Week 4

This week at school, I did a big review with my eighth graders of nouns, including proper, common and possessive nouns. Most of them have been taught about nouns in the past, but they still made lots of mistakes on the classwork I gave them. I also started teaching how to write paragraphs. We went over the structure of a paragraph, and then I introduced topic sentences. I want to spend a lot of time on writing paragraphs, because there is a section on the entrance exam for Marshall Islands High School that focuses on expository writing. The students seemed to understand what a topic sentence is and can identify topic sentences in paragraphs, but they are having trouble actually writing them. They usually focus too much on details and are having problems grasping the idea of writing a general introductory statement. I'm planning on spending more time next week working on their writing. I hope to focus on paragraph writing for the remainder of my time here.

Girls' Club this week was lots of fun as well. I tried to teach them how to play Capture the Flag, but they didn't really understand it, so we played a Marshallese game instead. It's called "peruta," (I think that's how you spell it) and it's sort of like football mixed with handball. There are two teams, and they line up on either side of the field. One player on a team hides a ball behind her back, and then everyone runs forward and tries to move the ball to a goal on the opposite side. It gets super rough- the girls were literally attacking each other! It was really funny. They got so into it.

Zin, my mentor teacher, wrote letters home to parents of 15 struggling students, and this week we are going to start tutoring them after school twice a week. I'm excited to work in a one on one academic setting with my students.

On Saturday, we walked to the end of Rita and then swam to Ejit, an island nearby where Vee and Becky teach. There were two channels we had to cross to get there. The channels connect the ocean to the lagoon and have a very strong current that moves you into the lagoon. We had to sprint across the channels to avoid getting too off course! Max and I snorkeled around a sunken ship off of Ejit. The coral reef drops off very suddenly to about 40 feet deep, and the boat reaches all the way to the bottom of the lagoon. There were lots of sea urchins and eels around the ship, which was neat to see. We walked onto Ejit too, and there are no cars and very humble homes. We didn't get to walk around too much though, because we had to head back to Majuro for a pizza party with the cast of West Side Story.

Marissa (Dartmouth '05), Professor Garrod's choreographer for West Side Story, is leaving on Monday to go back to Sarah Lawrence. The cast of West Side Story performed three Marshallese songs for her at the pizza party and gave the most thoughtful speeches. They said that they were grateful to God that she came to Majuro, and that when she returns she always has a place to stay in their homes. It was so sweet. We were all tearing up.

West Side Story cast singing to Marissa

After the pizza party, we went to the Marshall Islands Billfish club tournament at Marshall Islands Resort. There was a 180 pound fish being displayed! The tournament is a competition for fishermen in the area where judges weigh their fish. The record is an 800 pound fish!

Billfish tournament

On Sunday, we went to Church at Assembly of God right by the high school. It was interesting to see. The Marshallese are very religious, and church services last multiple hours. We stayed for about 45 minutes just to check it out. The entire service was in Marshallese, and they sung very beautiful hymns. People wander in hours late, very typical to the Marshall Islands. It was nice to see that part of Marshallese culture. Sunday was also Becky's birthday! We got her a princess pinata and celebrated that afternoon.

Happy birthday Becky!

Church

Yachties and Girls' Club

One of my students on Monday after class

 This weekend was amazing. Friday night, there was a meeting at Marshall Islands Resort for the yachties, who are these old people who sail around the world and race their sailboats around the lagoon on Sundays. Vee, Becky, Jayne, and I met, Jacob, a 28 year old from Lake Tahoe, CA who sailed his boat with two friends, Reese and Collin, from CA to the Marshall Islands. They're planning to sail around the whole world. Jacob cashed in his retirement (yes, at 28) and bought a 38 foot sailboat. Reese bartended at Tide Table, another restaurant, and he's helping Professor Garrod build the sets for the play, so these three are actually friends of Professor Garrod's. We got to talking Friday, and Jacob invited us on his boat for the weekend to sail to Eneco Saturday morning, spend the night on the boat, and do the yacht race on Sunday. We also met three helicopter pilots from New Zealand who are stationed on a tuna fishing boat and use their helicopters to spot tuna. They're at port for 3 weeks before taking off on the boats again. One of the New Zealanders, Yannis, and I made plans to go running together Saturday morning before Eneco, and we actually followed through on the plans, which was a blast! On our run, we stopped at his friend Jacob's (another Jacob) house who was a Dartmouth '07 and is working at the Environmental Protection Agency in Majuro and sat in his living room and drank water together. It was really random.

