"Welcome the challenges. Look for the opportunities in every situation to learn & grow in wisdom" -Brian Tracy

It's finally back-to-school time!!  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I always love the anticipation of meeting new students, seeing my colleagues, and the energy that is part of a new school year.  All of this feels a little different this year, but I still found myself excited and eager for things to kick off on Monday!  

I am at a Roman Catholic combined school that teaches grades K-6; we have about 270 total students.  For the first day, I think I was a curiosity to most of the students (and their parents).  As the principal said at one point "they haven't really seen many people with your complexion."  But on that 1st day, I stayed after classes were done and hung out with some of the students as they waited for the bus to take them home.  They were just telling me stories and asking me questions about what it would be like to be on a rocket and go to space (not sure why space was on their minds, but that was the topic du jour).  Since I get to school early (in a futile attempt to cool off), I'm usually just hanging out in the school yard (I don't really have a physical space of my own) and so that gives me time to chat with students as well.  There's now a small group of them that find me at the end of the day and tell  me what they did in class.  I'm looking forward to working with them more in their classrooms.  

Work-wise this week I was able to visit a couple of classrooms for observation, but spent the majority of my time either administering reading assessments or analyzing the data from last year's end-of-year assessments in grade 2 and grade 4.  In addition to providing me a way to work with students, both of these are things that play to my strengths and gave me an opportunity to feel comfortable and useful in a totally new situation.  There were some challenges this week as my own values, beliefs, and culture clashed with situations.  I witnessed corporal punishment for the 1st time.  During training we were told that while this practice was discouraged that we might still see it.  I tried to prepare myself for it, but still had a visceral reaction.  There are also some other aspects of general teacher/student interaction  that are very different from how I approach things.  I find myself challenged not only by the difference in culture, but also by the fact that I can't intervene.  So I've found myself thinking about opportunities for my own learning and growth and how I can learn more/have conversations with teachers about classroom and behavior management. 

The weather here has been feeling so hot this week; I don't think the temp has gone up a huge amount, but the winds have died down and so the combo of the heat/humidity/dew point is brutal.  This is also the only place I've ever been/lived where it actually gets hotter after it rains--there is no cooling impact of the rain!  The rain also brings the mosquitos and the sand flies out--all the fun things!!  😆  For reasons that aren't 100% clear to me yet, the mosquitos are really bad at school; so I once again look like I have a pox.   It is better at home since I have screens, but things like cockroaches, gekkos, and spiders get in, so there are skeeters in the house too.  I slather myself with this vaseline that contains citronella and it does seem to help a bit.  

Some photos from this week--the top is of one of the welcome back banners.  When folks hear there is a computer lab, they assume that the school is resource-rich; this is not the case. Note: I'm only referring here to physical resources.  The school is rich in resources like creativity, ingenuity, and care.  In many of the classrooms, students are sitting two to a desk and the desks take up the majority of real estate in the classroom.  There isn't really technology in any of the classrooms; there are some tablets that can be checked out and used, but unlike a lot of US classrooms, tech is not part of the classroom setup.  The 2nd picture is a vision board that the principal had us create during planning week. And the bottom one--yes, that is me with a plastic baggie in my mouth!  This is my favorite St. Lucian treat--the ice lolly.  It's basically the most delicious popsicle you could imagine--they have some type of milk in them so they are creamy.  And the flavors are next level--this week I had passionfruit, soursop, and coffee.  There is a little shop on my way to/from school and so when I pass in the morning I tell her how many I want and then I just pick them up on the way home.  This is really taking care of my ice cream obsession.  As many of you know, ice cream is one of my favorite foods.  So much so that when folks ask "if you could only eat 2 things for the rest of your life, what would they be?" ice cream is always one of the things.  Bonus points if you can guess what the other one is!  😉