First week of classes

Oh my, the first week of classes is upon us and its stressful and exhausting, but also exhilarating and rewarding so far. I'm currently on one of my prep/sub periods and am taking a break from writing a pre-test for my Chemistry classes to update all of you on my first few days of school. Faga'itua uses a block schedule, so I'm still trying to get used to the long class times and plan enough to fill a period. This is made more difficult when dealing with a bell schedule run by Samoans, who have little concern for time. Sometimes classes go 10-20 minutes longer than they should, other times they're cut 15 minutes short. Ah well, will just take some getting used to. 

My Chemistry students are a great bunch of kids, they can be a bit rowdy though, especially when I have them in the afternoon. I teach Chem periods 4, 5, and 6, so the period 6 kids will have the benefit of me going through a lesson twice before getting to them. The poor period 4 kids have been my troubleshooting class so far, and devolved into a chaotic mess yesterday morning when I couldn't think of something to to for the last 15 minutes of class when my lesson ran short. As of now, I've also been given one small section of Earth and Space science, but I've yet to actually meet them, so I'm not convinced yet haha. I'm really hoping that works out because I think an Earth science classroom is really where I can be the most help while I'm here in Samoa. I think I can handle teaching High School Chem, but I'm sure I'll be much more passionate in my ESS class.

I can already tell that I need to become a bit more strict. I'm going to institute a day to day points system that will hopefully make managing the classroom easier, but said I wouldn't start it until next week, mostly so I could organize myself before dealing with it. The kids are already pushing boundaries and testing me, so I need to knuckle down next week and enforce my rules consistently. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it.

One thing thats already really hitting home to me is how much work teaching is. I've always respected teachers and tried to appreciate the ones I've had, but that's at a whole new level now that I'm faced with a year of managing these classrooms.

Quick post today, have to get back to work so that I can print out these exams for tomorrow. 

7/8/12 10:30 AM

So the school year has finally begun. Yesterday we had a big meeting of all the teachers in American Samoa, and this week we are doing things like setting up our classrooms, meeting with the staff and administration of our school, and going over standards and benchmarks in more detail. In addition to all of that, the Manu’a volunteers leave probably tomorrow or Thursday, so we’re all trying to see them off since it will be a while before they’re back on Tutuila.

On my way into school today I had my first run in with a pack of dogs in my village. One little dog was playing tug of war with a local boy, and after I walked by the dog began to bark and chase me. In what felt like a half second three more dogs popped out of nowhere and started charging me. I didn’t have a rock or stick or anything and pretending to grab one wasn’t working, so I grabbed my water bottle out of my backpack and started shouting “Alu!” (Go Away!) at them while threatening to hit them. That didn’t work either. Luckily some locals were outside their houses and came to my rescue before I got bit. One of the school janitors saw and told me to always carry a stick from now on, some advice I’ll definitely be following. It sucks because I love dogs, but the ones here are pretty terrible, or just completely heartbreaking.

My house is good so far, but its kind of weird not having everyone around anymore. The privacy is a good trade off, but I definitely miss all the other volunteers. We’ll just have to make plenty of visits during the year, easy enough for the others on Tutuila. The Manu’a people, like I said before, will be a little harder to visit, so we probably won’t see them until winter break when they’re back here for our mid-service break. We all have phones though, so we’ll stay in touch and can still use each other as a support system.

Some possibly exciting news, which I will hopefully have confirmation on today or tomorrow, I think the administrators swapped me into teaching Earth and Space Science instead of Chemistry, which would be absolutely awesome. The kids are a little more difficult to manage, but I’d be much more passionate and familiar with the material, so I think management will end up being easier for me in the long run. We’ll see if it’s true or not, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Not much else to update about, the island is still beautiful and the people are still friendly. I’m really looking forward to classes starting and getting into the swing of the school year. Missing all of you guys back home or wherever you’re reading from!!