Jacob sailing "Genesis Earthling"

We boarded the boat at 10 on Saturday to go to Eneco. Jessica, a 30 year old who works at a non profit here, Youth to Youth, was on board too for the weekend. She's hosting Reese at her house through couchsurfing.com, a website that gives you free houses to stay at anywhere in the world. Jessica is really interesting- she got her masters at St. Andrew's in international security, was in the Peace Corps for 2 years in Ethiopia, and also lived in Isreal. Jacob's boat is called "Genesis Earthling," and it's totally hippie and he's an intense Buddhist. He has all these quotes and surfboards hanging everywhere, all this incense in his boat, and all this organic health food everywhere. He hasn't cut his hair in 2 1/2 years because he says that he read a story about how in some war the Navajos who were drafted into the army had to cut their hair against their will and religion, so now he doesn't cut his hair. So we sailed to Eneco, and then the New Zealanders (we were calling them the Kiwis), Yannis (my running buddy), Dan, and Nick were already on Eneco and they swam out to the boat to meet us.

Inside of "Genesis Earthling"

Sailing the boat

Jayne and the Kiwis + Jacob

We spent the whole day hanging out on the boat, and I jumped off the 20 foot mast into the water! It was terrifying...Jacob had to climb up to the top with me and coach me through it. I was literally up there for 10 minutes freaking out about jumping in. The water was about 60 feet deep though so it was totally fine, but SO scary. And then Vee jumped off and did a belly flop! That was actually hilarious. Nick the Kiwi got it on video- watch out youtube. Jacob did a backflip off the top of the mast! Then, Reese took me spearfishing, which is when you use a slingshot spear and go free diving and catch fish. I hit one fish, but it didn't spear all the way through so I didn't kill it. But he got a couple, and then Collin also got a bunch, so at night we had a giant bonfire on the beach and cooked the speared fish! Around the bonfire, we all played family band. Reese played his ukulele and Jacob played his trumpet (so badly it was too funny). The boys camped under a tarp on the beach (and it poured over night so that was a little rough) and us girls got the boat for the night.

Jumping off the mast

Bonfire

Becky, Vee, and I hanging out

Reese and his speared fish

In the morning on Sunday, Collin and I spent 30 minutes swimming the kayak we sunk back to shore. I used some water polo treading skills (now I'll be slightly in shape for training trip). For breakfast, I climbed a palm tree and picked some coconuts. I felt like such a jungle woman. Then, Reese and I swam to this other catamaran that arrived that morning and was moored next to us. It was owned by this 65 year old French dude with his hot young Brazilian mistress and they invited us on board to check it out! It was such a nice boat, and they sailed it from the Ivory Coast! They barely spoke English but we talked to them for a little and then they gave us a huge fish to take back to Jacob's boat. We sailed back to MIR for the yacht race after that. It was pretty funny, we showed up right as the race was starting and literally got creamed. We came in about an hour after everyone else but had the best time. We just spent the whole day dancing on the deck listening to oldies and singing so loudly.

Jacob and the coconut

The yacht race

When we got off the boat, there was a yachtie award ceremony at MIR. There was a raffle for the crews, and Jayne and Vee randomly won both bottles of rum! Vee and I bought the boys a bag of rice for their boat for provisions as a thank you, although nothing can be a big enough thank you for this weekend.

