27 January 2016: COMET Prep

Monday, it was getting to be 9 am, and the bell still hadn’t rung. Chelsea came by and said there was an assembly in the cafeteria. The first part of the program was about changes in schedule related to COMET prep. The COMET is the College Of Micronesia Entrance Test, and determines whether students will be able to attend either the Pohnpei campus in Kolonia or the more prestigious National campus in Palikir. Testing is happening soon, so preparation has swung into high gear.

Chelsea had invited a speaker to come to her class second period, not knowing there was going to be an assembly. He’s here with USAID, working on a typhoon recovery project, but he was coming to talk about the ASVAB, because he had spent 30 years in the Air Force. With everyone gathered, he went ahead and spoke to the entire assembly. I followed up with a bit of information about when it’s here, who’s eligible to take it, and gave a plug for the Career Exploration program.

The assembly continued after that, with a presentation by Public Health on Leprosy. I hadn’t realized that part was happening, so I had already slipped out. I didn’t miss much, though, because, like most assemblies here, it was conducted in Pohnpeian, and I wouldn’t have understood it, anyway.

So my first class of the day was 5^th period. I opened the class with pointing out that I had cleaned up both my classroom and the school yard, and saying that I would very much appreciate my students making the effort to keep things cleaned up.

I followed that up with introducing the idea of the Explorer’s Club. There were definitely students who seemed interested. We’ll see if I can pull together some field trips. I’ll definitely have to start thinking about how best to do that. In the meantime, I pointed students to Google Street View Treks, both as a means of virtually exploring some very cool places in the world, and also as a potential source of information for research projects.

I emphasized that we were in a new term, and that they had something of a blank slate to work with. I said we would be continuing with the plan we had started, but first there was a concept I thought was pretty important, and wanted to share with them. I introduced Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED talk, “The key to success? Grit.” I asked the whole class to watch this one, and then write up a summary and response. I told them we’d follow up on it Tuesday.

After school, I headed to the waterfall for a swim. We still haven’t had much rain, so the water is getting lower. I was surprised and impressed to see that someone had responded to lower water by creating something of a retaining wall for the lower swimming hole. It looked very neatly and nicely done.

Along the path, I managed to get my best shot yet of a blue-tailed skink. They’re all over the place, but they tend to move pretty quickly, and don’t seem to like to pose for me. This one did a pretty good job, though.

I also had a Pohnpei fantail that must have been nesting nearby, because it dropped into the trail and pretended to be injured. I wished I had a better camera with me, but it was still close enough that I got a somewhat reasonable picture.

There wasn’t enough of a current to swim in place, so I did some lap swimming across the base of the waterfall. I also spent some time just watching the fish. With the light current, it was easy to stand still. When I did, they’d gather around. I even stuck out my finger, and a fish came up and nudged it. Their upper scales are dark and mottled, while their lower scales are silvery. A bit of camouflage both from above and below. Occasionally, though, there will be a brilliant flash, as a fish darts by on its side, and the silvery lower scales catch the sunlight.

One of the juniors had told me the other day that he wanted to be a teacher. I crossed paths with him in the office Tuesday morning, and asked him how serious he was about that goal. More specifically, I asked him when his free period was, and whether he’d be interested in helping out in my classroom. He agreed.

Conveniently enough, his free period is first period, which is when I have section D. On average, this is the section that has the lowest English skills, and with which I have the most trouble communicating. I am thrilled to have his help. It turns out I don’t have just his help, either, as he recruited one of his friends to help, as well.

For another bright spot, a new student in my A class brought me in some bananas and mangos. If these fell off the tree, they fell somewhere soft. They’re some of the best mangos I’ve seen since I got here.

For my C and D classes, which didn’t have class on Monday, I showed the Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED talk. These classes had definite trouble with either understanding the talk or focusing on it, or both (although D did much better than they might have, thanks to my helpers). I played it through multiple times, and encouraged students to discuss what they were getting out of it among themselves. I told them to think about it overnight, and to discuss it with their fellow students (and perhaps even students in different sections). Then on Wednesday, I would show it again, and they could write their summary and response.

Tuesday, I had my B and A students work in pairs, analyzing the summaries they wrote for Duckworth’s TED talk. After they shared their summaries with each other, I gave them my summary and response, to compare against. I asked them to first look for what they did well. Then I asked them to look for weaknesses, and to think about what caused them. I wanted them to think about and identify what they could have done to make their summaries stronger. Based on the papers I got back, these students are definitely not used to this sort of self-analysis. Hopefully they can learn, though, because it’s a great way to get better.

After school, I went for a swim. The weather was threatening rain, but didn’t seem too serious about it. It was cloudy and windy at times, but didn’t rain. We’re still at low-flow, so I did a bit of lap swimming.

On the way back, I happened to catch the boys sliding off the back of an abandoned car, using cooler lids as their toboggans. They were clearly having great fun, and didn’t at all mind me getting pictures of their escapades.

When I got home, Albert called me over. One of the woman had been making  banana-stuffed pastries all afternoon, and he gave me a couple to try. The pastry itself is fairly plain (I’d love to try mixing in a little cinnamon sugar), but the filling was quite tasty.

Sometime during the day, a teacher came to me and asked if I might be willing to evaluate some of the practice essays for the COMET. He gave me 15, and a rubric. I had tucked them in my bag. I took them out to work on as I ate my dinner (leftover rice with pinto beans).

I have no idea whose papers I had, or what relative skill level they might represent. But for the sample I had, students were generally good at the idea behind a five-paragraph essay. But sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary were definite weak points. That’s not especially surprising, given that the essays were in English, and English skills here tend to be on the weak side.

I noted that this was probably something that I should start addressing with my students, although I really had no clear ideas as to how. I don’t know much about what curriculum resources might be available, having never taught this sort of thing before. So I did what I always do when I don’t know how to do something: reached out to someone who would (or at least would probably know people who would). I contacted Daniel at Better Leaders Better Schools, and he put the word out to his circles, looking for resources.

What disturbed me was the content of the essays: the topic was why it’s important to go to college. The essays I saw led me to believe that these students don’t really have any clear idea as to why it’s important, except a fairly vague notion that its a way to get money and help their families. I’m very much in favor of people helping their families, but I also believe that high school seniors applying to college should have a better idea as to what college is about and why they’re going. I’m still thinking about how I might address that issue. My only thought so far was to contact the folks at Roadtrip Nation, to see if they might be willing to make some of their content available to students in an offline format. It’s a cool program, but it’s pretty bandwidth-intensive, so the online version wouldn’t work.

Today, I told my A and B sections about my experience with the COMET essays, and asked them for their own ideas as to what would help them learn what they need to know. I let them know that I don’t have solutions yet, but that I’m looking for them.

That transitioned pretty well to the TED talk I featured today, which was Carol Dweck, “The power of believing you can improve.” I let students have the choice between going back to working towards the standards, or focusing on the TED talk (which would also mean they were working toward the standards, just less obviously). Most focused on the TED talk. I’ll have to wait and see what they got out of it.

Today, it’s been rainy. That should be good for the flow at the waterfall, but swimming while the rain is falling isn’t a good idea. I had a lot of work I wanted to get done here at school, so I went home and packed a dinner and came back. I’ll head home here shortly, when there’s a break in the rain.

 

 

 

24 January 2016: Exploring Mand Road

 

Friday was a strange day. It was the day my classes were supposed to have finals. Apparently, the way the schedule worked was that even-numbered classes had finals Thursday, while odd-numbered classes had finals Friday. I teach only odd-numbered classes, so all of my finals would have been Friday. I haven’t been teaching this class long enough to give a meaningful final, so I didn’t give one. But some students came to class, anyway, only not necessarily to their class. I have no idea what the actual schedule would have been, but I know at one point, I had students from all four sections in my class at one time.

