Back to School

I've had a great first week of my second semester as a volunteer teacher in American Samoa. Monday and Tuesday seemed a bit long at first as I was adjusting back to the work day, but it's been nice seeing my students again and thinking about how I want to handle this semester. I stumbled upon some things on the Internet Monday night including a Discovery channel series called "Curiosity," which really got me excited. Science is all about curiosity in my book, so I definitely plan on incorporating this into my classes this semester. I also did some thinking about how to minimize the number of lecture/note-taking sessions I utilize, and I thought about it a bunch on Tuesday. Think I'm going to try to incorporate more articles that we read together and then work on some comprehension and reflection questions maybe once a week. One lecture session, one assignment day, one day where we analyze photographs and incorporate some Spanish, and then one Curiosity day. I also plan on having a few guest speakers come in this semester and go on some field trips. Just have to work out the logistics of those. At least a general idea right now, but I feel rather elated and excited about it right now. Just gotta make it all happen, now :-)

This Monday, I had my students look at a photograph, make some observations, write some questions, and make few hypotheses. This was a nice way to think about the scientific method again. One of the other things I touch back on with our definition of science - my two main focal points. I was rather happy with some of the critical thinking I saw going on. Maybe I did teach these kids a few things last semester. Good feeling.

Tuesday, I asked the students to write about things they learned last semester before we went over their grades and final exams. Nice review day. I also made it clear that their grades start over this semester. While I wars basically happy with grades last semester, where most of my students stayed at C's and above, I hope we can improve this semester. As long as you put the effort in, you can do it.

Wednesday, I gave a lesson on SMART goals and had my students think about things they would like to accomplish within our 5 months together, in or outside of school. I used my goal of completing the Insanity program as an example. Haven't missed a workout yet. I've been a little sore, but I've been sweating up a storm. Doing the Insanity workout after my regular exercise, the Firm on MWF and Zumba on TTh.

Rain picked up Wednesday afternoon, but I was determined to leave right after school so I could make it home in time to exercise, shower, and head to church. One of the Math teachers kindly gave me a ride as he was heading to pick up his kids from elementary school. He didn't want to leave me at a bus stop without a shelter and it worked out that he also picked up his wife from the college, where there is a sheltered bus stop. Then, I caught a bus home, got my workouts in, showered, and was beginning to grab some dinner when Junior called asking if I was coming to church. I looked down and he was already there, "Yeah, be down in a minute." Threw my skirt on, grabbed a granola bar, and off I went. Was really nice to see a bunch of them and chat with them more. Me and the high school kids in the van. haha They're good kids, and I had a fun time in the van. Also a nice message from Pastor Scot that night. I may be tutoring some of them from time to time. I've offered before, so we'll see if they actually take me up on it this time around.

Rained all through the night, and it's raining right now as I write this Thursday morning. Monsoon like rains at times. When we were up in the cafeteria eating breakfast, couldn't even stay dry as the wind picked up and blew rain under the roof. The rain has seemed closer to the door of my classroom than usual, as well. haha Just another day in the South Pacific. Nice cooling off, though, for a bit.

Looks like it's going to rain all day, and I think the NOAA forecast agrees with that. I am showing an episode of Planet Earth today called "Into the Wilderness". It's a really good one that talks about humans taking over the wilderness, the sustainability of our planet, and raises some interesting moral and ethical questions. I've been pointing some of this out to my students as we go while I've been taking notes. I also see some future projects and activities that can relate back to this. Good stuff. Like I said, I'm having a really good week. Lots of ideas stemming, which is nice after the two week break. At first, I thought it might be harder to get myself going again.