Tuesday Blues

I was working on my homework today and thinking man I should really finish this assignment so I have time to do my lesson plans. Jokes on me I thought it was Wednesday instead of Tuesday. My days all seem to be running together the only reason I know what day it is is because I am constantly repeating it to my students. This week has been great! I know its only Tuesday but my students are like little sponges picking up on everything. And it makes my life so much easier. They enjoy learning, which makes my job so much easier.

Today we tackled writing. For anyone who has ever taught or had to make someone write a paper you can understand the struggle. Now add on the fact that I am asking them to write in a different language. I often get the deer in the headlights look. Like teacher you really think I can write a whole paragraph. I found a new writing program over the summer that I was a little nervous about trying. Even before my lesson today I debated just skipping over it. I felt a little nudge being like do it, do it. So I took a deep breath and dove into it. All we did was brainstorm. Just write down your ideas and about certain topic. Easy, right? Well I can always tell when my students understand what is going on. They are silent working away trying to be the first ones done. I can also tell when they have no faith in themselves that they are doing the assignment correctly. When they don’t know. Their mouths move a hundred miles an hour trying to get assurance from their classmates. I also here a constant teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher. Well, I kept running around helping each and everyone and slowly the light bulbs started to go. Thank goodness. I was running out of energy. After school I went to review their brainstorming and to say the least I was very impressed. They actually figured it out. Let’s just hope tomorrow they can figure writing a complete sentence.

It’s been almost four weeks since I left home. It always happens for me that the first month flies by and I get adjusted back to the island life. And then like a brick wall it hits me. Homesick. Every year since I have been here this happens. Luckily, I’m prepared now. I miss being able to go hang out with friends and see/talk to my family all the time. When this happens I tend to dive myself into my work, which currently makes my mind go on overload. To avoid the memories of everyone and everything I miss. This year something great came from me being homesick. I thought of a capstone project! Yay! If you have ever been on an island you will notice trash. Our island is covered in trash. I am going to write a proposal about my class getting involved in a monthly clean up. The path my students take to school is covered with trash from them dumping it out. We are going to pick up the trash and take data on it observing what is the most dumped item. Along with brainstorming ideas to keep our island a little cleaner.

With Love,

Abby