For the students who came to class, I talked with them about how they were doing in the class, and what they needed to be doing to make progress. I gave students that did work extra credit (though none of them know that yet). A couple students asked me if they could do some make-up work for days they hadn’t been to class. I let them. My goal, after all, is learning. I don’t much care when they do it, just that they do it.

I got through all of my students journals, getting completely caught up on comments. I got my audiobooks managed. Then I started poking around on the TED site, and found a few talks I wanted. While attempting to get them downloaded, I got my room cleaned back up again. The downloads had a bit longer, so I wandered outside, and was thrilled to see a kingfisher on a log just inside the “track” ring. (It’s track-sized, but rather overgrown, so I don’t think it’s been used as a track in a while.) I only had my phone, so I couldn’t get a very good picture of him. One of these days, I’ll have to get the real camera out, and go on a birding expedition.

Finally, I headed home for the evening. I had considered going swimming, but I was still just a touch sick, and didn’t think swimming was the best idea. So I had another quiet evening.

Saturday morning, I packed up a lunch and got out my walking stick, intending to go exploring. But first, I was going to swing by the school, and set up a couple downloads. I had discovered the TED talks I had tried to download from talk pages on Friday had actually failed, and that I’d need to stick to getting them from the low-bandwidth list site. Only you can’t search the list; you have to page through it. Paging through, looking for the ones I wanted, I found more that I wanted. I actually wound up spending the whole day downloading.

The computer couldn’t keep up with me, so sometimes I’d wind up doing other things while I let it catch up. I went out exploring the school grounds, walking to the other end of the track. From the school buildings, the ocean is visible out that way, and I was hoping there might be a trail through the jungle. No such luck. However, I did discover that the school is rather pretty, looking at it from that angle.

The maintenance crew had cut the lawn in front of the school, but there was still the usual trash strewn around. I thought that was sad, and, given that I had some time on my hands while I was waiting for downloads, I decided to do something about it. I didn’t do the whole school grounds, but by the time I was done, things were looking pretty nice. Now if only I can convince my students to keep it that way.

I was heading home just after dark, admiring the (nearly?) full moon. I hadn’t gotten far when a truck pulled up alongside me, and the driver said, “Give me all your money.” I laughed. “Good luck with that!” It was one of the teachers. He wondered if I had the keys to the computer lab. I did. I had left my computer in the lab, though, downloading, so I didn’t want to just give him the keys. I trusted him with my computer, but I needed to be able to get in the next day, to retrieve it. So I hopped in the back of his truck, and we headed back to the computer lab. I made a few more adjustments to my downloads, and once again headed home.

The family was very happy to see me when I got home. They were concerned that I’d been out so late, but relaxed when I told them I’d been with another teacher. I talked with Shirley a bit, asking if she’d be interested in exploring on Sunday. She said she would, after church. We agreed to aim for about noon or so.

This morning, as I was selecting bananas for my breakfast, I decided they weren’t going to be good for much longer. So pulled a few more off the bunch, wrapped them up and put them in the fridge. Then I took the rest of the bunch outside, and offered it to the family. Emy happily accepted.

I got my laundry done, and also my cooking. This time, my meal was pinto beans, onions, garlic, oregano, cumin, chili powder, canned tomatoes, string beans and brown rice. A recurring theme, with minor variations. It works, and will keep me (and possibly Chelsea) fed for at least another couple days. One of the things I particularly like about it is that it’s good cold.

I finished cooking and was getting ready to leave. Emy was down below, making chicken soup. She asked me if I might have an onion she could use. I did. She offered me some of the soup, which I accepted. She offered me rice, which I also accepted, telling her she could just put it in the soup. I brought her some of my food to try. While I ate the soup (it was hot, and I had to let it cool a bit), she started making banana fritters with the bananas I had given her. She gave me a plateful. They were hot out of the oil, so I couldn’t eat them right away. I put a few of them in the fridge for later, and put the others in a bag, to eat on my way to the school.

Most of my downloads had completely successfully, and there were only a few files I had to fix. Now I have a rather nice collection of TED Talks downloaded. Students like them, and I’m hoping the talks will help inspire the students with potential topics for research projects and position papers.

I finished up at the school pretty quickly, and headed back home. I don’t think Shirley was feeling all that good, but she was true to her word. A bunch of the kids came along, as well, although some of them dropped off along the way. We headed up the Mand road, because I was curious as to what was up that way, and Google maps had indicated that there should at least be a couple waterfalls.

Most of the way was pretty typical forest, with the occasional house or store. One of the highlights of the walk was a butterfly that we followed for a while, that actually held still long enough for me to get a picture.

 

Shortly past Mand Elementary was a bridge across the river. On the other side, the road turned to coral. Shirley said she didn’t really know the area, and seemed uncertain. One of my students was sitting on the corner, though. I told her we were exploring, and asked her if there was anything in the area worth seeing. She said yes, and guided me to the waterfall, just down the road.

The stretch of road between the bridge and the waterfall had surprisingly dense houses; it felt more like city (well, island city, anyway). There was even a laundromat. I had no idea there was anything like that, out here in the jungle. Shirley said later that many of the people there are transplants from Pingelap.

The waterfall was fairly small, but pretty. There was a pool down below (to the left, in the picture of the falls), where a couple kids were swimming. The kids that had come with me quickly joined them. After getting a few pictures, I joined them, as well. Shirley took a nap on the riverbank.

After a bit, I decided I wanted a closer picture of the main fall and its pool, and so headed that way. The kids from the area where heading that way, as well, because that’s another swimming hole. The kids were having a great time, leaping off the rock. I was a bit concerned for their safety, as they didn’t always seem to wait until the way was clear to jump. Also, the spot where they were jumping was pretty narrow, and it sometimes looked like they would hit the rock on the far side as they came down. No mishaps occurred while I was there, though.

I didn’t wind up swimming in the upper pool, because I didn’t have a place to tuck my cell phone after I’d gotten the pictures up there, and Shirley was ready to go home when I got back to my backpack, to tuck it away. But it was still a fun afternoon, and nice to see another piece of the island.

I briefly toyed with the idea of going swimming at Keprohi when I got home, but decided that, having been recently sick, I should probably take it easy. Besides, I was hungry. I made myself up a plate that included some of my rice dish, banana fritters (reheated in the toaster oven), half a peeled cucumber, three bananas, and two nutritional biscuits. I spread peanut butter on one biscuit and topped it with sliced banana, and put raspberry jam on the other. A feast!

21 January 2015: Low Energy

For Tuesday’s classes, I finished making up and printing out some guideline sheets for each standard. They give the standard, explain what it means, point to relevant references in the textbook we have, and tell students what they should be doing if that’s their focus. I made up another sheet reminding students what goes into a summary and response, and another sheet reminding them what they need to do to get their five points each day. My hope is that these make it clearer to the students what I’m wanting from them. They also make comments in their journals easier, because I can refer them to the guide sheet.

I also had a few NewsELA articles for the students working on finding main idea from reading informative articles. I like NewsELA, because it’s curated for students, and because the same article is presented at multiple reading levels. I only got the high school-level articles printed out, though. They’re fairly short articles, and I’d like to see the students at least attempt to work through them, before I give them access to the easier versions.

The TED talk I picked for the day was Paul Greenberg, “The four fishes we’re overeating – and what to eat instead.” One of the four fishes is tuna, which is definitely a favorite out here in the Pacific.

