Waking Up

The little copier is whirhing away in the corner. It's ten PM and no one is in the staff room but myself. There are many perks about living on campus, and using the staff room for printing at all hours is definitely top of that list. As the worksheets spit out on to the tray for tomorrow, I look at my calendar this morning and realized this thursday is Hallow's e'en. I did not realize time had moved so quickly.

Here it is, a month and a half since my last update and what feels like a century between.

Life here is very busy for me. As a new teacher, everything is learning. I'm learning, my students are learning, my co-workers are learning about me, I'm learning how to teach teenagers.  I'm overkilling the metaphor, but you get my point. It's hard to stop and process it in bite size bundles.

Since I last wrote I've seen a little more of this country. When I try to write about it, the words all bottleneck in my throat and I can't put it onto the paper. All I can say is, come see it with me! It's an adventure! It is worth it. 

Let me tell you a bit about today. Teaching my usual classes brings the usual ups and downs. pushing and pulling students to co-operate and then suddenly they run ahead and I am almost stopped up short by their sudden leap of understanding. Between my own learning curve and theirs, most days are a challenging dance of communication, miscommunication and recommunciation. But today I got to do something special. Ashley, a fellow English teacher, asked me if I wanted to dress up as Jane Austen for her intro to Pride and Prejudice. Would I like to? hmm.  It will come as no surprise to many that I managed to create a credible regency outfit out of clothes I had lying around the place. I even managed a wrapped turban! (There are pictures, never fear. they will surface soon) In preparing for this, I wondered how far to go. Should I do the accent? Should I be Jane or should I just give them facts and figures? I almost prepared a lecture, but stopped myself and realized that I would enjoy being Jane. It would be a fun challenge. I spent the day mildly distracted, as I began to prep for the role. Ashley had prepared tea and blankets in the chapel and all students were instructed to bring a teacup. So as they gathered around, I grabbed the mike and started speaking. Up pipes one boy, calling me out on my very un-british accent. So I take a deep breath and respond in the queen's english. Miraculously, I struck the one accent I could keep steady for 30 minutes. I did have a few flashbacks to high school English class, where our teacher made us use the 'correct' english pronunciation in order to get a grade.  Well, I explained my character to the students and asked for questions. They kept questions coming for 20 minutes! I was impressed! One kid even asked if there were dragons in the regency era. I told him YES, we had just started excavating a large dragon skeleton near our house. We couldn't believe the size of it. I think they were a little disappointed when they realized I meant dinosaur bones.  Then one of the students asked about entertainment and I told them we liked to sing rounds in the evening. So, walking into the trap with my eyes wide open, I told them I enjoyed it. So up pops the next hand. 'Can you sing for us now?' and for a few moments I hesitated. Some of you know my history with singing. I can sing. I just get so nervous I don't always pull it off. But I knew that I could sing a song in the way Jane would have heard it sung, and I knew it would really sell the character. I didn't know if I could actually find the breath support I needed to pull it of. And it was such a little thing in the midst of all the other big things going on, but I recognized an important choice: Do I maintain control, or do I let go and see what happens? 

So I said yes, and I sang. Not good, not bad, but period appropriate and I achieved my goal. Little moments like this get me through the day.

In the end it was a blast. I'm even toying with the idea of doing this for my class. How many of you think I would make a good Mark Twain?

To give you a short insight into my students, I sat down today with two of my best 11th graders. At that table, with the three of us, we pooled all of our countries together. We had Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti, Canada, America, England, France and Belgium all bottled up in our three little bodies. These are my students. They are as nationalistically challenged as I am. One of them can't wait to get out of Haiti. She reminds me of me.. never sure of where home is, but always hoping the next stop will be more comfortable. The other doesn't want to leave Haiti. She's not sure where else she will be able to maintain a balance between her three countries. These are the worries my students have. Very few of them know for sure where home is.

And here am I, teaching them Shakespeare and Mark Twain, Fitzgerald and Elliot and asking them to trust me in their importance.

The last class period before the Austen event, I had a student share her frustration with me over another class. She slipped in and out of French and Kreyol and the conversation did not slow down. I tried early on to enforce an English only rule, but it's almost impossible to enforce, especially when I feel more comfortable in a multi lingual environment. Let's face it, I couldn't stick to just English myself for an hour, so empathy for the students is in order.

Well, the copies are finished and I must to bed. Two more days and then an extended weekend!

Peace with you all!