Advanced Year 6 Group

My advanced Year 6 class is my highlight of the week.  There are 7 children in it:  Petina, Sinalei, Victoria, Philip, Malele, Risati, and Jacinta.  Their English is at a level that I can have candid conversations with them about things more than “What did you eat for lunch?”.  This term, we’ve been reading “The Iron Giant”, the book that the subsequent movie was based on.  It’s only about 60 pages so an easy read over 10 weeks.  Every week the kids have been getting more and more sucked into the story till this week where we’re on the second to last chapter and when I announced that we’d be finishing up next week, they all groaned and begged to continue.  It was so genuine that I felt an instant surge of gratitude to these kids.  This was their first chapter book ever and they were eating it up.  Today we were working on questions for the chapter and one involved a Space Dragon (omitted from the movie) and somehow we got on to the topic of space and planets and galaxies.  Their minds were utterly blown.  They knew about the planets in our galaxy but wouldn’t believe me when I said most of the stars in the night sky have planets as well.  Then I went on about a news article I had read that said people were sending a space ship to Mars next year and that it’d take years to get there.  Ohhh my gosh well then the conversation really got going!  The book questions were forgotten and they went on and on about different questions about the universe including once we die and go to Heaven, if we’d be able to look down on Pluto (sure…?).  These kids are a blast to work with and I’ll miss not working with them next year as they move on to Year 7.

L to R, Back Row: Risati, Peteli, Malele, Philip

Front Row: Sinalei, Victoria, Jacinta

Science Fair

I was approached about a week before our district science fair about heading up the project for our school.  In Samoan schools, the school sends a team to the science fair instead of individuals competing within a school.  So the Year 8s in my school came up with a 5 person team of girls who were very involved in science and English.  The principal asked me to come up with a project idea for the girls to work on and I decided to do “Composting as an Alternative to Burning Rubbish”.  Burning rubbish is wide-spread throughout Samoa and is the most common way to get rid of trash, dead leaves, and grass cuttings.  It’s actually caused a problem with soil replenishment because all of the dead leaves and grass is burnt instead of allowed to decompose.  So I proposed to teach the girls about composting as a way to prevent health effects from burning rubbish and to replenish nutrients into the soil.  So with a week to the science fair, the girls and I set off to Apia to do research for the project and to buy resources.  The girls were thrilled to get the day off of school and to get on the computers in Apia. 

The entire week we worked on the project to help the girls understand the material, practice their presentation, and work on the poster.  By the day of the presentation, they were completely ready to go.  The science fair was held at the local Palalaua College and Primary Schools from four different districts competed, all on projects pertaining to Adapting to Climate Change.  There were some really great projects there and I was worried about how my kids would do but I shouldn’t have even worried, the kids beasted their presentation and blew the judges away.  They placed 2^nd overall and that qualified them to go on to the National Science Fair in Apia next month.  Just seeing the smiles on the girls faces made this whole last week of stress worth it.  They were thrilled beyond belief.  On the whole way back to the village the kids stood up in the back of the pickup and sang, holding their trophy above their heads.  It was quite a sight to see them so happy.

The girls, proud as can be!

Our lovely compost bin!

Sports Days

A part of the curriculum for Primary School students includes a PE section.  To fulfill this requirement, most schools in Samoa hold Sports Days each Friday.  All of the students at the school were split up into four teams: red, blue, yellow, and green.  So for instance, the red team would consist of 6-7 students from each year with a two Year 8 Prefects acting as coach to the team.  Each Friday, the teams compete against one another and whichever team has the highest cumulative score for that Friday wins!  There are several different sports that my school plays: soccer, soccer ball throwing, volleyball, and rugby.  The most entertaining for me are the rugby matches.