I didn’t get the bulletin in the morning, so the afternoon assembly was a surprise. It was a church group from Seoul, South Korea. This group was prestigious enough to draw a Pohnpeian senator, who, during a break in the activities, picked me out of the crowd and introduced himself. I wish I were better with names, but I’d remember his face, if I saw him again. It was nice to be welcomed.

After the introductory speeches by the principal and senator, the pastor of the church group introduced himself and gave a sermon on living your dreams. He got the kids’ attention by leading them through a round of hallelujah, stressing a different syllable each time. He lured a couple students up to try it in front of the crowd by offering a dollar, but as soon as the student would try, the crowd would erupt in laughter. The students who came with the church group did a couple of dances, and played a song. One of the girls was playing a flute, and the other was playing an instrument I couldn’t see. When I asked what it was, I was told it was an accordion, but I don’t think that was it.

The students seemed to enjoy the assembly. I was telling a few of them about just how very different South Korean schools are from the schools here, based on an audiobook I recently listened to, “The Smartest Kids in the World.” Students here have to take the COMET to get into college, but they just have to get an acceptable score. So far as I know, it’s not very competitive admission. In South Korea, on the other hand, college entrance is highly competitive, and that has ripple effects throughout their primary and secondary school systems.

I wasn’t feeling that great when I got home Tuesday, so I decided I probably shouldn’t go swimming. I just had a hint of a sore throat, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I made up some brown rice. When it was ready, I sautéed some onion and garlic. I threw it altogether with the black beans and some young coconut I’d chopped up (I drank the coconut water when I got home). While I was cooking, I finished off my leftovers, and I also ate a bit of the rice dish when it was ready. A simple meal, but fairly tasty, and reasonably nutritious.

After dinner, I turned in early, hoping the extra sleep would help keep me healthy.

On Wednesday, I had more of a sore throat when I woke, along with some general malaise. I didn’t feel bad enough to stay home, but I did stop at the store on my way to school, to get some cough drops. They’re Halls honey lemon, and they’re just called candy here, but I think they’re pretty much the same thing as they are back home. I like Ricola better, but they’re not securely wrapped. If they’re left out, the ants get them, and in the refrigerator, they tend to dissolve somewhat in the moisture. So I’ll stick to the Halls.

An interesting note, at least so far as the container stores go: there’s no apparent benefit for buying in quantity. I bought a bag of 50 cough drops, but they were exactly the same price as if I’d bought them one at a time. I saw that in the candy bars, but was surprised to find it extended to cough drops, as well.

I mostly just got through my classes. I felt pretty hot, and I went through a fair number of the cough drops and a lot of water. I didn’t feel too badly while I was sitting at my desk, but if I got up to do anything, I found I got pretty tired pretty quickly. I re-emphasized the guide sheets and following directions.

The TED talk for the day was Carl Safina, “What are animals thinking and feeling?” I thought it sounded pretty interesting, but I think it was a bit much for most of the students who watched it. They got some of the details, but didn’t really seem to understand the overall point Safina was trying to make. Can’t win them all, I guess.

After school, I officially met my field director, AJ, for the first time. I was feeling okay at the end of the day, and I think we had a pretty good chat. He was going to be meeting Chelsea at home, so I got a ride from him. It certainly didn’t hurt my feelings to not have to make the walk. As an added bonus, he gave us a few mangos and a bunch of bananas. The mangos were mostly pretty overripe (and mildly fermented), but the bananas are good.

While AJ was talking to Chelsea, I sat outside with the family. I gave Albert some of my rice (I forgot to mention it had coconut in it, but I’m sure he probably noticed). They gave me a roasted breadfruit. It wasn’t hot, so I’m not sure when it was cooked, but it tasted pretty good, anyway.

After AJ left, I relaxed for a bit and had leftovers for dinner. Chelsea made some chicken noodle soup, but given that one of the issues I was having was being too hot, the last thing I wanted was soup. I’m sure it was fine, but I was glad my rice dish was good cold. I turned in early again.

Today, I was feeling better, though still not 100%. The walk to school was certainly enough to get me overheated and tired. I didn’t have classes today, because the school is doing final exams. I haven’t been teaching my students long enough to give them a final exam, so I need to figure out how to do grades another way. I’m not sure exactly how, yet, but I imagine we can come up with something.

I spent the morning making comments on journals, around managing audiobooks. I wasn’t as productive as I probably could have been, had I been feeling better, but I got some stuff done, anyway. But I could tell I was tired when I just listened to my audiobook while I was downloading TED talks this afternoon. I had more journals I could have been going through, but that seemed a bit too much like work. Tomorrow’s more finals, so I can finish getting caught up then.

It rained some today, but was dry when I headed home in the evening. I hadn’t gotten very far when one of the teachers came up behind me in his truck and offered me a ride home, anyway. I had been toying with the idea of getting something from the store on my way home, but there’s still plenty here, so I didn’t really need anything. The ride was a better treat.

I’m not quite so worn out tonight, so hopefully, I’ll be feeling better in the morning.

18 January 2016: Low Flow

I didn’t actually make it to the falls on Saturday, because I kept working until almost dark. As I was walking home, I was noticing the bats swooping through the night, which I thought was pretty cool. The moon was out, and bright enough to throw shadows, despite being only about half full. I love places that are still dark enough for that to happen.

Sunday morning, I was up pretty early. I had breakfast, did a little more laundry (a small load of stuff that hadn’t gotten in yesterday, including my towels and swimming clothes), organized the trash, and it was still only a little after 8 when I headed up toward school.

A side note about organizing trash here: there is apparently an aluminum can recycling program (although I wonder at the cost of transporting the cans), and there is a dump, but most trash gets burned. I shudder at how much plastic gets burned. I’ve told my students about how toxic that is, and warned them to at least try to stay out of the path of the smoke, if they could help it. I sorted my trash into three groups: paper/cardboard (burnable), plastic (which I’m hoping they won’t burn, but that may be a vain hope), and cans (which won’t burn, anyway). The tradition on the islands is mostly just to toss stuff, which made perfect sense for biodegradable refuse (which almost all of it was, historically). Most of it isn’t biodegradable anymore, though, so it tends to just accumulate. Everywhere. That’s one of the sad things about life on the islands.

I didn’t get everything done that I wanted, but I got enough done that I left school in time to go swimming. It hadn’t rained much lately, so the waterfall was at a pretty low flow rate. I wished I had brought my camera, for comparison to the high flow we had a little while ago, but I had left it behind, knowing there would likely be others at the falls on a Sunday, and having no one to keep an eye on it while I was swimming. The flow was low enough that I had some trouble staying in a strong enough current that I could swim in place, so I mostly just played around in the water, diving and watching the fish.

This morning, I was almost to school when I realized I had forgotten to bring the key to the computer lab. I had a first period class, and I wasn’t sure if there was time to go back for it. The principal was around, though, and he had a key, so I waited to go back until 2^nd period, when I don’t have a class.

I was surprised to get a message from Chelsea, letting me know she was sick, and asking me to cancel her class. She’s still in Kolonia tonight, so I’m guessing she’s still not feeling well. There’s a doctor in Kolonia, so that’s a better place for her to be, if she’s sick. I hope she recovers quickly, and also that I don’t get whatever she’s got!

In class today, I gave students progress reports, which was much of what I was working on this weekend. Past that, they continued working on their current learning focus. The TED talk for today was Kristen Marhaver, a coral reef biologist, “How we’re growing baby corals to rebuild reefs.” I’m kind of surprised (but not disappointed) that quite a few of the recent TED talks are relevant to my students and life on the island. I pick which ones to show, but I haven’t been drawing from talks that were featured more than a couple months ago.

