Cultured as a teacher

This school year is flying by. We have completed 7 weeks of school and they have been great. I have learned many new things as a teacher, what works, what doesn't work, what kids can handle at what age levels. It has been very eye opening so far. But, the thing that I have learned the most is that there is so much that is going on outside the classroom and it is a teachers duty to make that relationship with the student as strong as you can in an eight hour day.

I have found that in different cultures and different places in the world people might not be growing up in christian homes or even a household with parents that live with them. It has been very intriguing to me to hear about the different places and different cultures that these students come from. I have learned that some students come hear strictly to learn english and it has very hard to understand this concept. Some students come to Saipan while their parents are still back in Korea, China, Japan, ext...... just to learn english. So I have found it hard to grasp how a student can find support outside the classroom.

I am looking forward to getting to know the different cultures and learning about the students and developing the different relationships that I may face in the coming year.  

School

So I know I have been very bad at writing in my blog and keeping those of you actually reading this updated on the things going on in my life.  For those of you who know me fairly well I like to be as busy as possible so I don't have to sit by myself in my apt.

School has been going great!!!!  We have completed 4 weeks of school already and the time is flying by!!! I really don't know if that is a good thing or not but i have really enjoyed learning about the different cultures and different teaching styles toward students of different races and ethnicities.  The biggest difficulty that I tend to face is the kindergarten and 1st grades because some of the students don't speak english all to well yet.  So I find myself using more cues and hand motions to get the students attention and to help them understand the task that they may be trying to accomplish for the day.

I really do enjoy the younger grades very much so and it is so interesting to see how they react to me as a teacher.  Some of the students are so amused with my hairy arms and legs(they call this my white FUR!  I have kids come up to me in class and just start rubbing my arms or trying to touch my legs if I am standing there, they really haven't seen it before in the culture that they are from so they are so amazed that I can have so much hair on my arm.  They also are very intrigued by my blue eyes.  I had a student ask me the other day how my eyes got this way!  They thought that everyone had dark eyes and that it was very interesting that a person could have bright blue eyes.  It has been very interesting to see the tendencies and the curiosity of the younger students when they are experiencing something new.  I find myself learning more and more about there cultures everyday understanding where they come from, things they stand for and the different backgrounds that these students are being brought up in.  Looking back to one of my education classes I compare this experience to a melting pot of students and teachers working together to form a unified bond between education and our service to the Lord.

I have been coaching the coed volleyball team for my school and let me tell you it has been interesting!  Coming from watching my sister playing volleyball I really thought that volleyball couldn't be that tough but let me tell you it's tougher than it looks....... Right now we are focusing on getting some serves over the net(this has taught me some patience, because I am told that I am a little competitive sometimes or so I am told )!!!!  This is a little different volleyball in NW Iowa where they start playing in 4th or 5th grade.  For some of the kids this is the first time they have picked up a volleyball and have learned how to bump it over or even return a serve.  So we have started with the basics and we hope to gradually get better and learn each and every day.

I will hope to update soon about more of my experiences in Saipan.  My challenge to you today is to meet someone new.  Someone of a different ethnicity or different culture.  You will realize that you will probably have more in common with that person than what you think......

Spear fishing

This past weekend a friend of mine on the Island took a couple of us new teachers spear fishing.  This was quite the adventure.  We drove up to the northern part of the island and when we reached the beach we walked along the bank for about a quarter of a mile.  We had to do this in order to get past the coral so we got in and let the current just pull us out into the ocean a little ways.  This was quite crazy for me because within a matter of 2 minutes of swimming we could see the bottom of the ocean and we were swimming in about 40 feet of water.  It was amazing that you can see down that far and the water is so clear here.  So I started off with a hand spear this spear has a rubber cord on the end of it that you pull up near the top of the spear, you sneak up to about 6 feet from a fish and release the spear and hang on to the cord.  This was a challenge for myself.  It is a lot harder to spear fish than I thought.  You have to be really good at diving and holding your breath in order to get near a fish and I could not do that as good as I would have liked to. For those of you who know me well I am really competitive and wanted to catch a fish however I was unsuccessful at doing so.  I also was able to try to spear fishing guns one shot about 12 feet and one shot about 20 feet.  It was hard getting use to shooting and predicting where the fish was going to be along with playing the current as well.  I had a good shot on a fish and barely missed the fish because after I shot at the fish the guy told me it was a  poisonous fish and we wouldn't have been able to eat it anyway.

This was a really fun trip I was able to swim and see a lot of different things in the water ranging from small little colorful fish, eels, and even a sea turtle.  Sea turtles are kind of hard to find around here since they are endangered animals and people from the island hunt them illegally and eat them because they taste good they say.  I told someone about seeing a turtle the next day and he said to just shoot it because they were so good.  So the mindset of the people on the Island sometimes is if you can get away with it then it is ok to do it.  This is hard for me to grasp because it is so different then what I grew up around.  I would really like to go spear fishing again and learn more about the area fish and water life.

