DAY 6: Tues (Yesterday..late post. Sorry)
Today was the first day we were in the classroom and I loved it! I was pretty anxious last night and really just excited to get started and meet my students and teacher, so I didn’t sleep much but that’s ok. I did something to my foot too so I wasn’t able to go running but hopefully tomorrow I will be back out to watch the sunrise. Dr. Santos came in last night and it was so good to see her and talk with her before my first day. She was actually in class with me most of the time today which was really helpful as well. I met up with my teacher at 8:00 in the in the home economics room where our department devotional is held. Monday they have the devotional in the auditorium with the whole school and then Tuesday through Thursday we get together as teachers and have devotionals in our departments and then Friday we have a teacher devotional with all the teachers in the teacher lounge. We start everything, meetings and class with a song, a prayer, and a spiritual thought. I love it. These kids are amazing at conducting, I love hearing them sing at the top of their lungs and they have all the songs memorized, and really good, humble testimonies to share. Our head of department, or HOD as they all refer to these teachers as, was not here this morning so we met as a department for song, prayer, and a short introduction as to who I was and then I went with my teacher, Moeaki but I call him Moe and he’s really nice. I learned a lot from him today and the greatest part for me was allowing him to talk to Dr. Santos about art education. He thought it was really interesting that I will be getting my degree in art education and not just the fine arts or a specific medium like ceramics or painting. He was really curious about curriculum and how things are taught in the states. He asked us if we had any text books or resources for him as a teacher to learn more about art education and being a better teacher. I really admired his desire to continue learning and better his profession. I randomly brought my text book from my art education methods class so I told him I would bring it to class tomorrow for him. I’m really grateful that wasn’t one of the things I dumped out of my suitcase at the airport.
So the vice principal told the teachers that we would observe for two weeks and then we could transition to teaching more. Moe asked me about that right at the beginning today and I told him I could actually start teaching much sooner but I would like to observe this week and get a feel for the students and his teaching style. We walked a little bit more and then he said, “ Okay, so could you teach today then?” :) haha I told him I could if he would like me to. I ended up teaching all three classes:) (His first period on B days is a prep period which was really nice so we could talk about the projects the students are working on right now and about the schedule and the partial curriculum they have).
They run school in forms here: form 4-7. We are still trying to figure out how they divide the students into these forms because they don’t seem to be in age like we were originally thinking. We also found out that some students are here until they are 19 or 20 to finish up and graduate so the forms are most likely done by skill level, not age.
I’m also learning a lot of Tongan already, and one cultural gesture we have picked up on and actually have started using is the eye brow raise. It means “yes” in Tongan or that you are agreeing with someone. I have seen it before but today in the classroom the students were raising a lot of eye brows when I was trying to learn their names and repeating back what I said to them. haha I think it’ll take me a few days to remember that they are saying yes and not just looking at me or widening their eyes. haha I actually caught myself doing it in conversations tonight. It’s really awesome.
Well, teaching was a really good experience. I did some demonstrations on lino cutting, a type of printmaking, which just added to this dream-like experience as teaching printmaking is what I would love to do. I was amazed and so impressed when Moe told me they did not have actual lino but he has been giving the students old carpet to cut out of it. It’s amazing and works just like lino!! Maybe even better because the under side is the carpet and grips better to the table. I love the use of resources. They also don’t have cutting tools here so I was wondering how the students cut the carpet and quickly found out how to use a normal Xacto blade to do it all. I asked if I could practice before I taught his two form 4 classes how to do it and decided to use the Liahona symbol with kapesi or tribal designs I had done before I came to Tonga. It was awesome sketching it out and carving and cutting with the blade. He pulled out some student work that he had. It was beautiful and again I was amazed and impressed at the student work. I knew I was going to come to be mainly learning from them.
They are set up in a block schedule with A and B days so today I had a form 5 and then two form 4 classes. All of my classes are mainly male students with seven female students in my form 5 and four female students in each of my form 4 classes. I have close to thirty students in each class so it’s heavily over weighed with boys. I don’t know why yet, or if there even is a specific reason but it was interesting to see that today.
After school I sat with Moe and Dr Santos and planned out the next eight weeks and when I will start teaching on my own and which classes I will be teaching. Requirements are that I teach at least four classes by myself. As of right now, Moe would like me to take the form 4’s and form 7 classes because they don’t have curriculum. I can continue teaching the printmaking with them and then maybe later on pick up a few more classes. It would be great to actually take on all 7 classes just to see if I could even do it. haha I’m excited to meet the rest of the students tomorrow and see what more I can learn! The form 6 classes are doing 3D sculpture so that will be fun and really good to see. As for me, I am looking up printmaking lesson plans, useful vocabulary, and websites on how to speak Tongan! I’m going to focus on learning the language and teaching art. :) I don’t know when I will get Sunday or Monday’s post finished or not so I will just add here that I did find a home stay! My HOD asked if I would mind if there were cats and dogs at the meeting after the vice principal announced that I would like to be placed in home stay. I told her I had animals, but when she told me had 5 dogs, 2 cats, and newborn puppies now my thoughts went rushing back to the dogs and cats in Chile and the homes we visited that had pets and it was a little rough we’ll say and definitely not the favorite of one of my companions, Hermana Alonso..;) haha But really, I’m grateful she volunteered and is willing to have me. We talked some more after the meeting and she said her son just got back from his mission last week from Africa and is moving back to California to go to school next week so when he moves out I will move in. I’m excited for the home stay and happy that I found out about that.
Well, that about wraps up the day! Lovin’ it here in Tonga.
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