My day was busy enough that I didn’t get to asking the principal about the Explorer’s Club. I need to do that, and check in with him about what I’m supposed to do about finals. They’re Thursday and Friday this week. I haven’t been teaching them long enough to make a final at all practical, so I won’t be giving one. I need to figure out whether I can just have class, or if class will be cancelled those days. I suspect I also need to figure out what I’m supposed to do about term grades.

I went swimming again this afternoon, this time taking my camera along. There was a very brief rain storm today during 3^rd period (I was glad it didn’t do that while I was walking home for the key), but it’s otherwise still been dry. The difference between these pictures and the ones I took at high flow is pretty impressive.

I started out swimming laps back and forth across the base of the waterfall, because I figured that swimming in place wouldn’t work. There was one spot where I’d get pushed as I swam by, though, so I tried it out. It worked. I find swimming like that incredibly relaxing, because I can just get into a groove, and watch the fish below me as I swim. If I could listen to an audiobook at the same time, I might just be able to swim like that for hours. It’s good that I like to swim, though, because I picked up cinnamon rolls and banana cake at the store on my way out.

I still had leftovers for dinner, but I’ve got some black beans cooking on the stove. I haven’t quite decided what I will do with them, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something!

 

16 January 2016: Getting into a Rhythm

I have been neglecting my blog. I think it’s mostly that I’ve been doing so much writing in making comments on student journals that it’s been hard to get motivated to write more once I’m home. Let’s see what I can remember.

I finished downloading audiobooks and TED talks, and getting the documents cataloging both of them (so far), and left the computer lab. Chelsea had joined me there after a while, and was still working away when I left. I was ready for a swim, so I went with Kristen and Sinatra.

We went home via the store, and I think that may be when I bought some biscuits. They were a fairly standard bread product, but round and about an inch thick. Not quite as good as the ones that look like small hotdog buns, but better than the “pillows,” I think.

I had leftovers for dinner, and spent some more time hanging out with the kids, making bracelets. Sinatra showed her brother how to make them (with a little help from me), and he made one for himself. I found myself wishing the looms were made from a more durable material, because I can’t see the cardboard holding up for very long, really (especially after one of the looms got wet). I’m also beginning to think I don’t have enough floss to get me through my stay. Perhaps I should look for another kit.

There was some question as to whether there would be school Monday, because the governor was being inaugurated. There was school, but some students and teachers didn’t make it. The ones that were there were in for a treat, though, because there was a group of musicians visiting from the US giving a special presentation during 3^rd period. They showed off their instruments (a flute, a violin, and a saxophone), taught the kids a song (“Come follow me”), and then, sitting in the middle of the crowd, two of them performed “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” I think the kids were kind of torn because, while they love music, they’re also very shy when asked to participate.

For class, I went with the plan I had made for Friday. I asked them to number the standards I had given them Thursday, so we could easily refer to them by number. Then I explained that, while I wanted them to focus on one standard as their learning goal, I also wanted them to recognize that any given assignment addresses multiple standards. For example, the TED talk of the day was Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, “A hilarious celebration of lifelong female friendship.” If they wrote a response assignment following the format I’d given them before, they’d be working to standards 4.2, 1.1, 3.2, 4.1 and 4.3. If they went a bit farther with their response, they could use the talk as a launching pad for standards 2.1 or 2.3. (I explained how they’d be addressing those standards, but I’m guessing that level of detail isn’t needed here.)

I also gave them a second option: I brought in the maps published by the Australian Embassy (that I’d worked so hard to get), along with a Lonely Planet Guide to the South Pacific. I suggested they look these over (admonishing them to treat them well) and get an idea for what kind of information is needed in a tourist brochure. Then, if they were up for the challenge, they could design their own brochure for a location they were familiar with. Alternatively, they could write a travel plan of places they wanted to visit, describing places they’d see along the way.

The third option was to follow whatever plan they might already be working on, provided they were focusing on one of the standards.

After school, I visited the farm to see what they had, but no one was around when I got there. I figured they might be at the inauguration party, and went on home. I think this was the day Kristen and Sinatra showed me the “shortcut” to the falls. It goes through some fairly dense growth, past what I took to be an abandoned house, across a stream. It might be shorter, but it’s definitely not easier. I think I’ll stick to the “regular” route from now on, although I did appreciate them showing me the other route.

The family was making sakau that afternoon. Making it isn’t unusual, but this seemed to be more of a special ceremony, as things were more ritually set up. Chelsea said it was my turn to try it, because this was our ceremony. I assumed she was just teasing, given that I hadn’t heard anything from anyone in the family.

I heated up the rest of my leftovers, making a plate to share with Albert and the family. Albert really liked it, and said that, if I made it again, I should be sure to share it with him. I don’t know that I’ll be making that particular dish again, but I always enjoy sharing what I cook.

I headed back inside, to work on my computer for a bit. Then I got a text from Chelsea, saying there was a boy outside with one of my looms. It was Sinatra’s brother, who had finished his bracelet. Sinatra returned the loom, and I went to sit outside with the kids for a while, to work on bracelets some more. There were two more kids who wanted them. A boy whose name I didn’t catch picked out colors, and Sinatra made his bracelet. An 8^th grade girl, Lanny (I think), picked out colors and made her own. I sat between them, working on someone else’s bracelet. These things are very popular.

Tuesday, I had a fairly simple set of instructions on the board:

• Work toward your learning goal
• Be sure to make a record of your work in your journal
  • If you read or watch material, record source info, notes, thoughts
• If you need ideas, read or watch TED
  • Audio book list, TED list, library, text book

The last bullet referred to two documents on my computer, which I told them they could ask to see. I reminded them they could continue whatever project they were already working on, if they had a plan, which included the travel brochure project.

The TED talk of the day was Anote Tong, the President of the Republic of Kiribati, “My country will be underwater soon—unless we work together.” I picked this one, because, while Kiribati is actually fairly far from here, the issues it has are ones faced by places much closer, likely including some of the outlying islands of Pohnpei.

At the end of the day, I was dismayed to find two of my travel maps missing: Madolenihmw and Marine Attractions. Someone had also taken apart the book on the outlying islands, but luckily I was able to find the pieces and reassemble it. So much for trusting my students to respect my property. Sigh. I’m sure I can still trust most of them, but I will definitely be thinking twice about what I let the whole group handle.

I tried the farm again, and this time Mike was there. I got the usual string beans and Chinese cabbage, along with some cucumbers and ginger. The ginger surprised me, because he gave me a clump of greens. The roots were still attached, and the larger ones made it evident that it was, in fact, ginger. I had never seen ginger greens before though. I’ll have to figure out if I can use them when I cook.

Mike didn’t have change for a $10. I told him he could keep the change, and consider it credit toward future purchases (especially given that he’d let me “pay next time” on two previous occasions). But instead he offered to take me to the store for change. There were closer stores, but he took me to the one across the street from where I live. He bought sodas with the $10, gave me one along with my change, and then dropped me in front of my house. Such service!

Chelsea and I headed to the waterfall, and were joined by the girls. This time, we went to the spot below the falls, rather than the other swimming hole. I hadn’t been swimming long when Kristen stopped me. She was worried that it was raining (it was, but very lightly), and that there was going to be a flood. I had actually discussed the weather with one of the adults before we left, but Kristen was still worried. So I got out of the water, and we headed back home. (It barely rained at all, and there was no danger of flood.)

When we got to the family compound, the women were making big plates of banana fritters, to take to a party at the Governor’s. They told us to go get a small plate, and they shared some with us. This was my first time for trying them fresh and hot. They were very good!