Mike

2/8/2012 Thursday 5:30 PM

Time to update again, more than just pictures this time since I’m borrowing Andrea’s computer and her keyboard actually works. Orientation is drawing to a close. Last week we had many teacher training sessions on everything from classroom management to first day tips to planning long term units or semester long projects. The sheer volume of information was overwhelming and tiring, but it’s given me some confidence for the coming year. This weeks sessions have been focused more on culture, including a talk about fa’afafine’s, a visit to the national museum, and learning some basic weaving. In addition to all of that, we squeezed in nine (or should I say iva) Samoan language classes taught to us by a pair of Mormon Missionaries. The language is full of vowels, and lots of words mean many things, but the basic structures are pretty simple, and I think if I keep at it I could learn a fair bit of Samoan while I’m here.

As if that weren’t enough, we’ve given three teaching practicum’s in as many weeks. The first one was in a group of 5, so it was pretty relaxed and fairly silly, our group made folded paper frogs. The second was in pairs, so me and one of the Sara’s did a science lesson about convergent plate boundaries. It was fun and involved a game and the two of us running into each other a few times, we had pillows for cushioning though. The last one was a solo lesson, and was supposed to be about a half hour in front of mostly Samoan students. However, when the day came only three students showed up, and we had been split into three classrooms. So my lesson on contour maps was given to David, a rising junior at Tafuna, and a bunch of the other volunteers, and the 30-40 minute lesson I’d planned took only 20 minutes instead. Overall the lessons helped me get a little more comfortable in front of a classroom, but since I’ve been living with the other vols, it’s not quite real life only teaching to them.

Last weekend, Jessica and I made an early morning trek over to Faga’itua to meet with one of our vice principals, Elvis. He’s interviewing for head principal and I hope he gets it. Faga’itua High School is a small campus for less than 500 students from all over the East side of Tutuila (the big island). The smallest high school, and also the most far removed, it lacks the resources of some of the bigger schools like Samoana (right in town) or Tafuna (the biggest high school right by the airport). The science equipment is especially sparse, so I will have to be pretty resourceful and creative in the coming year. I also found out that, as of now, I’ll only be teaching Chemistry and one section of Freshmen general science. I know I’m capable and, according to Elvis, will probably be the most well versed science teacher at Faga’itua, but it’s a little sad that I’m not gonna be teaching what I’m really passionate about. There’s a new teacher coming in with Jessica and I though, and a new Science Department Head, so theres still hope I might be able to swap a section of Chem or add a section of Earth and Space science to my schedule.

The village itself is small and slow paced, with beautiful water and small mountains all around it. The two of us were also lucky enough to meet our landlady, Masa, and got to see our house, which is big, clean, and comfy. Each of us gets our own bathroom, a full kitchen with an oven and a big fridge, and a ton of couches and other chairs. We have plenty of room for all the other volunteers to visit and stay with us, so heres hoping all the west-siders get their butts out to the east. I don’t think that will be a problem though, since Saturday afternoon we all spent the day at Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, an awesome dive right on a private beach with delicious pina coladas and even better seafood. Tisa a native of Alega, and Candyman, a kiwi who’s been in AmSam longer than I’ve been alive, run the place, which is a local landmark and hosts the Pacific-wide Tattoo festival every October. It’s definitely a spot I’d like to get to know better, and am glad it’s on my side of the island.

We all move into our permanent placements this Saturday, and it’s going to be weird to be away from all the volunteers, but also a bit nice to get out of the close living quarters that are starting to get a little grating. For the 10 going to the outer islands, Manu’a, it will probably be the last time I see them until Christmas, unless we get lucky and make it there for thanksgiving. The other 18 volunteers will be on the west side of Tutuila, so I’ll be able to visit them, and probably will often just to escape the slow pace of Faga’itua on the weekends

Island life is good so far, and I’m just looking forward to it getting even better once school starts and I can really settle in. It won’t be perfect, and there are still a few things I know I’m going to miss and will be challenging to live without, but I have a feeling the positives will outweigh those few negatives. Will post again soon, I hope.

Mike