My One Month Aniversary

I walked off the plane in Nassau on August 15. When the alarm went off at 6am on September 15, a tropical rain storm had enveloped my little apartment. I had breakfast and a cup of coffee as is continued to rain, and then as I was ready to leave the rain let up a little. I figured that it had passed and since I can get to school on Sweet'n Smooth in about 7 minutes, I set off. Giant puddles stretched across most of the road sometimes and I carefully avoided getting splashed by passing cars. Just as I was on the last stretch of road to the school, the rain started up again. I peddled faster and swung in front of some on coming traffic so that I could make my turn before I got drenched. I pulled into the front door of the school a little out of breath and soaked. It continued to rain the rest of the morning. One of my students dressed up in a fisherman's hat and rain jacket and escorted students from their cars into the school.
I've squeezed in an hour or so of a new class I call "Aesthetics", in which I let them rest and enjoy something of beauty. Sometimes I'll read them a story of a composer as we listen to their music. Sometimes they listen to music and draw. This week I've decided to start reading to them. The vast majority of my students don't get read to on a regular basis, and I believe it's SO important in the development of a young person's imagination. Story-time is almost a sacred thing in the human experience. We've started reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Some of the students have seen the movie, but nevertheless everyone is enjoying the original story.

Another highlight of the week was in Literature class. We are currently reading Kidnapped and we got to this part where one of the characters sings a little ditty about a sword fight he was in. I took volunteers to demonstrate what the song may have sounded like. At first some of them just started reading it like a poem, then a couple actually started singing, and one sang through the entire six stanzas, which had the whole class in hysterics. Great fun!