I had soaked some garbanzo beans on Monday, and now it was time to cook them up. I also baked some potatoes, while the beans were cooking. When both were done, I used the head of cabbage, along with onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, ginger, raisins and cinnamon to make Tunisian stew, as best as I could remember the recipe. It’s best over couscous, but we had it with the potatoes. I thought it was pretty good! Chelsea was wary of the ginger, but seemed to think it was at least okay. I was going to share with Albert, but everyone was gone to the party.

On Wednesday, I left the instructions on the board as they were Tuesday. The TED talk for the day was Ann Morgan, “My year of reading a book from every country in the world.” I also put the golden rule up on the board, and told students about my missing brochures. Madolenimhw was returned to me, by a student who thought they were allowed to borrow them. It had been ripped in half, though, and was otherwise torn. I taped it back together. Marine Attractions is still missing.

One of my students, who is a particularly avid reader, had devoured Peter and the Starcatchers in a few days, and really enjoyed it. That was the only book in the series I could find in this library. I wanted to encourage him to keep reading, so I checked out Peter and the Shadow Thieves on Kindle. I’ve been letting him read it, but only in class. (I also told him that if he used the Kindle for anything but reading the book, he’d lose the privilege.)

I had intended to leave early enough to go for a swim, but wound up staying at the school, getting work done, until almost 5. All of my classes are the same, so I only have one prep. However, they’re all reading/writing classes, and going through all the journals takes quite some time. I updated the TED talk document and the audiobook document, and got them both printed out. I also spent a bit of time researching the ASVAB, because many of the students here are interested in going into the military. I got the fact sheet for it downloaded and printed out, as well.

When I got home, Chelsea was in the mood for ice cream, so we walked back up to the Western Union store, and she treated us to chocolate cones. She also noticed that they had cinnamon rolls among their baked goods. I had been looking for them for more than a week. I had forgotten that they keep their baked goods on a rack, behind the counter. Everyone else around here keeps them on the counter, so you can see what they have as you walk by. I was very happy to get those!

For dinner, I cooked up some macaroni, and mixed it in with the leftover Tunisian stew. I figured, if it’s good with couscous, then it should be good with other pasta. It worked pretty well. I gave Albert a plate, which he was happy to try. He was dismayed that he didn’t really have anything to share with me. His dinner was canned tuna with kimchi. I took a picture of it, but I think I’ll neglect to share it here. It actually tasted pretty good, but didn’t look very appetizing.

On Thursday, I changed the directions on the board. I found myself often making the comment reminding students to work focus on their learning goal (the standard they’d chosen to address). Also, the standard they picked was getting further back in their journal, and harder to find. So, to keep us all focused, the new instructions were:

• Begin your journal entry with the standard you’re focusing on. Example Focus: 1.1b (Get the numbers from someone, if you don’t have them.)
• If your focus is 3.2, 4.1, 4.3 (or you otherwise want feedback on spelling, grammar, or writing style), leave a blank line between each line you write, to give me room to make comments
• Be sure what you’re working on aligns with your focus (learning goal)
  • Note: If the TED talk is of interest to you, you can watch it, but make a note in your journal. Write a response to the talk to get credit. (If it was of interest to you, you should have an opinion on it.)
• If you need help, ask for it
• Remember: no record of your work, no credit.

I also gave them reference pages from the textbook that help with narrative, research reports, theme, taking notes, and summaries. I pointed out the printouts of the audiobook catalog, the TED talks list and the ASVAB fact sheet. I had also printed and posted my own summary and response to Ann Morgan’s TED talk, so they had an example of what I was looking for.

Sadly, by the end of the day, the TED talk printout was gone. It had the talk descriptions from the TED website, which could help someone with their summaries. I don’t have a problem with someone using that information. But, if that was their purpose, they could have just borrowed it, rather than keep it. I have to admit, it’s hard not to get frustrated at such behavior. I just have to remind myself that most of the students are very good.

Besides, it’s hard to be troubled by much of anything while swimming at the base of a beautiful waterfall. I got in a good swim after school, and Sinatra gave me three nice mangos when I passed her on the road. None of them are quite ripe yet, I don’t think, but they will be soon!

The mangos make a great “special snack” I’ve been having at least one  a day, like a couple cookies, or a ChocoMucho, or something of the sort. My mom made this sort of thing much easier, by sending me some special snacks that are also reasonably healthy. I’ve got Terra chips, packs of organic pomegranate-blueberry applesauce and an assortment of Kind bars. She  ordered them before Christmas, and I just got the last package this week, thanks to some help from Craig and Rita. The stews I make are pretty good, but it’s always nice to have a quick snack.

The Tunisian stew with macaroni did make an excellent cold salad for dinner. There is definitely something to be said for cooking in quantity, so long as you don’t mind leftovers!

When I was tossing some of my biodegradables out, I noticed that someone had previously tossed a quarter of an onion that had been starting to rot. Left in a plastic bag on the porch, it had managed to find an opening, and had been doing a rather excellent job of growing. I didn’t have anything to dig with, to stick it in the ground, so I covered it with shredded coconut husks, leaving an opening for the green bit. Kristen added the protective shells around the outside. A tiny vegetable garden!

Friday, a bus had trouble on the way to school, so we didn’t have a 1^st period class. For some reason, the bell didn’t ring for 5^th period, either, so I really only had two classes that met. For the ones that did meet, the directions on the board hadn’t changed, though I added dates for the ASVAB to a corner of the board. I had submitted a query with the office that administers the ASVAB, though the official site, at the end of day Thursday. This morning, I had an answer that the ASVAB will be administered here February 18^th & 19^th 1-4 pm. It’s open to 10^th-12^th graders, so my students are eligible. I spoke to the principal, and he said it should be okay. For those students who are interested in the military, it will give them an opportunity to have seen the test once before it counts. Those that aren’t interested will still have the opportunity to be exposed to a standardized testing situation, and can use their scores to take part in the Career Exploration Program.

The TED talk for the day was Guillame Néry, “The exhilarating peace of freediving.” It was in French, with English subtitles, but had a lot of visuals. I suspect at least some of my students can read English better than they can listen to it, anyway. I’d love to download the versions of the TED talks that have English subtitles, but, as far as I can tell, that’s only possible for the high-definition version. My bandwidth definitely isn’t up to that task.

It was threatening rain as I headed home, so I didn’t go for a swim. Chelsea had headed into Kolonia for the weekend, so I mostly had a quiet night. My latest stew has lentils, potatoes (I cut up the extras I had baked the other night), canned tomatoes, string beans, Chinese cabbage, onions, garlic, oregano and basil. It should easily keep me fed all weekend.

This morning, I did laundry, including washing my sheets. I’m hoping it stays pretty dry today, because I only have the one set, and I want them for sleeping tonight. So far, so good (and they’re hanging under cover, so they shouldn’t get any wetter, anyway).

I’m currently at the computer lab, doing several things at once. Working on this blog entry, getting audio books, getting TED talks, making comments in journals, occasionally working on a bracelet. It always helps to have something else to work on, when trying to get anything done on this computer. I’m still debating whether I will go swimming, or if I will keep working. There’s quite a bit I want to get done, but swimming is good for me.

I’m afraid that my life has settled into something of a routine, here, and so my blog is getting considerably less interesting. But one of my thoughts is to see if I can start an Explorer’s Club here. Several of my students commented, after looking through the brochures, that they didn’t know there was so much here on Pohnpei. I want to see it, and it would be fun to take some students along, as well. Perhaps I will raise the idea with the principal on Monday.

10 January 2016: Bracelets and Stars

I had some plans for class Friday that wound up falling by the wayside. Halfway through first period, I found out we were on a half-day: 1-4, no lunch. My first period is a bit behind, anyway, so I had them continue working. But third period, I told them we’d save what was on the board until next time, and I showed some a series of TED talks. Apart from the first one, I didn’t know what they were until I showed them. I hope they got something out of it, anyway.

