Day 20

January 19, 2010

 

Day 20:

 

            Today was another great day for me. The fact that again Terri wasn’t there would usually bring my day down, but not today. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be here today but I only had one lesson plan prepared. Since I had to grade notebooks I went into the classroom earlier than usual, first period, to grade. I was hoping she would be there and I could grade in the back of the classroom but no. I was the authority in the classroom. Since I hadn’t anything ready, I just told them to talk amongst themselves but to keep their voices down. I also used this time as time for some of the kids to catch up on some missed assignments. I finished up the grading and passed back all of the papers I had.

            When it was actually my turn to teach I did things differently today. I started by reviewing yesterday’s lesson on the imperative, and then I had everyone come together in a bunch so they could all see my computer. I then wrote out my family tree from Ra-Ra down to me on the board. I then showed the class pictures of everyone in my family: Ra-Ra, Gramma, Daddy Curt, Mom, Cameron, Uncle Chris, Tomma, and their small army (12 children). The second funniest part of the day was when they saw a picture of CeeJay and ooed and awed at how “tough” he looked. I thought that was hilarious. The only thing funnier than that was when I showed them a picture of Elani. They had been asking if I had a girl, and I told them I did and they’d see her later. In my fourth period class, when I showed Elani’s picture, they erupted in applause. I thought it was hilarious!!

            After showing them pictures I used the imperative sentence “Strike a pose” to encourage them to pose for pictures. So I took some pictures of the whole class and individual pictures of a few of the boys. None of the girls would let me take their photo. The rest of the class was composed of the kids writing rules for the classroom in the imperative. I then gave them their first homework assignment: go home and ask your parents three rules that you have at home and then write those three things in the imperative form. Those classes went really well though. At the end of the fourth period class two girls stayed around to finish up some of their missed work. While they were working in the back of the room I started playing some Drake on my computer which attracted a lot of attention from the boys that were around so I had an expo of Drake music for the first part of the lunch period. Once the girls finished up their work, I called an end to our Drake session and left.

            I forgot to pack a lunch so I went to Tide Table for lunch. It was packed. Rebele’s everywhere! The Syracuse-Notre Dame game was on live. It was a great game, I left with about six minutes left and never got to see the final score. I kind of hope Notre Dame won, they were playing well and I usually root for the underdog. Unless its freakin College of Charleston over my Tarheels!!! I don’t want to talk about it!

            It rained all day and so I had to taxi to and from Tide Table which again wiped out my collection of singles that I had in my wallet. When I got back to school I sat around the teacher’s lounge before Eric arrived and asked if I could help him get the drum set for the gospel choir. We ended up having to go to Rita Assembly of God down the street to get the drums. We taxied there but there was no way all of the pieces would fit in a taxi on the way back. Luckily, Eric spoke to the man across the street with a pickup truck and asked him if he would mind driving us to the school. He obliged. Thank God for Marshallese kindness.

            We set up the drums and had the bongos ready and at this point had a serious percussion session going. For the next probably four hours or so, Eric and I switched on and off from the drum set and the bongos and rocked B203 at MIHS. We didn’t leave rehearsal until close to 7:00 p.m. We had a great time though. I feel like I’m much closer with the students in the choir after tonight. I got to let loose and be myself a lot more as did they. It was nice because most of the girls on the island are so shy, and I’m pretty sure a couple of them have a crush on me because when ever I look at them they just start laughing. But it was nice to see them not be shy and just see me as another person who loves making music.

            Ben, Eric and I stopped by Molly and Tricia’s trailer before we got back to pay them a visit. They invited us to stay for wine and cookies but we informed them that we HAD to get back to the apartment to eat what turned out to be spaghetti that Professor Garrod had prepared for us. When we got back, everyone else had finished eating but the food was still pretty warm. It was really good. He had made a sauce of tomatoes, carrots, broccoli and a few other various vegetables (He’s vegetarian by the way) and underneath some cheese it tasted great. After that I took a shower which was SOO necessary given how much we sweat today in Malealupe’s classroom. Between the heat of the island, the lack of A/C and the fact that I played the hell out of those drums today, I had worked up quite the sweat. After my shower I went over some songs with Anna who didn’t know all of the songs that we’re performing tomorrow. Next, I wrote some on the computer, played a game of Tetris, a game of Chess, and passed out for the night.