Jacob, Reese, and Collin at MIR

Monday morning, I started another week of school at Majuro Middle School. I taught my two morning classes. I gave them a warm up question, we did a review of last week's material, which was yes/ no questions and wh-word (what, why, where, when) questions, and then I gave them a 10 minute quiz. I also had them free write for 10 minutes in their journals using a prompt about their family. After class, I got to respond to some emails, and then I spent some time lesson planning for tomorrow and grading the quizzes and warm ups. Tomorrow's lesson will cover proper and common nouns and possessive nouns. Last period, I had my second girls' club meeting. We went over nutrition, and played a lot of games in the classroom. They move through activities so quickly! I end up having to come up with so many games on the spot. In a 40 minute period, we talked about the food groups, had a vegetable off, did a human knot, played freeze tag, I did a little freestyle rapping, and we played duck duck goose. This club seriously makes me stay on my toes. After the club, I hung out with four of my students and we took selfies. They asked to friend me on Facebook, which I'm not sure how I feel about, but the pictures she took are hilarious. One of them has an app on her tablet that puts your face into a frame with the band One Direction, so she and I are in this photoshopped picture with One Direction. I really want to get a copy of that.

Hanging out with students after the girls' club

"One Direction" Photo

Working at girls' club

More student- they love to make hand signs in pictures!

On Tuesday, I taught my two classes in the morning, then covered last period for Zin, my mentor teacher, who had to go to a workshop. Every Tuesday from now on I'll have to cover that class because he always has a workshop then. It makes me wonder what would happen to the class if I was not there. After school, I got my first ukulele lesson from one of my students, Christina! That was a blast, and can't wait to keep learning!

January 11th-January 15th

These past few days have been very busy in the best way possible! By the end of last week on Thursday and Friday, I was teaching up to three classes a day while still observing other classes. I suggested to Zin, my mentor teacher, that we should give the students warm up questions every day on the previous day's topics and grade them. We both now do this in all of our classes, which I think has been very effective. The students are definitely more motivated when they known their work will be graded. On Thursday night and part of Friday morning, I worked on lesson plans for this week. It took way longer than I expected! I had to make worksheets for every day, a quiz for Friday, warm up questions for every day, and write notes on the topics I am teaching. Zin and I met for an hour Friday afternoon to go over my lessons and give each other ideas. He is using all of the worksheets I made in his classes as well. I was happy to arrive at the weekend after this long week of teaching!

Graded Quiz. Good Job Tior!

Warm Ups

My lesson plan for this week

Friday night, all of the undergrads and Professor Garrod ate dinner at Tide Table, which is connected to a hotel. Saturday morning, bright and early, the girls chartered a boat through Tide Table to go to an outer island called Eneko. It costs 25$ per person, round trip, for the boat fare, and the boat can pick you up any time you request. No one lives on Eneko except for one family that takes care of the island. There are no roads or any infrastructure- it is basically just a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that you can walk around in under 10 minutes. It is located 7 miles from Majuro and took about 30 minutes to get to. The best part is that because there are no Marshallese people living there except for the caretakers and it's technically a "rebelle" island (foreigner island), we got to wear bikinis instead of guams! I tried to work off my farmer's tan. It's going to be pretty severe at the end of this trip. When we got to Eneko, we set up camp on the beach on the lagoon side of the island. The water was so clear- we could see everything below us! We went snorkeling and saw giant fish and coral only about 10 feet off shore. There were hundreds of different kinds of fish and coral. The water was much deeper here than at Laura Beach too. Over the course of the day, the tide moved in so that no beach was left by 4 o clock. It's crazy how fast the tide moves! We also got to go kayaking and saw a giant school of thousands of fish swimming below our kayaks. There was a hammock under some palm trees as well, and I spent a couple hours finishing my book there. We are definitely planning another trip to Eneko, but next time we want to rent the bungalows there with our whole group and spend the night!

Boat Ride to Eneko

First Sight of Eneko

Bikinis on the beach!

Day wouldn't be complete without my crocs- don't want to step on coral underwater!

