This Last Week

School is going alright, I could be doing better in
6th grade, but for some reason, everything I try has no effect. Getting them to do their work or to listen,
or to just stay in their seats is a Herculean effort. All my other classes are much easier, well,
comparatively. For 8th grade, we're
studying poetry and I'm very impressed that they seem to understand stresses,
rhymes and syllables. We've been able to
create some interesting couplets in the last couple weeks. 5th grade is doing a space unit and I'm teaching
them about the moon and also using a partner reading program to try to boost
their reading skills. 3rd grade is in
the middle of studying the animal kingdom, our next animal group are birds. They really love it and I'm excited to teach
them about animals. I've also made them
a small storybook since our textbooks for 3rd grade haven't arrived. We just finished reading the Turtle and the
Rabbit for our Reptile week. That's
what's going on in the classroom.


Vaccinations

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera
so I don't have any pictures of the island wide vaccination day. It was interesting to see the whole school
get funneled into to small Wotje hospital to receive their flu shots. The kids were cute, coming up to me and
telling me that they were scared and that it would hurt a lot. This was all in Marshallese mind you. I responded that it only hurts a little bit,
like a pinch. And then I demonstrated
this to them. They all thought that was
hilarious and they went around to each other saying, "e jab metak"
and then would pinch each other. 6, 7,
and 8 grade went first and of course, they came out and were telling the
younger kids how it hurt so much and that they wanted to cry. The little kids' eyes got big and they were
moaning and looking around for a way to escape when I told them, "E
riab!" (It's a lie!) and then they
all started
Now after all this time and energy
convincing the kids that they shouldn't be scared and that it's okay, I
couldn't pull it together enough to get my shot. I told them all that I already got my flu
shot in America, which is a lie. I hate
shots and I unless it's required, I don't want them. Hypocrite?
Absolutely.