I got the key for the computer lab for the weekend. I had plans to make good use of it, but I was hungry, and hadn’t brought any food. I checked out the store out in front of the school, but apart from spicy ramen bowls, they didn’t have anything that would make a good, quick lunch. So I walked down to the Western Union store, and got a package of nutritional biscuits and a dark chocolate ChocoMucho.

I was about to head back up to the school, when I got a text from Chelsea, saying there were a couple donuts in the toaster oven, because her ride had shown up early. I didn’t want to leave them there all day, so I turned around and went to the house. I grabbed the donuts, and noticed a package of shrimp chips on the table. Chelsea is allergic to shell fish, so I knew she hadn’t bought them. I guessed that someone had given them to her, and she couldn’t eat them. So I grabbed those, as well.

Back up a the school, I got my blog posts posted. Some of my audio book holds had come in, so I started downloading those. I also started putting together a catalog of the audio books I had, with information about the authors and the books (mostly swiped from GoodReads, occasionally from Wikipedia). I also downloaded some more TED Talks.

Now, at this point, you have to remember that I’m working on a very slow computer, using a rather slow internet connection. A project that would have taken a couple hours at most back home, on a good computer, with high-speed broadband, takes considerably longer here. I had my bracelets to work on, and audio books to listen to when my brain didn’t need to be engaged. It works.

However, I found myself staying later than I initially planned. I had intended getting home in time to go for a swim. But I also wanted to get to a certain point in my project. About the time I realized it was too late to go swimming, I also realized it was a rather beautiful evening. I was connected via Wi-Fi, so I took a chair and sat outside the computer lab, to get my work done, enjoying the pleasant evening. Around sunset, the sky was so pretty that I couldn’t resist getting a picture.

I finally left for home shortly after sunset. I wound up making most of the walk with a local family, headed the same direction.

Chelsea (and maybe others) would be horrified, but I wound up frying up the can of Spam I had gotten as a free gift when I ‘d been shopping in town. I mixed that with the black beans I’d already cooked up. Spam is crazy salty, I have to say.

Saturday morning, after eating a bit of breakfast (toast, cereal, a slice of banana bread, watered-down juice and my daily vitamin), I got to work on my laundry. I had gone through almost all my clothes, so it took a while, washing it by hand. I washed pieces individually, but put them in the bucket in groups to rinse. It was a perfect day for laundry, though, sunny and dry, and I was confident my cloths would quickly dry on the line.

Next, I turned my attention to turning the beans and Spam into a more respectable meal. I had cooked a pot of  brown rice while I was doing the laundry. I sautéed onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and the last of my carrots, added the last of my Chinese cabbage and string beans, canned corn and canned tomatoes, then stirred everything together. The resulting bowl of food is huge. This is the second lunch box I’ve filled, and there’s still plenty left.

By the time I finished making the food, it was about lunch time, so I went ahead and had some for lunch. It really wasn’t bad. I couldn’t actually taste the Spam at all. Everything else overpowered it. Don’t worry, though; I won’t be making Spam a regular part of my diet.

I had been planning on heading up to the school, but decided maybe I would go swimming first, and then go to the school. As I was leaving, I was told by the family to take someone with me. I wound up being joined by Shirley, TJ, Kristen and Sinatra.

Because it was mid-day, we swam in the swimming hole downstream from the falls. The falls were in full sun, but the swimming hole was in nearly full shade. TJ got in upstream from the swimming hole, and was able to use the stream as a water slide that dumped him out in the hole. I tried it, just for fun, but it works much better if you’re smaller.

The kids also climbed the tree next to the hole, and jumped from there. That, I didn’t try. It wasn’t that big a drop, but the swimming hole wasn’t that deep, either, and the deep spot was small, relative to the whole pool. Someone my size would almost certainly strike rock, and it would be pretty unforgiving.

Mostly, we had fun swimming and splashing around. The kids took turns using my mask. They were inclined to argue over it, but I told them if they fought over it, I’d take it away. I emphasized that it was an expensive piece of equipment, and I expected them to take good care of it. They did.

As we were leaving, the kids picked fruit off a tree right near the store. They call them apples, though they’re certainly don’t look like any apples I’m familiar with. The taste and texture is pretty similar, though. They’re pretty good.

Back at the family compound, there were many visitors, including one with the cutest puppy I’ve seen on the island.

Sinatra had noticed my bracelet while we swam, so I offered to make her one. (Kristen’s had been one of the last set to get made, and she got hers this afternoon). I got out the looms and the floss, and let her pick. We worked on the porch, and caught a lot of attention. Others wanted bracelets, too. I’m okay with that; it’s good to have something to work on when the computer is slow. I decided to go ahead and set up the looms, so I didn’t have to remember which colors went where. One of the little boys was fascinated by my mini Leatherman, and helped me by cutting the floss  as directed. In the end, all eight of my looms were set up: one with a bracelet from the previous set of requests, that I hadn’t finished yet, and the other seven with new orders (including one that came after I took the picture).

While I was working, Shirley brought me a baked or grilled breadfruit. I have to say, this was, by far, the best way I’ve ever had breadfruit. It was tender and just a bit sweet.

Finally, I told the kids I needed to get to the school and get some work done. It was much later than I had expected when I got there; around 5, but I at least wanted to get Little Women downloaded, because that hold had come in. It’s a big book, so that took me a while. The connection was working well enough, though, that I was able to finish my audio book guide in the meantime (though I’ll need to update it as new books come in, of course).

It was another beautiful night, though, so I set up outside, at least until the mosquitoes started harassing me. It was full dark, by the time the download was finished, and I headed home. For the first time since I’ve been here, though, the stars were out in force. They’re usually hiding behind a haze of cloud, but this night was almost perfectly clear. There’s an occasional street light on my route home, but there are also stretches of nearly pure dark. It was fantastic. I wished I could get a picture, but I don’t have the equipment for that kind of shot. I’m sure I couldn’t have done it justice, anyway.

I was surprised, when I returned, to find that Chelsea had returned. She was out front, joining the women for some sakau. They invited me to join them, but I politely declined. I’m happy to try all sorts of food, but I have an aversion to mood-altering substances.

Instead, I went up to the porch, and sat with the kids. The girls tried to teach me some Pohnpeian. The sounds are pretty foreign to me, though, and I had a lot of trouble even figuring out what they were saying. I suspect some of my students have similar difficulties understanding me, for much the same reason.

They wanted music, so I got out my Zune and speaker, and started up the playlist of friends and family – artists I know back home. That meant the kids weren’t familiar with any of the songs they heard, but they liked hearing them, anyway. I also started work  on the bracelets. The kids watched me work, and a couple of them wanted to learn how to do them. I made sure they worked on their own bracelet, in case they made errors, and tried teaching them. They got the general idea, but had a bit of trouble with them, so I had a bit of fixing to do. It was fun, anyway.

This morning, I headed up to the school after breakfast, wanting to get a post written, and to get a guide to downloaded TED talks made. I should go through student journals, too, but we’ll see if I get that far. It took longer to get this post done, because my phone wasn’t connecting as a media device. After troubleshooting via the internet, I re-set the SIM and got it working. Time for some “real” work, but I’ll close with a picture of the mushrooms on the path here at the school. They grow fast!

