A Union Visit, Parent/Teacher Conferences, A Fantastic Dive, and One VERY Cool Class Period

1-15-09 This week had a variety of good and exciting happenings. First of all, the chaplain and missions' coordinator from Union (Emily's school) came to Ebeye. Pastor Rich had been working his way from island to island, visiting his student missionaries, and on Monday evening, he came to Ebeye. Emily, Ryan, and I went to sit at the dock to meet him when he arrived. It's always very interesting to see a visitor's eyes widen when they see the prices at Triple J.

Because Parent/Teacher conferences were on Tuesday evening, we had no classes during the day on Tuesday. Instead, we (Ryan, Pastor Rich, Lorraine, Landen, Megan and I) went diving at Shell Island (and Emily went snorkeling). We geared up at Hidao's house, rented a taxi, and rode out to Shell. It was a very bumpy ride in the back of that truck!

Once at Shell, we unloaded and set up our equipment. My tank decided to have some issues, but it was easily fixed. We made our way into the water, swam out to where Ryan indicated, and descended. I had no problems getting my ears to equalize, and, of all the dives we've done so far, this is the one I've felt most comfortable on. We kept swimming ("Just keep swimming, just keep swimming") and kept going deeper. The blue around us kept deepening as we descended, and I kept thinking, "Are we ever going to get there?". Suddenly, the ship we were headed for just appeared out of the blue murkiness. I was thrilled, as if I were the one discovering the rusted, encrusted wreck that lay forlornly on the bottom of the lagoon. We went closer and we actually swam through a hallway. (Don't worry, Mom, it was all cool. Even though we were eighty feet underwater.) As we swam away from the wreck, I passed a small bit of coral that was growing on the edge of the ship, and there were these tiny little black-and-white striped fish swimming around it. They were very cute. During our safety stop, we looked at some very awesome coral (purple, blue, and yellow) and saw lots of fish, including more the the black-and-white striped ones (but they were bigger than the ones at 80 feet). We finished ascending, got out of the water, rinsed off ourselves and our equipment, and took the equipment back to Hidao's. Then we went back to the apartments, took showers, and ate.

After I ate, I went to the school in order to check my e-mail before the beginning of Parent/Teacher Conferences. When we started the conferences, I was ambivalent about how many parents would actually show up. But I was pleasantly surprised when ten out eighteen parents showed up! I had some very good conversations with parents, and then we went back to the apartments and feasted on splurged-for pizza, sodas, and ice cream (I think Pastor Rich helped get it, though, so maybe it's not a full splurge.)

For this semester, I was assigned/volunteered to teach a communications class. It was originally supposed to be only a public speaking class, but I protested that none of our students would want to take a class with the words "Public" and "Speaking" in the title (because most of them don't like speaking in English in general). So I said that I'd throw in information about other forms of communications (like televisions, radios, and the Internet) and do public speaking as part of it. The kids were supposed to sign up with the principal for the class they wanted, and they knew that they would end up in a class if they didn't choose a class. We started the classes on the 12th, and I was honestly disappointed. Why? Because my class was full of the kids who HATE talking in class, who HATE speaking up, and are usually quiet in general. I went through my lesson about the model of communication, using the students to illustrate it and then drawing it on the board. I had them then draw it down, so that they could study for the quiz on Wednesday, and then I unsuccessfully tried to get any of them to stand up front and talk. All I wanted was them to get up and say like a sentence about what their favorite thing to do was--and none of them would do it. No one would take the plunge.

Wednesday came. I administered the quiz (which most of them passed with full points!) and tried what had not worked in the last class. I even went and sat at one of the students' tables, in order to vacate the front of the room. As I sat there, I was still talking, trying to get them to go up front and say a sentence or two, nothing epic. I knew it would pointless to follow through on my lesson plan because of their reluctance to speak, and so I sent up a little prayer. Then I had a flash of brilliance that I know must have come straight down from God, because I know I was at a loss for what to do. The idea was to get all of the students up front, and so I said, "Okay, everybody up front now! Up, up up!" At first they were a bit reluctant, but they ended up all standing along the blackboard. I got them to pair off and ask each other what their favorite thing to do was, and then I tried to get any two of them to introduce each other. No takers. I was seriously getting frustrated, but that was only my minor feeling. What I felt on the whole was that the particular situation was a challenge, and one that was fun to try and tackle. The whole point was to get them to talk, and I would try almost anything to get them to talk. So I grabbed one of the freshmen who are in the class (one of the boys who were most likely to be the first to speak) and asked him what his favorite thing to do was. He mumbled, "Swimming," (which, by the way, wasn't true; it's actually basketball) and I told him that one of my favorite things to do was write. So I got him to stand next to me, and across from the other kids, and introduced him to the group. Then I made him introduce me. After that, other kids would step forward and do what I had asked them to do, until all of them had spoken at least a sentence. By this point, I was very excited but was containing it very well. I asked them if it was hard or easy, and some of them were honest and said that it was hard. I asked the ones who said it was easy why they had thought it was easy, and they pointed to their empty seats and said, "No one was watching." After that, they asked if they could sit down, and I agreed because they had done so well being up front. Funny thing is, whenever a pair introduced themselves, they were standing in front of the desks and facing the board, where everyone else (including me) was standing. So, even though there wasn't anyone in the seats, anyone who spoke actually did speak in front of the entire class--I just don't think that they were/are aware of that fact, even though I tried to tell them. We'll work on the them-standing-up-in-the-front-of-the-room as we go. But I got them to talk and it was really thrilling!!

More later.