School Days

It's official, my teaching certificate was hand delivered to me Wednesday morning by Principle Tara. It sits proudly on my desk along with two stacks of student's papers; one to be graded and the other to be filed. Every time my eyes catch those words, "Official Teaching Certificate", inner turmoil arises. i have no training, no experience, and no teaching material, yet i am in charge of teaching these 14 kids the foundation of their life. What the paper should say is, "Certificate of Untrained Day Care Assistant".


My class roster is as follows:
1 - student who is on vacation
2 - students who will not listen to a thing i say, enjoy picking up trash, taking out the trash, sitting in from recess, PE, and computer class, and are well behaved only when threatened by a phone call to their parents
1 - student who does no work, does not speak, stares blankly when asked a question, and has forgotten his homework every single day
1 - student who still does not know their numbers
9 - students who are perfect angels only when the two troublemakers are not in the classroom, but mildly out of control the rest of the time


From 8am-3pm i spend most of my time repeating, "Sit down, speak English, shhhh, why are you out of your seat, do we need to talk to the principle" when what i should be saying is: God is love, 98 - 89 = 9, 'A' is pronounced 'aaaa', things that grow are living, etc. Even though i struggle with discipline on a daily basis (hourly and minutely as well), i'm still sad to see my kids go when the bell rings. In the two weeks that i've been here, the progress made in their ability to listen, learn, pay attention, and appreciate free time has been astounding. No matter how unqualified i feel, i can see that i'm qualified through God.


The frustration of unruly children is overpowered by the enjoyment of seeing my kids excited to see me. Whether its in the grocery store, church, before/in/after class, swimming at night, or just walking down the street, a student is nearby yelling "teecha" and wanting to see what we're doing. Their ability to put a smile on your face makes up for every scowl that they put there during class.


A few unrelated updates: The poverty cheese is almost a third gone already. The boils have been lanced and are healing. Night fishing is happening tonight, booties will be worn. We have met the island dentist and surfed at his house. We sat through a three hour long all Kosraean (not English) church meeting tonight.  Dr Shasta Cola makes the greatest burps. Richard the Rooster has been documented crowing at all hours of the day/night proving our hypothesis that he has a case of severe "island time". Hotcakes are not good, especially covered in peanut butter, ice cream, and watered down syrup.

Good morning USA,
Tyler