Nothing new to report. April is finally here. March was just way too long. But I’m glad (and the other students and faculty are also glad) that the last month of classes are finally here. This month has some exciting events, such as track and field competitions and Easter Break.
A few of you wanted to know what a normal day is like for me, so I’ll try to go through one for you. Remember, this is the average weekday for me.
Wake up – 7:30.
I am glad I get to wake up on an average time. I am not an early morning person, or a morning person for that matter. Sometimes I can get by to sleeping until 8:00. I usually wake up on my own without my clock getting me up. By this time the light from the window is pouring into my small room. I take a cold shower (remember, I have taken one hot shower since I got here 8 months ago), and I’m usually the last one to go because Joe and Dwyer get up right before me. For some reason which we have not been able to figure out yet, the water always drips in the morning, and the water pressure comes later in the afternoon. So some mornings we have to settle for a little drip of cold water. Waking up on those cloudy, rainy days makes the cold shower even harder (these days are a freezing 68 degrees…freezing!). If my beard is out of control (I don’t like to go without shaving for more than a week now) I shave afterwards in the adjacent room which is our “community room”. This is where Joe, Dwyer and I have our tooth brushes and other things. The bathroom connects that room with my bedroom. By 8:00 or 8:20 on the later days, I’m walking to work.
8:00-8:30
For the students, this time is morning study, which they have to attend (unless you are a senior, then you just bum around or frantically start your homework or study for a test). This is a good time for students to look for teachers on any last minute questions. Since my students know my feelings on last minute work, I’m usually eating my breakfast during this time. I am available right before the 8:30 bell for assembly, or sometimes on the day of a test I’m there the entire time. But traffic to the teachers’ offices is not that high during this time. I’m still trying to wake up. If the internet is on, I am checking my email. I have a good schedule since I usually have the first two periods open every day.
8:45-11:55
This time takes up the first 4 periods with a small recess (10:00-10:30) in the middle. On my free periods I am getting ready for the day’s classes by looking over my notes, printing certain papers out, or just planning the actual lesson an hour before I step into the class. The latter has happened more than once, and it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m always prepared for class. Some lessons require a lot of personal research on my part, but most of the time it’s common sense (for me) so I just have to learn how to simplify it for these kids. I don’t like to do grading in the morning, so I am good to get most of that done the night before.
12:00-12:45
This is lunch time. We’re usually pretty hungry by this time because we’re usually running around all morning or teaching. Plus breakfast is not always that fulfilling. The lunches here are very good, mostly fried spam, tuna fish, different types of spam, veges, rice (obviously) and some fruit. On non-busy days I take my time eating. But there are some days where I still need to get some work done and even I leave work for the last minute, so I feel like I need to look over my notes again before class. We all sit in the faculty resource room, and the faculty take up three tables.
12:45-3:00
The last three periods of the day. This is the time of the schedule when I’m usually booked. Some days I have all three classes in a row! That means standing, walking back and forth, talking, and all that other energy you need for teaching for over two hours. Luckily for me, I don’t notice how exhausted I am until after my last class, but it really takes a lot out of you. In the beginning of the year, I needed naps almost every day. But now I’m doing a lot better. On those hot days we get a good sweat going (some other teachers compare our soaked shirts with each other, see who got a better sweat going).
3:00-5:00
This is the time of day for afternoon study, any meetings, and rehearsals. The students have the first half hour to chill, meet with teachers, go to the Galley (the student run store that sells cola and other snacks). Freshman through juniors must be in the study hall from 3:30-5:00. This is the time of day when I am in my office or hiding out in the faculty lounge, but I try to make myself available, especially since this is the best time of the day for the girls to see teachers or do their work before they go back down to their sponsor families at 5:00. I do some grading, but never any lesson planning. If I need a snack, I get a peanut butter and jelly (which is a huge life saver for most of us here…the reason we’re all losing so much weight is that extra food or snack is hard to come by). I most definitely need some water from the humidity and all of that talking I do. It’s a good time for me to have some informal chats with the female students as well, if they don’t have any homework. For the girls that break school rules, they are supposed to do some work after one of the school days. Their form of work involves cleaning the school, like mopping, sweeping, taking out trash, and so on. I once saw them in the back of the school cutting up wood for kindling, which surprised me cause high school girls at home would never think of doing that, either because they’d be scared of breaking a nail or would think it’s too “hard” to do.
5:00-7:30
This is my free time of the day. I stop all work at 5:00 (sometimes earlier if I’ve had a bad or really tiring day) and try to get away from my work. This is also the time of the day that the power usually goes off (not the first time of the day, but a time that has been part of a pattern). I try to get out and exercise by playing basketball as much as I can at this part of the day. Being outside, the activity and being in that informal, fun environment with the kids is always relaxing. I played basketball with shoes and socks ONCE this whole year, so the bottoms of my feet are now as tough as leather. I’m very used to hardly wearing anything on the feet (you have to take them off everywhere you go because it is both clean and polite). I’m even used to teaching barefoot, let alone hiking through the jungle barefoot, since wet zorries are too slippery (take that, $60 hiking boots).
If I’m not playing, I usually just chill on the porch, looking down (literally, not figuratively) on the kids on the field, playing or practicing. Then the power comes back on at 6:00, and we start dinner. Dinner is usually some weird meat or chicken, some local food (we wish we got more fish, or sashimi) and some cabbage or veges. Between the end of dinner and 7:30 I try to relax, because 7:30 the students come up for evening study.
7:30-9:30
That’s right, my day is not over. Evening study is from 7:30-8:30 for the kids. This is usually when I grade or lesson plan, but by 8:00 the kids come up and start bothering the teachers. Not really bothering, mostly asking questions. However, some of them leave study saying they need to see a teacher, when all they do is travel from office to office chatting it up with each teacher, not getting any work done. On some days it is nice to talk with the guys and have informal conversations with them. Other days I’m either really busy with work, busy helping my own students, or in the resource room, hiding yet again from the kids, trying to get some work done on the computer. Even in here, in the faculty resource room, the students come knocking and are always looking for you. Usually they have some good questions – which I welcome, because this is an advantage for going to a boarding school; the close contact with the teachers gives you all of the extra help you need – but sometimes they just need you to repeat what you said in class because they weren’t listening. It’s tough to distinguish, but I’m learning.
Even by the time the flow of students dies down, we’re usually still doing work in our offices until 9:30, or even 10:00 if we’re busy. I usually try to be done by 10 the latest.
9:30-11:00
This is the time for me to wind down. On really busy days, I just leave my office and fall into bed. But I try to decompress by reading on the porch or just chatting with someone. Usually my books are good (I’m on my third Tom Clancy now) so I want to read until 11:00. I basically read until I can’t open my eyes any more. Also, 11:00 is usually when Xavier turns off the power, so that’s when my day officially ends.
So this is a normal day for me. A LOT of interaction between the students, so you can see how it is important to try and get away from them on the weekends or at night. But it has created a more genuine bond with them, and it helps us understand and help them a lot more, which is the whole point of what I’m doing here. Also, like I mentioned, every now and then I have some fascinating conversations with them about their home islands or about whatever. It’s also a good time to help the students with any of their personal problems, although you do not really show your emotion or feelings in this culture.
I hope this answered your questions about what my normal day is like. On the weekends, it varies, but it’s mostly waking up later – around 9 if I’m lucky, and taking my time to wake up. There is a lot of reading, movie watching, playing outside, grading, and lesson planning, but a lot less interaction with the students, or at least voluntary interaction with them. We need the weekends away from them, and I’m sure they need it away from us as well.
Keep brining on the questions. Peace.