Teaching

I made it through the first week of school and it was very challenging/eye opening for me as a teacher.  Wow I never have been laughed at by so many students for pronouncing so many names wrong.  I tell you what I have seen so many different names that I have no clue how to say or pronounce so it is very hard for me to remember 230 students because I can't even say them muchless remember them.  Some students have both a Korean or Chinese name along with an American name so this makes it easier if they have this and easier for me to remember since it is so familier to hear. On another note the students are very structured and disciplined so it is easier to conduct and easier to get to know the students.  Students at this school are very smart and are very good at memorizing things that are put in front of them.  So my goals in health is to get students to think outside the normal written memory and factual knowledge.  If you ask the students a question from the book they will know it right away however, if you ask them why a person ought to do something  like why is it Christian to do that or why we should eat healthily students have trouble understanding what I am asking.  I feel that this will be my biggest challenge here is to get students to think past the basic concepts and factual knowledge and really putting them into use outside of the classroom.  I would like to get the students to really understand the importance of health and physical fitness because they seem to really focus on subject areas and really excel at learning in the math and science areas because they don't have to think outside the box they just know the right and wrong of numbers and other things put in front of them.  I think that this will help me as a teacher though because I will understand how to deal and teach students that learn differently and can only understand some of the things. All in all it was a good week for me and am looking forward to learning the differences in students and  the backgrounds where each student comes from.

Food

Here in Saipan I have encountered many different types of food.  Vietnamese, Chinese, Tawain have been some of the foods that I have tried in the past couple of weeks here.  I ate at my first Vietnamese restaurant last week and I have never really used chopsticks before so it was very interesting for my first time.  I find myself wanting to eat so fast so I just lift up the plate and scrape the food in my mouth rather than taking little bits of rice that my chopsticks pick up.  For a while I was just taking the end of my chopstick and sticking it right through the meat or other delicacies that were difficult to pick up, however, I was informed that it was rude or a form of insult to the food so I stopped doing that.  Even though the food looks a lot different than american food I still do my best to try at least one bite so I know whether or not I would like it or not.  I have found that I really enjoy the vietnamese and other ethnic foods here.  Even though it does not include as much meat as a normal american bacon cheeseburger or a great big steak I have learned to really like the wide variety of vegetables that are included in these foods.  (I still do treat myself to a burger and fries here though every now and then.  I would like to learn to cook some of these foods and bring them back to the states for others to realize you don't need so much meat in a meal in order to have a good meal.  My challenge this week is to try a different ethnic food that you have not before and form a respect for other cultures and what they may offer!!!

Where I live

This is where I live......My Apt......The school.....The Church......the beach

Getting Settled

Over the course of the last two weeks here I have had the opportunity to really just get settled into Saipan culture and prepare lessons for my upcoming school year.  Saipan culture is a little different than the one I am use too, everyone is allowed to be late because the Island is so casual and so relaxed(they call this "were on island time NO WORRIES").  This bothers me because I like to be a little early and getting to a place at a planned time rather than LATE.   This is just a little different for me to get used to in certain situations.  I also have to get use to the ants, they are terrible here and you have to put all of your food in the fridge else they chew through bags, boxes and other things.  Other than those things, people have been incredibly gracious and welcoming to me here.  The teachers were invited to a barbeque the other night and I was able to meet other Americans that are on the Island.  All of these Americans are either doctors, lawyers, or teachers because that is what the Island is in need of.  We were given a free car to use on the Island by a lawyer because he left the Island indefinitely, so we are very grateful that we have transportation for the time being.  My dad would probably have a heart attack if he saw this car and saw me driving it!!! It has many dents and is tinted from head to toe to keep the sun light out of it.  It has 3 blinking lights on the dash to get things checked out, but being on an island you only need something to drive you a couple miles so if it would break down we could just walk : ). On the Island you learn patience and to take things as they flow.  On another note we were able to go to the market on Thursday night(a once a week ritual for food and dancing up town).  You have everyone trying to sell you there food and everything is $1 whether you get a can of pop, bowl of rice, or a side of chicken.  This was an experience to see some of the different cultural dances and to taste the different foods of each culture. I have really learned to respect the different cultures and all they stand for.  So far it has been a great experience for me and a great lifestyle change for me.  I have seen so many struggles that people may face and have learned to be very thankful for what I have here and extremely grateful(however feel bad for what I receive at home).  A challenge for everyone reading this to take an important thing away for a couple days such as a TV or even turn off your air conditioning and see how good we really have things!!!!