Growing up in America in highly protective schools were when one played football, one played TOUCH football since there was no way the school was chancing a lawsuit if a student got tackled and hurt in PE class, it was extremely entertaining to witness students body slamming each other on the field outside my school.  And when I say body slamming, I mean it.  They’re out there full force tackling so that they both spin to the ground, grabbing onto shirts and whirling them to slam into the ground, and looping arms around necks in an effort to stop them.  The whole while, all of the watching students and teachers are laughing and having a jolly good time.  I have to say, it was more fun that I have any other day.  The best part is the boys love to do it!  It’s their favorite sport to play and they really enjoy (I’m assuming) mitigating out body slams all in the name of sport.  Even the Year 3 students who played went full force into the game as even though they didn’t quite know the rules, they all whole-heartedly joined into the body pile-up when someone had the ball.  It’s a long ways from the overly protective schools of America.

Here are a few of the better pictures I’ve taken on Sports Days:

Soccer races

Team pride!

Year 2 and 3 pile up

Vice-Principal Alapati giving a pep talk

Look at that face!  Now that's some serious rugby

Uh oh!  He's coming for you!

Parent Teacher Conferences

When I was going through Elementary, Middle, and High School, I was the perfect angelic student that all parents dream of (pffft yeah right…) and Parent Teacher Conferences were not something that I dreaded.  Now that I’m on the opposite side of the conference in the role of the teacher, I was overwhelmed when I was first asked to write report cards and conduct Parent Teacher Conferences with my 75 students’ parents.  So two weeks before the event I began to gather my resources and come up with phrases that’d serve me well, such as:

His/her reading has improved.  Ua aloalo i luma lona faitautusi.
He/she is smart but talks all the time.  E poto tele, ae tautala so’o.
He/she needs to work on… E tatau ona galuega i…

This way I could write out the reports for the kids that not only included the grades for my midterm and homework reports, but also attempted at showing the parents what I thought of their children.  For the most part, the children were all exemplary but of course there are always a few that needed a few extra comments on my part regarding either behavior or alarming grades.

One of the report cards

Once the report cards were written out, all that remained was the daunting aspect of approximately 75 parents wanting to discuss their kids with me, in Samoan.  I was confident with my phrases but the thought of unknown questions coming at me in Samoan brought back the fear sweat that I had during my language exam during training.  So when the day came around, I had my stack of report cards on one side and my list of phrases and vocabulary on the other.  The line of parents quickly formed and the first woman sat down.

“Malo le soifua lau susuga” Very polite hello.

“Malo le soifua, o ai lou tamaiti?” Hello in return, who is your child?

And the exchange went on and on and remarkably, I was able to hold my own.  It’s a true marker of how far my Samoan has come that I was usually able to understand although I was not always able to form a response.  That parent looked through her son’s report card, his exam, signed the report card, thanked me, and left.  As simple as that, the first was over and done with and the next woman slid into place behind her.  Meeting with the parents, I was able to finally connect faces with the parents of the children that I teach every day.  Almost 2 hours later, the stream of parents was slowing down until finally my last one came and left.  Not quite all of the parents had made it but my goodness it was a huge chunk.  Afterwards, all of the teachers gathered for a celebratory lunch with food provided by the parents and chatted about the different things that had happened.

The next day, one of the students in Year 5, Ioane, came by with a gift for me.  His parents were particularly thankful for the teachers and sent him to school with a lavalava (wrap-around skirt) for me that read, “We love you Mum”.  I was so touched, I instantly pulled off the one that I was wearing and replaced it with his.  For the rest of the day, Ioane had the brightest smile on his face whenever he looked at me in his lavalava.

I’m so proud of the improvements in all of my students.  They all performed so well on their midterms in my class.  I had many students place first in their groups who had never placed in first before.  I even had one boy in my Year 6 At-Risk class who broke down into tears upon seeing his first place score on my grade wall.  This is the reason I joined the Peace Corps: to see improvements in the learning of the children and to affect their lives in a constant, positive way.  Ou te alofa lo’u tamaiti aoga!  Malo lava outou!!

My wall of exam scores

Faitala, my #1 student in Year 4 At-Risk Group

Orion, my #1 student in Year 6 At-Risk Group

A Typical Day

Seeing how teaching is the main that I do day in and out while in Samoa, I wanted to give all you readers a look into what I each day with the school!

