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The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.

April 11th

Thursday, March 31st was a pretty nice day. I thought it would be quite hectic due to 24 students and 3 teachers being in Tutuila, but the principal stayed in Manu’a so the campus relaxed. Friday was just as nice. After school on Thursday I decided to make my April calendar for this next month. The calendar is on the front wall of my classroom with birthdays, school events, and holidays. I decided to put Happy Birthday Mr. Dooley for April 1st and see what would happen. The next day was hilarious. All day long students were singing to Josh. He would tell them it wasn’t his birthday and then they would go complain to me. I explained that he just didn’t want them to sing and that it really is his birthday. By the end of the day he started showing students his ID because they wouldn’t believe him that it wasn’t his birthday. :) The students weren’t very good at April Fool’s jokes though. Before school that morning I had a student come to tell me that Ben in the office needed me. I went to get up and the boy yells, “April Fool’s!” I didn’t even make it to the office!! Later in the day he said it again to me! I tried teaching them a thing or two but they never learned.

The weekend following that day wasn’t very eventful. Since Trish was gone, we cancelled the Praxis class at school. Josh and I went swimming in Ta’u for the first time on Saturday. We started out in the wharf but felt as though we were swimming in gas or oil so we got out rather fast. We jumped in the water further down the beach and loved it. The tide pulled us right along so we didn’t have to put much effort into swimming. The water was only about two feet deep. There were so many fish and blue starfish so I loved it. We also had Kola and Spot (the two dogs that follow me everywhere) escort us on the trip. They were excited when we went swimming and jumped in with us. They swam out a bit and then started panicking. Spot stayed out a little longer and got knocked out by a wave. I had to go and hold her up because she was scared. It was cute. Along the beach are some rocks so the dogs would run until the rocks turned to sand and then jumped in again. At one point Kola jumped in on Josh and he got mad and started yelling at them. I was laughing hysterically. I hope to go snorkelling in the water again sometime soon. The rest of the day was spent carving some rocks and talking to family. I am currently working on a turtle carving!!

This past week was very frustrating to me. The schedule was up and down a lot and there were a million and one things going on. The Samoan Day and Music Festival festivities have been rescheduled for this week so all last week we practiced. They took out the SAT class from my schedule which angered me quite a bit and then cancelled all classes after lunch. Every day we missed a class because the students went down to the gym to practice for Samoan Day and the Music Festival. On Thursday I had enough. The JROTC instructor was absent from school all week and then shows up Thursday and takes students out of my class without asking me. So I had students missing quizzes in which I would have to reschedule with them. I also had students walking in disrupting my classes all day. During one class we had six interruptions. I ended up locking my classroom because I was so frustrated. That didn’t stop them though and I had students talking through my window to me and to the other students in the classroom. After class I went and spoke to the principal about students staying in their classrooms or I am going to start writing them up. Some came by to apologize later. On Friday, our principal cancelled all instruction for the day.

On Saturday, I had the praxis course at school from 8:30 to 10:30 AM. Before I left my house I got a call from Trish, the other instructor, and she was sick and not attending. I was all alone again. We ended up starting a little late waiting for people. We started with three people around 8:45. A half an hour later three more people showed up. We ended up staying until 11 because there was a lot of confusion. The problem was mostly on solving for variables which we had already discussed but no one did their homework. After class, I stayed upstairs for a few hours finishing up my laundry. I was finally happy to make it home for lunch that day. Shortly after, Crystal and I left for a walk. We walked up to Saunoa’s place and home. On Sunday I went to church and made bracelets all day. Crystal came over around 2 PM and we made chocolate chip cookies!! I ate most of them.

Today has been really good. We had classes all morning and since lunch there has been Samoan Day and Music Festival practice. We have our third and final round of parent teacher conferences tonight. I am excited to have my evenings free again!

Love,
Gretchen