Nancy and I reading in a hammock

On Sunday, Carleigh and Eric were planning on taking us to Enomonit, which is another outer island with a sunken airplane that you can snorkel around. The people whose boat we were supposed to take, however, had to cancel 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave (which happens all the time in the Marshall Islands), so we just went to Laura Beach again instead. We'll take a trip to Enomonit another time. It was really nice to be at the beach two days in a row and I feel really lucky to have been able to do that. I felt kind of bad coming back to Majuro and seeing the same people doing the same thing day after day while we went off to explore. I think that's what's hardest for me on this trip.

Low tide at Laura Beach

Artsy shot from Laura Beach- found an old Bible

Monday morning was my first day as an official teacher in charge of my own two classes! I teach rooms 205 and 206 8th grade English every first and second period. It's so great having my own students now, making my own lessons, and grading on my own. Every day, I grade the student's warm ups, and I made a sticker chart where I give every student who gets a 100% a sticker per day. Whoever has the most stickers at the end of my trip will win a Dartmouth hat or t-shirt!

After I taught my two classes on Monday, I went to find Zin, who covers the last three periods, but he was nowhere to be found. I asked around the office if anyone knew where he was, but no one had seen him. The principal said, "Oh, I guess he's not here." No one asked me to cover for him, which is frustrating because there is little leadership at Majuro Middle School. I had to cover his classes without anyone telling me, so I had to do a lot of improvisation in my lessons and come up with activities on the spot for the students to do. It was very tiring teaching five classes in a row, especially having to come up with things to do for the last three, but in the end it was very worth it and I had a lot of fun with the kids! My favorite part of the day was talking to one of my students, Kioma, at recess. She wanted to see pictures from my life in the US, and she was telling me all about her weekend. It's been really great working with students on a one on one basis. After school, there was a meeting for all the 8th grade teachers to discuss giving practice exams for the high school entrance exams. We'll be administering these every Friday from now on. Tuesday, I taught my first and second period classes, and then Zin was back, so he taught his own classes. It's nice to have my schedule finally and feel like I'm making a difference in the classroom! Tomorrow I start my girl's club, which I am very excited about. I've had a bunch of girls come up to me and express their enthusiasm for the club to start, so hopefully it will go well!

Sunset on Majuro

December 30, 2012 to January 10, 2013

Yokwe!

Yokwe, or hello, from the Marshall Islands! I've been on Majuro atoll now for a little over a week, and am loving every minute of it. My journey started off at Newark airport, where I flew to Honolulu and then spent the night. Bright and early, at 5:20 AM, we caught a plane to Majuro, which took five hours. It felt as if we were chasing the sun around the world; we crossed the international date line and suddenly it was January 1st! My first impression of the island can be summarized in a word: "narrow!" The landing strip was about 500 yards wide, with the lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other.

Typical scene in Majuro

Carleigh and Eric, the field directors, picked us up in their trucks and drove us to the Marshall Islands' High School, where we will be living in a trailer and dorm rooms for the next 10 weeks. Majuro Middle School is also located on this campus, where I will be teaching 8th grade English.

Majuro Middle School

Marshall Islands High School

My room in the dorm

The first few days on Majuro were dedicated to settling in and learning the Marshallese way of life. We had a few meals at the restaurants on the island, which were definitely an experience. Food takes two hours to come to the table, and waiters often forget your order! So far, we have eaten at the Marshall Islands Resort, Tide Table, DAR, and a cafe right on the shore. My favorite food that I've tried is called "poke," which is basically spicy raw tuna. The tuna here is very fresh because fishermen catch it right from the lagoon. Some other local foods I've eaten are pandanas, which are fruits that you eat by twisting the outside with your teeth and taste like a flower, and coconut.