7 January 2016: Lizards at the Falls

To make it easier for my students to come up with learning goals, today I gave them the standards I’m supposed to be teaching to. Upon finishing 10^th grade, students should be able to:

• Provide a summary of a text, without opinion or judgement
• Analyze the development of a theme over the course of a text
• Write arguments to support claims, using reasoning, evidence, and counter-claims
• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas/concepts
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events, using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
• Conduct research projects to answer a question or solve a problem
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience
• Use technology to produce, publish, and update writing projects
• Demonstrate command of standard English grammar and usage
• Determine the meaning of complex words and phrases in a text
• Demonstrate command of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

Now, of course, these standards aren’t mutually exclusive. I wanted to let them know what they are, though. I suggested they rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10, as to how comfortable they are with each standard. Of the standards they aren’t so comfortable with, I told them to pick one they wanted to focus on.

I don’t know that I’d do it this way, if I were starting the class at the beginning of the school year. But I have students at all different levels, who need work on various skills. The skill I’m most trying to focus on is that of taking charge of their own learning, of working to identify and fill in their own gaps. If they can master that skill, every other skill they need will follow. That’s what I’m thinking, anyway. We’ll see how it works, in practice.

At lunch today, one of the boys in a group sitting at the next table over from mine brought in a sprig of a plant that it looked like he’d just plucked. The girls at the table broke something off the sprig, and dropped it in their soup. I asked them what it was. It turned out to be a tiny, but very hot, chili pepper. They offered me one, and told me that I should stir the soup with it in there, and then take it out. If I were to eat it, it would be very, very, spicy indeed.

After school, we headed to the waterfall. The water was still high, but not so high as yesterday, and I went for a swim. While I was in the water, a group arrived. The one I talked to was visiting from Brazil. Only one of them chose to swim, but they all enjoyed the waterfall. I told them they were seeing it at a good time.

I was sitting on the rocks after I got out, and noticed the scavengers came out to see what the group might have left behind. Two of the larger lizards were both poking around (though avoiding each other), and a rat came out to nose around, too. I caught the rat in one of my pictures, but didn’t object when it didn’t come any closer.

As we were leaving, I spotted another lizard on a rock, just off to the side of the path. This one looked a little different than any others I’ve seen so far. It was like the larger green variety, but more golden in color. I don’t have any idea how many different species of lizards might be on this islands, or whether there’s just a lot of variation within species.

Further down the path, we passed some Japanese tourists on their way in. The waterfall was a popular spot today!

I told Albert about the “incident” yesterday. He told me he knew the guy, and while he may not be quite right in the head, Albert didn’t think he was dangerous. All the same, he said he would talk to the guy, and tell him he wasn’t to get within 100 ft of me. I told him I hadn’t actually felt threatened by the guy (in truth, the older couple doubling back had put me more on my guard). But I suppose it’s an honor to be under Albert’s protection.

Dinner was just leftovers tonight, though I mixed in some of the black beans to stretch them into a good meal, and add a little variety. It worked. Though I have to admit, the fish the family was cooking made me a bit tempted to offer to buy some of it from them on occasion. It looked and smelled pretty good. I think I may have cooked up some of the trout we caught back when I was a kid, probably with some help, but I haven’t cooked fish in many years. It’d be nice to have it done right, if I was going to have it.

6 January 2016: Full Flow

It was still raining this morning, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was pretty light. We got picked up for a ride, anyway, so we didn’t get very wet today. The rain slacked off as the day progressed, and we had some sunshine again this afternoon.

Classes were slow to get started this morning, likely as a result of all the heavy rains we’d had. I’m just starting to get my first period class on track for what I’ve got in mind. To make things clear, I wrote on the board what students need to do to earn their five points for the day: 1) Be to class on time. 2) Work without disrupting other students. 3) Have their journal. And 4) Have a record of the day’s work in their journal.

For the first class, that’s about as far as we were able to get. For my other classes, though, they began working, and I started meeting with students individually. There were definite signs of embarrassment about this, but I did my best to help them recognize that the point of the meetings was not to put them on the spot, but to get to know them better, and get an idea of what their interests might be. Of the students I’ve talked with so far (which isn’t many), several aren’t really sure what they want to do (not unusual for sophomores). Some know they want to go to college, but don’t really know what they want to study. Others want to go into the military. A few have some ideas as to what their interests might be. It will be interesting to see where we can get with this exploration, within the next few months.

After my last class, I spent a bit of time on the internet, trying to get another audio book downloaded, as well as update my blog. Between the slowness of the internet and the slowness of my computer, it can be a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process. I just have to get back in the pattern of patience with both the internet and the computer. One of the tricks is to find something to do that can effectively be done in small chunks. One of my standbys is to play a game on my Kindle while I’m waiting on the computer. But weaving bracelets works, too, so it’s probably good that I got requests for four new ones today. I got all of them set up on their looms this evening.

I had an interesting thing happen on the way home. As I approached the China Farm road, there was a man coming the other way, singing. He turned down the farm road, but only went a little way before turning around and heading in the same direction I was going. He was a ways behind me, and still singing, so it was easy enough to know exactly where he was, and it didn’t really occur to me to be concerned about him (though I was aware he was there). About the same time, a car came toward me, with an older couple inside. I waved, and was surprised when they slowed down. I thought they were just saying hi, and they went on down the road. But a minute or so later, they came back the other way. They told me they had turned around, because they were concerned about the man following me. Another car came up behind them, and went to go around them. They spoke to the driver, though, and asked her to give me a ride, since she was going my way, because they were concerned about the man behind me (who had gotten much closer, in the meantime, as we stopped to talk). She gave me the ride, and I was soon back at home. She told me the man who had been following me was crazy.

Now, I could be concerned about the crazy man. But honestly, he didn’t actually do anything, other than come along a ways behind me, singing. Mostly, I’m impressed by the total strangers (while I’m sure they knew I was WorldTeach, I don’t think I’d met any of them before, though, admittedly, I’ve met more people than I remember) going out of their way to make sure I was alright.

Chelsea was home when I got there, and said the flow at the waterfall was pretty impressive (she’d been back a while, because her classes end earlier than mine). I had been wanting to go see, anyway, and it didn’t take much encouragement to go. She’d already cleaned up, and didn’t want to make a second trip, so I went on my own.

Much of the path to the waterfall was a flowing stream. The actual stream was a pretty impressive river. The side stream that comes in made a nice series of falls, itself. The main waterfall was cascading over every bit of available rock in a powerful flow. Probably not a good day for swimming, but very beautiful to see, all the same.

Chelsea had already gotten rolls and donuts, so I got a can of corn and a couple of onions on my way out. They’ll find their way into some future dinner, perhaps along with the black beans I’ve been simmering up tonight. For tonight, we had leftovers, along with the rolls. For a treat, our host family gave us some fried battered bananas. They were pretty good!

 

5 January 2016: Rainy, Rainy Day

Sometime last night, it started raining, and it’s been raining pretty much non-stop since then. We hoped for a break in the rain this morning, as we were getting ready for school, but had no such luck. So I packed all my stuff into plastic bags, including my teaching clothes, and made a garbage-bag “jacket” for my backpack. I put on my swimming clothes for the walk to school, because that seemed appropriate. Luckily, we hadn’t actually gotten all that far (though I’d already gotten soaked) when a man named Julian stopped and offered us a ride. We gratefully accepted.

The school grounds were flooded, and at times today, the water rose over the sidewalk outside my classroom door. The floor in the classroom is about an inch above that sidewalk, which was enough to keep my room dry.

There were lots of insects around, trying to escape the flood, including the vaguely grasshopper-looking one I got a picture of, just inside my door (I have no idea what it actually is). The ants (or termites – they’re hard to tell apart here, unless you catch them eating the wood) that nested outside my back door were franticly carrying their eggs up the door frame, seeking dry ground. I don’t think they had a second nest, but were congregating around a spider’s egg sack in the upper corner of the door frame.

