Day 5

January 4, 2010

Day 5:

 

Today I became Teacher Battle. We all woke up early and took taxis out to Majuro for school. Eric and Ally walked to Delap Elementary while the rest of us took taxis to the shared campus of Majuro Middle School and Marshall Islands High School. When we got there, we waited for quite a while for the principal of Majuro Middle School to arrive at school. We asked someone what time the principal usually got to school. His response was 8:00. We then asked what time school started and he said 8:00. Typical Marshall Island time. We met with Mr. Lennja the Principal and he seemed fairly clueless as to where he wanted us. He had Ben and I, the two middle school teachers, come into his office and take a seat. We took a seat, he stared into the air and decided to take us outside. When we walked outside the children were all lined up for their Monday morning assembly. He then led the children in a song, a prayer and the raising of their flag. He introduced Ben and us to the whole school and we said a few words. We then went upstairs to the Eighth grade floor. We met with Teacher Roselita Eddinger, an 8^th grade English teacher from the Philippines. Her young daughter accompanied her through class. Ben and I sat there while she graded their second quarter tests along with the students. For the second class, Ben and I helped grade as we led the class in the dictation of the correct answers. I was pretty comfortable in front of the class despite the fact that the children weren’t talkative at all.

            For the next two periods Ben and I went downstairs to the 7^th grade English class with Teacher Terry. She wasn’t in the room when we first arrived so we waited outside at first, and then inside the room. The children came in and took their seats and we still had not seen Teacher Terry. After 15 minutes Ben and I decided to start class without Teacher Terry and just introduce ourselves. So we did our introduction and showed them where Dartmouth and our hometowns are on the world map in the back of the class. The children responded very well to the visuals. So after we gave our introductions and opened the floor up for questions we had amassed a total of about 8 minutes. None of the children had questions for us, they were all very shy. Some of the boys in that class were very outgoing and talkative before class started but once we became “teachers” they shut up quick. Next we decided that we would go around and try to get the names of all the students. We did this in all four classes today. The kids really got a kick out of us not understanding their native names. There were some simple names like Jakey, Solomon, Benjamin, Jeffrey but then there were some other names that were much harder to understand and pronounce. One thing we learned from Teacher Rosita was that the letter “s” in English is pronounced like a “j” in English; more specically the “y” sound in South America. So the sound is something like “z-yuh”. One girl’s name was Rosa. R-O-S-A. it’s pronounced “Ro-zya”. So that was a challenge. So Out of nowhere I came up with the idea to have the children teach Ben and I some basic Marshallese words so that we could get around the island and at least attempt to know the language. Throughout the day I was telling Ben how bad I wanted to study the language. It’s nothing like Spanish or English, both of which I am very comfortable with. There are many “j” sounds and “ok” sounds. I spent most of my day listening to them speak and trying to decipher the ends and beginning of word within a sentence. The children taught us a lot of basic words though like Good Morning (Yokwe injibbon), please (jouj), sorry (jolokbor) and understand (melele). I messed up the word for hungry though. It was supposed to be “kole” (koh-lay) I missed the “k” sound and said ole as in Oil of, and the whole class burst into laughter. I looked at Ben and said, “I don’t even want to know what that means.” My teacher prep taught me to keep moving so I asked for another word and the laughter quickly died down. I checked with Anna Z. later to find out that it means some sort of genitalia.

            Teacher Terry never showed up. So Ben and I had complete control of two 7^th grade classes on our first day of teaching. It was the definition of immersion. Neither of us had lesson plans so they taught us on the first day. Hopefully we established good enough relationships with the class to be able to teach them effectively. School was a half day. It was announced during 2^nd period. How Marshallese. So Ben and I went to Tide Table for lunch where we saw Professor Garrod and had lunch. Also, the Bengals and Jets were on the TV. It was midday here but it was Sunday night at home so the primetime game was broadcast. I saw the first 20 minutes and the game was 14-0 Jets when I left for our staff meeting at 3:00 p.m. We apparently lost 34-0. Who Dey!!!

            Just being in the teacher’s lounge was weird for me. The teachers lounge has always been seen as this sacred, immaculate place that students dare not enter. Ever. And here I was, in the Pacific Islands being led into the teachers office among the other teachers, much more experienced than I, and I was being introduced as Teacher Kyle. That’s beyond me. I met with Principal Lennja and he alluded to the fact that Teacher Terry could very well “call in sick” tomorrow and I would end up teaching all of her classes by myself. Immersion much? So, I’m writing this late at night because I spent the last hour and a half devising a lesson plan for Marshallese 7^th graders to decipher the importance of articles and prepositions. As basic as this lesson seems, I wonder if it’s too much for my class. The education system here is in dire need of a makeover and as much as I want to be the one to start it, the problem is SOOO much larger than me. I guess I’ll keep my Ghandi philosophy and be the change that I want to see in the world. Besides, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step right? These are the types of things I am going to have to keep in mind over the next ten weeks. I can see this being a terribly daunting, stressful, amazing, rewarding experience.

            After school I came back to the apartment and shortly thereafter left to go to the grocery store for things to cook. Robyn and I are on cooking duty for Monday – Wednesday. We cooked a chili macaroni mix with Ground beef (Johnny Marzetti) and some potato skins. Everyone seemed to enjoy the macaroni. Not so much the potato skins. The oven took a while to bake them though, so most of them were full by the time they were finished. We talked about our days over dinner and then participated in some acting games that Anna and Edie had come up with to do before the auditions tomorrow. They were very fun. Professor Garrod played with us and his participation warranted Peter getting out his camera and recording the last half of our role playing games.

            After the games we split up, worked on lesson plans, watched bloopers from The Office and cleaned the kitchen. Once my chores were done and I was content with the appearance of the kitchen I sat down to write my lesson plan. Derek and Professor Garrod helped me tailor it to the needs of my students. Now I write with a tired mind and an anxious heart to go out and make a difference.

            I’ve been thinking about My Love a lot lately. For those of you reading that don’t know who that is, go to my FaceBook page, look at my notes tab and read ALL of the My Love poems that you see. The first is titled My Love and the last is titled My Love: Part 9 – Shooting Star. I wrote My Love: Part 10 – No Matter the Distance today at lunch. My love began as a concept, love itself, as an idea. Now My Love has a distinct name and identity. You can read the sequence of poems and see the progression of My Love turning from an idea/ a figment of my imagination into flesh, and bones and beauty. Well I feel like I’m beginning to infuse too much poetry into my prose so I’ll call it a night. I’ve got a long day ahead of me. I pray that Teacher Terry shows up tomorrow. I REALLY don’t want to be in this classroom all by me onesy but I’m more than confident in my abilities to control a classroom. Komol (thanks) to all of the armej (people) that are reading this. It’s emman (good) to know that armej care to know how I am doing thousands of miles away. Until tomorrow, barloeok (See you later). I miss you Precious <3