Pandanas

Kids and ukulele

The DVTP graduate students were in Majuro until Sunday after celebrating the New Year. On New Year's Eve, there is a giant block party that everyone goes to. Most of the grad students teach on outer islands such as Jaluit, Ejit, and Arno. To get to these islands, you have to take a plane or a boat. There's only one plane that flies out from Majuro to these islands, though, and it was broken, so some of the grad students were stranded for a few extra days. World Teach Volunteers who were supposed to go back to their outer islands a week ago are still here because of dangerous white caps in the ocean! It was really great to meet one grad student, Ben, who gave me lots of ukulele lessons. I bought a ukulele at EZ Price, a convenience store (I feel like it's the Marshallese Costco), and am hoping to be able to play some songs once I get back. A lot of the students are very talented musicians, so I'm going to bring my ukulele into school and try to get them to teach me.

Ben playing his ukulele

Thursday was my first day going into Majuro Middle School. I met the principle, Anthony, and vice principle, Len, and started to get acclimated to the school. Almost no students showed up that day because they were still celebrating New Year's. I spoke with Anthony about starting a girls' club after school, which I am excited about beginning next week. On Friday, there was another half day of school, and I got to observe my first classes. I was paired with an 8th grade English teacher named Rosita, and I watched her review final exams. The students are working on the past tense, simple sentence structure, and later on in the term, writing paragraphs. They have to take an entrance exam to get into high school, and if they don't pass, they have to drop out of school, which is really disturbing. So many students are way behind grade level, and it'll be a challenge helping them prepare for this test.

My Classroom, Room 205

This past weekend, we went to Laura Beach, which is located on the opposite end of the island. We're in Rita, which is on one tip of the island. Laura Beach is 36 miles away, and we rode in Carleigh and Eric's pickup trucks there. It took about an hour, and we got to ride with Carleigh and Eric's puppy! Once we got to the beach, Max and I went on a really long snorkeling adventure. Laura Beach connects the ocean and the lagoon because it is the tip of the island, so you can swim on both sides. About 300 yards out on the ocean side though, there are very strong currents so you can't swim past that point. When we were snorkeling, we saw so much diversity in the marine life. There were hundreds of different kinds of fish and coral, and I even saw a sock. There's so much pollution here- it's so moving to be in paradise but surrounded by litter. My favorite fish that I saw were a cheetah print fish and a school of 100 blue neon fish. There was also really cool blue neon coral. The girls went on a walk down the beach and collected lots of amazing shells and coral. I got a spider conch shell and some pink coral. It was such a treat going to Laura!

The crew of undergrads

Intense snorkel time with Max

Just chilling on a log

On Monday at school, I got assigned a new mentor teacher named Zin. He's Marshallese, and I will be observing his classes all of this week and then lesson planning and teaching two of his classes starting next week. The students are learning simple past tense and irregular verbs. The difference in ability between the students is amazing. Some of them speak English very well, while others barely understand it. That will definitely be challenging. I've been walking around the classroom and helping students with worksheets, and I've also been helping teach by explaining answers on worksheets and going over homework assignments at the board. Most of the students will not do homework though, so I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to realistically assign. I will be taking over 1st and 2ndperiod, so I've especially been getting to know those students. Zin and I will also be tutoring together after school twice a week. On Wednesday and Thursday, I got to teach two full lessons a day, which was very exciting! I'm really looking forward to having a set schedule and being in charge of my own classrooms.

The view from my classroom

This week, we've also been going to Professor Garrod's West Side Story auditions at the high school. All of the undergrads will be helping out with the play in some way. I will probably be helping with text interpretation and building sets. Many of the students are extraordinarily talented, so I'm excited to see the final result. All of the dialogue will be in Marshallese, and all of the songs will be in English. Professor Garrod is even flying out an '07 to do all of the dance choreography! She will be here for 16 days, so the students will be working very hard during that time to learn the dances. Other than that, our group of undergrads is a great gang. We've been having a lot of fun hanging out in the trailer, going into town, cooking dinners together, and even doing this workout video called Insanity. Whenever we do Insanity all of these kids love to do it with us. It's really funny to watch all of the kids staring at the computer screen. They find it hilarious. Life here in Majuro has been great so far, and can't wait for the days to come!