School Activities and Pictures

Here are a few pictures of my wonderful students. Top left is my 4th period class on our last day before Christmas break. We had a Christmas party and they were more than happy to pose for me.

Top right is Jia and Lora.

Bottom left is me with Veronica. She was a wonderful student to have in class, but because of some scheduling conflicts she was unfortunately moved to a different class. By the way, I mentioned I might post some of these pictures and they gave me permission to use their names.

Finally, bottom left is me with Mrs. Svetlana Atalig. She is from Russia and has been giving me weekly Russian lessons! In the background of this picture, you can also see the school principal, Mrs. Borja in the bright blue shirt.

My Apartment

Here are a few pictures of my apartment. You may notice that the walls are rather bare, but that is because they are concrete and next to impossible to hang anything on. Since these pictures I have been able to use command strips to plaster a couple pictures to the walls. Hopefully they will stay. I also hope to get curtains, but I am finding it is not a big priority. At first I was always aware of how bare it looked, but I guess I have gotten used to it. This little place has really become my home away from home.

Life in Saipan

This Jake and Steve attempting to stay warm by the "fire" at Christmas dinner!

The children dancing are doing a traditional Filipino stick dance. I tried it too, thinking it looks easy...it's not. Note: rhythm required.

This is Amanda and I at Saipan Community Church's annual Christmas Feast!

This is me with Lani at our Christmas party for MHS. She has become a good friend and she is great to work with!

Wow, it's been a while

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted--sorry everyone. I have been doing really well here in my slice of paradise. Since Thanksgiving I have finished student teaching, I have finished my Jan Term class and I will be officially graduated on February first. Then I have six months of relaxation until the real work begins...paying back my student loans:(

This week I am finishing out the semester with my students and look forward to the next. The way things are set up at my school, students take a Language Arts class all year long and don't change at the semester, so I will continue with most of my students. There will be a little bit of moving around where I will lose a few students and gain a few different ones, but in a way it is nice to keep these same ones.

I have really enjoyed this semester for the most part. It has brought a lot of challenges, but also a sense of accomplishment. I was expecting to student teach, and found myself as the main classroom teacher instead. I have certainly gone through a baptism by fire in that way, and I have had moments where I never want to see some of my students again. But the last month and a half has been so good that I am glad I made the choice to be a teacher.

Sometimes teaching is a profession where you give and give and see very little reward, and other times the rewards come so unexpected and in abundance. Today I had a student make me feel like I had done something right. This young man is a part of the special education program here and he has a very low reading level. In the past he has been very disorganized and will not turn any assignments in. I have done my best to modify and help with organizational skills and I think it is starting to pay off. This last month we have been working on a huge project and he completed it on time, got all of the components finished, and did not plagiarize anything. I am so proud of him. He can definately be successful and I think he is finally starting to believe it too.

Besides teaching, life on island has been great! I had a wonderful and blessed Christmas, and I was not alone! It is great in a way that I am among other people with like professions that are also far from family for the holidays. You become family together and make a point to make the holidays special for each other.

It has been very rainy and windy here again. Typhoon season quit some time ago and for a couple of months we had little rain and lots of sun. At the end of December, however, we hit our second rainy season and it has been cloudy and cold. By cold I mean 75 degrees. I know that sounds perfect to you all, but I have actually gotten quite chilled. Because it is humid and rainy and windy, it is easy to get cold even when it is technically 75. In a way it is nice to sleep all night with the covers on and hot coffee in the morning is wonderful.

Because it has been rainy, however, the chances for spending much time at the beach have been slim. The snorkeling has been difficult with the chilly water, but soon the dry season will be upon us and beach hopping will be great again!

I will try to post a few pictures here, but my internet at my apartment is so slow that it can take up to an hour to post 3-4 pictures. I will do what I can though. I hope you're all doing well. Drop me a line sometime to let me know.