One Week Down

The first week of school has somehow come and gone in a flash.  My schedule is very different than originally planned.  While I came here to teach a regular high school stream, word got out about my background, and I now am more involved in Special Education than anything else.  I had mixed emotions about it originally, as I was looking forward to rounding off my own experience, for selfish reasons.  That said, I’m here to help in whatever ways I would be most useful, and my schedule is really appealing thus far.  Every morning I will be spending my first 2 hours of the day in the Special Education Centre, creating IEP’s and programs for the children, as well as modeling implementation and overseeing the instruction.  Teacher training wasn’t exactly on my list of expectations for this stint, but the Director of Education encouraged me that it would be most useful to the community – especially given that I am only here for one academic year.  I would love to be working at more of a hands-on level with the kids, but realistically, it wouldn’t benefit them as much over the long term as it would to work with the teachers.  I fought to keep at least one high school period, again for selfish reasons, so I will be teaching 5^th period Senior Advanced English/ SAT prep.  In the afternoons, I will be doing assessment, consultation, and early intervention in homes throughout the island, in partnership with an American Diagnostition who has been on island for the past 3 years.  I’m really stoked about the opportunity, because it will allow me to form a lot of connections in the community, and hopefully bridge the “Aussit Teacher”/ Local gap.  I will also be forced to keep up with my language studies, as I will need to converse with the children and the parents independently.  Most of all, I will be getting my baby-fix in, as the kids are 18 mths to 3 years!  

I haven’t yet done the in-home portion, as the schedule is being ironed out.  I have been in the SMD (Centre for Special Education), and have been teaching my Seniors.  The SMD will be an interesting battle for me, as assessing the children’s language ability, without being able to understand the language has obvious obstacles – but, I feel confident it will all fall into place.  I have been working with the Teacher of the hearing impaired, and communicating with the children in sign (who are far more fluent that the teachers at this point).  My goal right now, is to have a 16 year old deaf girl integrated into my Senior English class, as she does not have any type of developmental delay, and is not placed in a socially appropriate environment, by far.   I have also been working with a Teacher who has a student who already has a firm grasp on my heart-strings (and who also happens to be part of my extended host-family).  He currently isn’t diagnosed, but is likely on the Autism Spectrum, as far as I can tell.  I’ll be using the DSM criteria next week with the teachers involved to try to get a clearer picture of him.  He’s a tornado of a child at the moment, but is extremely bright and, I’m confident, will make big strides. 

My Senior English class has been quite the experience, thus far.  The students as a whole, are very shy here.  They aren’t forthcoming with questions, answers, or speaking in class at all.  With some kids, you literally have to pull teeth to get them to answer you.  The non-verbal ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, are very different from ours – instead of head-nods or shakes, raised eyebrows means ‘Yes’, and pursed lips with a furrowed brow indicates ‘No’.  In addition to those, there is a  giant gasp/ inhale to indicate ‘Yes’, and the “uh-uh” we use to indicate ‘No’ at home,  means ‘Yes’ here.  Confused?   Tell me about it.  Thankfully, I have a handful of kids who are quite boisterous and will answer with words.  They are also the ones who give me a hard time – go figure.  And, low and behold, they are also some of the most bright.  You all know me well enough to know that the trouble-makers are my favourites, without a doubt!  

It seems apt to include a writing sample, as they bring me the most joy at the end of a day….    The following is an excerpt from the Introductory Letter of one of “my little trouble makers”.

Dear Melanie,

I think right now you already know me.  I just make a short or brief introduction for myself the day before.  And yes also you already know because today, just the second day of school, you yelled at me.  I’m just kidding. 
He goes on to tell me about his family, and pour his heart out about some relationship woes with his father.  Clearly, the impact these kids will make on me will be huge. 

And, to clarify his interpretation of “yelling” ;  Earlier, I walked up to his desk and whispered “Are you planning on working today?”, because he was the only student who had not begun 10 minutes after the assignment was given.  Maybe I should resort to passing them notes instead of speaking, to avoid “yelling” again. 

There is no curriculum here.  There is no concept of curriculum here.  Which is a wonderful opportunity in a lot of respects, because I can essentially teach everything I’d like to, using any strategies I’d like.  If you want to take your class out in the community to teach them, you teach do it.  There are no permission forms.  It is understood that you are an educated adult who has common sense, and the best interests of the children at heart.  Imagine! 

The youth here are in an interesting position.  The traditional ways of their families and church is extremely prevalent, and dominating.  But, they have the influences of American music and television – I would say it’s unfortunate that they don’t have better role models than Akon (a hot commodity here), and ‘Lil Wayne, but I’m afraid to age myself too much!  In their communities and homes, tradition always prevails.  But in the end (like all kids), they sneak around and do whatever it is they do.  It seems that their comfort level with taboo issues such as dating, respecting women, and variations in spiritual beliefs are much more lax in the classroom.  They seem to instinctively know that sitting beside a member of the opposite sex who is not family in class goes without judgment among the “Aussit Teachers”, but wouldn’t dare do it in a class taught by a local teacher.  It is interesting to observe how this works both in our favour and against us.  They seem to both appreciate the freedom, and disrespect us for not being as traditional as their elders.  It is quite the conundrum, and the best route for balancing the two will take some time.

Oustide of the classroom, the “I’m not in Kansas anymore” moments continue to run strong.  The most notable of late have been,

~ the Director of Education stopping by my house to check in on me while I am handwashing my clothing (see undergarments) on my porch.

~ teaching in barefeet

~ sampling raw barracuda on a boat watching the sunset

~ approaching 3 days of holidays next week, because one of which is an actual holiday, and the other 2 are needed to clean, kill, and uhm (see cook underground with hot stones and banana leaves) pigs.

I’m looking forward to some serious decompressing this weekend.  I need to get out into the surf, and reconnect with the ocean.  While conceptualizing the weather through temperature/ numerical representation isn’t very common here, it feels like it’s been about 90 every day (1 month in, and I’m using the American system?!), and the humidity has been preposterous.  The sun is making its rotation back to the equator/ us, and for a couple of weeks in early September it will be directly above us.  Which will mean it will be far too hot to function in many regards, so cramming in plenty of planned physical activity before then is key.  I know I’ve adapted to the temperatures to some extent, because entering one of the few rooms with air conditioning (Air-Con, in local-speak), is not pleasant.  I would say that cold showers are welcomed, or at least pleasant, but that would be a blatant lie.  All of those who said “it will be so hot, you will love the cold shower” were definitely way off base.  Extreme contrast in temperature is not enjoyable.  The fact that you may actually stay cool for 10 mins after the shower though, is very welcomed. 

( Photo: Leaf Bug on a Hibiscus twig, Lelu )