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