Happy Gobble-Gobble Day!!!
Today I spend a good portion of my afternoon mopping my classroom. Funny thing is, the last time I mopped my classroom was on my birthday. Maybe I'll mop again for Christmas!! How fun.
In the pre-mopping stage aka sweeping, I noticed something was moving in the pile of dust, dirt, and paper that I was pushing around my floor. I looked closely and noticed it was a tick, I looked closer and noticed there were at least five ticks in the pile. My classroom is worse than a field of grass! Luckily, here ticks do not carry lime disease or anything else (that I know of anyways). I just swept them out the door.
The reason I was mopping is because tomorrow my Honors English class is putting on a puppet show for Staci's 11th grade English class, Stefani's 12th grade Science class, the principal, counselor, and secretary. Woah! Pressure! They did well today, though it took us all of class plus half of our hour long lunch to get through it all. Hopefully tomorrow they will be much quicker! I'll post pictures of it soon.
Oh... I almost forgot. Don't worry, I AM having a Thanksgiving meal. We just postponed Turkey Day until Saturday so it would not interfere with school. We are having about thirty people. I am in charge of the stuffing. Any recipe suggestions? I might make something else as well, I have to think of something though.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tough Week
I had a really tough week. It was too weeks ago, and now I finally feel at a point where I can write about it. Two weeks ago today one of my students passed away from complications with kidney stones. She had been in the hospital for the entire semester and was supposed to come to school that Monday. I was happy for her to return so I sent one of my students with work for her to look over so she would be relatively caught up. Monday morning my students tell me Josse is dead. At first I thought they were making an awful joke because some students were laughing, but when I checked with the principal he confirmed it to be true. Of course I was shocked. I had no idea what to do in class, as I did not have full understanding of the cultural differences related to death. Each class I gave a little talk about Josse and then allowed the class some free journaling time. Some of the students wrote about Josse and others wrote about their weekend or sports.
The cultural differences were huge and at times hard for me to deal with. I felt my lack of knowledge about how Marshallese handel death led me to feel frustrated and helpless. I didn't know what was right to say or do for the students who were close with Josse and the students who barley knew her. I never expected something like this to happen this year.
The wake was last Monday. The whole school went at a scheduled time (we had the day off as it was President's Day). We filed in past the open casket each placing a dollar or a quarter inside. Three of my students who were close with Josse were sitting around the casket fanning her. Then we all sat down on the floor while the principal and secretary of education gave speeches. Triston and I gave short speeches as well since we were her teachers. I felt my speech was too impersonal; I had no idea what to say and was so overcome with the emotion of seeing my students so upset that I made it very short.
After the wake things have been better. I was glad to be able to morn with my students in a way I was more familiar with. Since the funeral school has been much better. My lessons had been unfocused and under-planned during that week. Now I am back into focus and am doing much better in the classroom and out. Though seeing Josse's name in my grading book always makes my heart drop.
The cultural differences were huge and at times hard for me to deal with. I felt my lack of knowledge about how Marshallese handel death led me to feel frustrated and helpless. I didn't know what was right to say or do for the students who were close with Josse and the students who barley knew her. I never expected something like this to happen this year.
The wake was last Monday. The whole school went at a scheduled time (we had the day off as it was President's Day). We filed in past the open casket each placing a dollar or a quarter inside. Three of my students who were close with Josse were sitting around the casket fanning her. Then we all sat down on the floor while the principal and secretary of education gave speeches. Triston and I gave short speeches as well since we were her teachers. I felt my speech was too impersonal; I had no idea what to say and was so overcome with the emotion of seeing my students so upset that I made it very short.
After the wake things have been better. I was glad to be able to morn with my students in a way I was more familiar with. Since the funeral school has been much better. My lessons had been unfocused and under-planned during that week. Now I am back into focus and am doing much better in the classroom and out. Though seeing Josse's name in my grading book always makes my heart drop.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Pictures
The Office and some classrooms are in the building to the left. The building with my classroom is on the right. My classroom is the closest one. The dog is named Yogi. He sleeps under my desk during the school day.
The building on the left is my house! The closest window is my bedroom window, no peeping! The building on the right is the same one as above. I live right on the school's campus, my front yard is the main school yard.
The building on the left is my house! The closest window is my bedroom window, no peeping! The building on the right is the same one as above. I live right on the school's campus, my front yard is the main school yard.
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