In class today, I presented the guidelines as to how students needed to record and respond to readings, videos or audio materials like audio books. I asked them to identify the source they’re responding to, give a brief description or summary, and then record their thoughts about it. I also told them about the idea for the “review wall,” where they can post materials they recommend or are suggesting others avoid. Tonight, I wrote six of these up myself, to get things started.

I’ve also started showing TED talks, in the hopes of giving them ideas as to topics they might find of interest, or they might want to learn more about. I think TED provides an interesting window on things that are happening elsewhere in the world. If I can get to where I can reliably print articles, I would like to use Newsela for this purpose, as well. With the principal’s help, I got my computer hooked up to the school’s wi-fi, which should make using both TED and Newsela considerably easier.

One of the teachers gave us a ride home after school, so we didn’t get too wet on that trip. The principal even let him use one of the smaller school busses, for the purpose, which was nice. Today was definitely not a day for swimming, although a part of me was perhaps a little curious to see the waterfall at high flow. I wasn’t so curious as to actually head out in the rain to see it, though.

For dinner, I made a stew with a bit of everything in it. Onions, garlic, carrots, potato, local yams, Chinese cabbage, string beans, canned tomatoes and black-eyed peas. I had been in the mood for the black-eyed peas, and also wanted to use the yams I’d baked previously. I’m not overly fond of the yams (they’re a bit dry, among other things), so much of the rest of the stuff was thrown in to bury them. It wound up tasting decent, though it would have been better if it’d been made with just potatoes, and not the yams.

I was thinking about having something for dessert, and Chelsea suggested we have donuts with a bit of the frosting she had. The donuts weren’t the freshest, but they still tasted alright, and the frosting added a nice touch. After I tried one, I sprinkled the frosting with a bit of cinnamon, for added flavor.

I’m hoping tomorrow turns out a bit less rainy.

4 January 2016: Back to School

I’m having to back-date my posts, because of the nature of my access to internet. I’ll keep them dated for when I wrote them, rather than when they actually manage to get posted.

On Saturday, I made use of various internet connections to download TED Talks for use in my class, as well as getting more audio books. It wound up being a pretty lazy day, really. That night, I went to dinner with Brigid, Craig, Bud and Phil. I think the place was called the Cliffs, and I’m still not really sure of where it was located. We passed through a part of Kolonia I hadn’t known existed. I’ll have to check it out sometime, when I wander back into town.

Brigid ordered the local shrimp, which wound up being one of the better deals on the menu. She got a pretty good-sized bowl of shrimp (a pound), along with the standard dinner side-dishes, for $10. Phil went for the mangrove crab, also a pound, for $12.50. That was clearly a lot of food, as well, or maybe just time-consuming to eat, because Phil was the last one to finish. Phil had also ordered onion rings, which were very good. Bud got the pizza, which he ate, but didn’t seem overly impressed with. It at least looked better than Craig’s order of pizza rolls, which appeared to be about ½ a stick (split long-ways) of string cheese, rolled in pepperoni, and then rolled in an eggroll shell and deep-fried. I tried one and it was…interesting. Craig also got sashimi, which was pretty straight-forward. I got the Pohnpei pepper tuna steak. It was more lemon than pepper, I think, but tasted pretty good, all the same.

I was thrilled that one of the side options was brown rice. This was the first time since I’d gotten to Pohnpei that I’d seen it. When I remarked on that, Craig mentioned that you can sometimes get it at Palm Terrace. In the morning, I went looking for it. Turns out, it was only available in 25-lb bags, which was a bit more than I’d been hoping to buy. It was only $14, though. It would make a lot of meals, and I like it so much better than white rice. So I went for it.

Sunday afternoon, it was time to move back to Kepirohi. Before we left, I did some more downloading, along with the last-minute grocery shopping. And, of course, I had to pack back up. I had quite a bit of stuff, it seemed! A fair bit of it was groceries and such, and some of my other stuff wasn’t packed down quite as much as it probably could have been. But it all fit in the car, and that’s what counts. This time, we got a ride courtesy of Crystal, rather than taking a cab.

When I went to put my groceries away, I discovered that we had some leftovers that we had not finished before we left town. They looked and smelled okay when I opened the container. However, they’d been in the fridge for two weeks, so we decided to give them to the dog. He shared them with his friend, the cat. This cat is a bit skittish around people, but is very attached to the dog.

We had the essentials put away in time to go to the waterfall for a quick swim. I’ve missed that. I got a few swims in, while in Kolonia, but not as much as I like. Besides, I was pretty hot, and a swim is a marvelous way to cool off.

When we got back, I made dinner. I made a bit of the brown rice in one pot. In the other (we only have two), I sautéed onions, garlic and carrots. When those were ready, I mixed in some garbanzo beans and the cooked rice. It made for a pretty decent, if relatively simple, meal. It would have been better with some feta cheese, I have to admit, but that can be pretty hard to come by (and/or very expensive) out here on the island.

This morning, it was back to class. Everyone seemed a bit slow to get started, after the holiday, but we got there. I got my room swept out, and arranged to have some picnic benches from the cafeteria moved to my classroom. They’re not using them all in there, and I only had enough desks for about two-thirds of my class. With the benches, I’ve now got plenty of work space for all my students, which is a wonderful thing.

I explained to my students today that I’m only here for five more months. While I could teach them some specific English lessons, and that might be useful, I had decided that the best impact I could have would be to help inspire them to pursue their own learning. If I could do that, they would continue using that skill long after I’m gone. While I’m still here, though, I also intend to act as a guide for that pursuit.

My plan is to meet with students individually at least once a week. During those meetings, we will discuss their goals and their interests. I want to get them reading, and the best way to do that is to let them find reading material that truly interests them. I also want to get them writing, which means finding projects they want to write about. I’d love to have an international exchange be part of that, but we’ll see if computer and internet access makes that possible. I want to make a wall or a bulletin board that highlights topics students are pursuing, perhaps without names attached, as students here don’t really like to be highlighted. The point is to highlight the interests and passions, though, rather than the student.

The real goal, though, is to get students doing things because they want to, not because I said they should. I personally find a lot of joy in pursuing my interests, and I’m hoping they will, too.

After school, I went to the China Aid Farm, and picked up more Chinese cabbage and more string beans (they didn’t have anything else). Then home to change into my swimming clothes, and off to the waterfall. I got a pretty solid swim in today, I think. I’m hoping to get my waterproof MP3-player working, so I can listen to an audio book, swim, and watch the fish go by. I’m going to have to look it up on the internet, though, because I can’t seem to find the USB port on the thing.

I picked up a cucumber at the Kepirohi store (they’re pretty popular here, though I haven’t bought one before), along with some donuts. A little cucumber will make a nice, simple salad to have with dinner, though I forgot to have some of it tonight). There had been plenty of leftovers for dinner, so I just reheated them with some of the greens.

I poked my head outside just after dinner, and was amused to see the cat snuggled up to his dog friend. I asked Albert, who was sitting nearby, what made them such good friends. He said he always feeds them together. There’s got to be more to it than that, because any given cat or dog wouldn’t necessarily be inclined to share. But those two are clearly buddies.

Albert asked me what I’d had for dinner, and I told him. He told me Dickson had some breadfruit they were going to share with me. While Dickson finished getting that ready, I went in and made up a small plate of our leftovers, for Albert to try. He said it was good, but he may have just been being polite. I get the impression that my cooking is on the unusual side for him. Of course, breadfruit isn’t exactly my typical fare. It was pretty good, if a bit on the bland side. Sometime when I get on the internet with time to spare, I’ll have to see if I can find any inspiring ideas as to things to do with it. It’s certainly plentiful here.