 2 of 3 games. It was fun to both watch and play in some of these games and it took me back to high school. It is truly an odd feeling to now be the teacher. I remember when we would see our teacher on the court or outside of school, at times it would feel odd. I have come to learn that the same is true for teachers. It is at times unusual to see our students outside of school.
Now as we have come to the end of the first quarter and midterm of the semester for high school, the grades have been turned in and I am about to face the first set of Parent teacher conferences in this year. The hope is that those will go well and that hopefully the students will work on their grades as needed. It is all an adventure always!

Week Two Adventures

So school has started and now that I am  through two weeks of school, there is so much that has happened, while every day has been fairly routine. I suppose that is what makes teaching interesting though. All the little changes and quirks in it. In the first week, I  went from teaching Math and Bible, to almost having World History added to it. For now it turns out that I am teaching Math – Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II – as well as Sciences – Biology, Chemistry and Physics. It is interesting teaching in this environment because you never know what to expect the next day. I think I have had a new student in at least one of my classes almost every day for two weeks. I created my first test of probably many and over the weekend I will probably be making another one. I am beginning to understand more and more about why teachers were always saying that they hate giving work as much as students hate doing it. It is in reality about three times more work for teachers to give students work then for students to just go ahead and do it.

I have also found that the  “problems” I was planning on encountering at some point in the year I have already encountered some of them. I have had students that skipped my classes, students are talking in classes, cell phones are going off in the middle of classes and students are picking them up,  the very usual high school things. :P Sometimes I wonder if I had been more of a trouble maker in school whether teaching would be easier, lol cause then you know everything they try to do. At the same time, as you go through school, even if you don’t do it you have an idea of what limits can be pushed, what you can get away with and most of the time those are the same things that students try doing to their teachers.

I have found that students always feel they are being original. I have heard stories from other teachers of students trying to read other material by putting up folders to make it not be visible. I have seen students put their phones on their laps under the desk and try to use them. I have had students put in headphones and then put their head on the desk. It’s amusing because it wasn’t that long ago I was in their places and I have not forgotten the tricks in the book. They are everywhere, but not everyone realizes them.

On the side of exploring and new experiences, however, we went to Laura last Sunday. Laura is on the other side of the island and the only part of the atoll that has soil. Because this is a corral island, soil doesn’t generally exist in most places, but rather rocks and corral occupy it. When we were in Laura we went swimming and snorkeling. I realized that one of the things I am definitely and most probably going to invest in is snorkeling gear because that is one thing that is just amusing to experience. I got a chance to borrow my suite mate’s gear for a few moments and watching the fish far in the middle of the ocean was one of the most beautiful things ever. The water was soo warm. The closer you got to the shore the warmer the water on the top was. I would even venture to say that it was close to burning. It was water that is amazing for a shower. The water also wasn’t as salty as I had imagined it. I imagined the ocean to be as salty as it was in CA, but I found it to be only as salty as the Adriatic Sea. In any case it was one of the most beautiful and fun experiences.

This week my roommate finally came :D She is from Potsdam, Germany and it has been great fun getting to know her, reigniting my German and enjoying time together. Our apartment is now full and we can go ahead and get to know each other even better. J This coming week looks to be promising. I finally finished the lesson plans for this coming week which is very exciting because last week I didn’t have it done until Monday morning which was stressful. ;) Over the last school year I have forgotten how much time grading takes. It is much longer then I remember it and far more boring as well. However, it is part of being a teacher and it must be done. Hopefully today we will go Mumu shopping with Lydia (my roommate J ) . Now I must go and do some of that grading I mentioned. J

So the Adventure Begins

So I finally got to starting a Blog. I will try to write here at least every few weeks and keep whoever is interested up to date on what is happening. This one will probably be longer than others, but then again a lot has happened.

The first three days after flying out were spent in orientation at the Hawaii Mission Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. During this time we were taught many different things on teaching. Some of these were new and others were not. Early in the morning on Monday and Tuesday  we had a chance to either go and climb the Diamond Head crater or go to the beach. I did both, one each morning, though the hour was 5am for the beach and 5:30am for Diamond Head. Both were good and fun experiences, which then led into breakfast and meetings from 8:30 pretty much until bedtime with breaks for meals.

On Wednesday morning at3:30am we had to be up and ready to head to the airport for our 6:55am flight. We got to the airport, checked in, went through security and after this we waited for our flight. During this time I got a chance to  experience one last Hawaii sunrise.  We boarded the flight and flew out to what will be our home for the next 10 months. The flight we took is an Island Hopper flight that flies 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Because of this fact, all the student missionaries going to islands mostly between Hawaii and Guam had that flight. Landing safely in Majuro (which was the first stop), proved to be a lot smoother experience than anticipated.  As small as the airport Is and as much as you think it will be a rough landing possibly over the water, that landing was the smoothest the entire trip. We did not bounce like on a trampoline as we did in Hawaii. I did initially wonder whether we were going to land over water, however, because we were so low to the water that we could have touched down on it any second and in the process of turning, one wing did actually touch water. It was a crazy experience. Upon landing in Majuro, everyone had to get off, and we said our farewells to our new friends and old at the airport. It was a bittersweet moment to say the least.

One of the first shocks I experienced was my apartment. I expected it to be different, but it was even more different then expected. The floor was all tile which with the dust is nicer to clean. Metal was rusted to an extent at least from the humidity and there were cockroaches around. Now don’t think of the small laughable ones. These were probably an inch or so long and later we found out they can also fly. They have diminished though, and I have not seen as many anywhere and almost not a single one in the apartment. J

The entire first week of being here we had orientation, setting up of our classrooms and figuring out our classes and textbooks and preparing ourselves for the task of teaching. They tell you in the student missions course to be flexible and adaptable. One cannot fathom, however, that concept until they come here. Things are constantly changing and are greatly laid back. I have been learning every day what my schedule will be like and what classes I will be teaching. Even as today was the third day of school and we are underway, not all the students have been registered, my schedule is still changing and the only thing that is constant is change. This has in turn taught me that trusting in God fully is the only way I can make it through and though my students are wonderful things will keep changing and God will see me through all of it. J