A Typical Day:

I usually wake up bright and early at 7am after the sun’s already been up for an hour or so.  After a leisurely breakfast of yogurt or oatmeal I’ll put on my puletasi and get ready to go.  At 7:45 I’ll start out towards the school on my bike and it’ll take me about 15 minutes to get through the village and up the dirt road.  As I pass through the village, people going about their morning work will wave and say “manuia le aso!” or “have a good day!”  My school is about ¼ mile up a dirt road into the country and on rainy days it can turn into a mini river with hidden potholes.  Not so fun on a bike.  As I pull up to the school around 8, the kids are already in the thick of their morning Samoan reading exercises.  I walk past the computer lab and almost 60 kids are sitting on the floor, reading various Samoan books out loud to each other.  A few of them wave and call out “Morning Michelle!” and then go back to their reading.  I spend the next 30 minutes in my room working on finalizing lesson plans as kids filter in and out asking for help or just socializing before their day starts.  My brother Daniel usually saunters in with a few of his friends and takes the highly sought after job of cleaning my classroom.  Believe it or not, sweeping is an extremely sought after job and kids’ll argue over who gets to do it.  In just over 5 minutes they’ve swept the floor, cleaned the mats, and emptied the trash.  Good as new!

At 8:45, morning prayer starts.  3 days a week, all of the children file outside and line up by class year, girls in front and boys in back.  The teacher will have them march in place with shouts at intervals for “left turn!”, “about turn!” etc and all the school will move as one, usually with the year ones and twos not quite understanding the English and turning any direction they please.  After a few minutes of that, the students will sing their prayers which is quite beautiful to listen to.  Each day, the teachers will choose a different passage from the Bible to read to the kids and the kids will follow along in their Bibles which they’re supposed to bring to school.  When the Bible teachings are finished, drum roll begins and all students turn to look as the Samoan flag is raised.  Right after the flag raising, all of the teachers will file among their students doing a check for correct clothing, having a handkerchief, having clean fingernails, and for the older grades that they have a Bible with them.  The boys also get their hair checked where if the teacher grabs their hair and their fingers are able to grasp something, then their hair is too long.  Usually if someone has something wrong with their clothing then they’ll get a rap on their head.  After inspections, the Principal talks to the school about topics of the day such as issues with food, upcoming exams, or other such things.  The end of the assembly comes by having the students march in place, turn towards their classrooms, and march to class.  After the students have walked away, the teachers and I will usually stay out for the next 10 minutes or so and gossip or chatter about happenings for the day.  I’ll maybe understand 30% or so of this since it’s all in Samoan.

I’ll usually teach 4-5 groups each day, all at around 45 minutes each.  The classes usually involve going over homework in the beginning and practicing speaking English with simple questions like “What did you do yesterday” and “What will you do this weekend” as a warmup.  I’ll then go over the lesson and leave the final 5 minutes or so for a game.  I’ve taught a few different games to my class but they’re most of all obsessed with JENGA and something called Tip Tap Toe that involves hand slapping, rock paper scissors, and some fast thumb action and head turning.  I’ve never seen it before Samoa but the kids really like it.

All the kids from the school stuffed into my room for assembly

Lunch is between 11:00 and 11:45 and the teachers all eat together in the science room.  There’s a small kitchen in the back of the science room and they’ll usually make rice, chicken, or curry for the teachers as well as copious amounts of tea.  Lunch involves lots of gossip and jokes.  After you’re done eating, a student will bring to you a bowl full of water for washing as well as a towel to dry off with.  After lunch I’ll finish with my groups and then at 1:00, the bell will ring signaling the end of the school day.  As I leave school, the kids, especially those in years 2 and 3 will get super excited and run around my bike, racing me down the dirt road.  It’s definitely one of my more favorite parts of the day.

And that’s that!  I’ll make it home by 1:30 most days and then it’s rest and relaxation from there.  Every now and then kids’ll come over to my house to work on their homework with me but otherwise it’s pretty quiet.

Walking my bike down the road for me

My word wall 

Getting into the Groove

These last few weeks have been an absolute blur.  I’ve heard that about Peace Corps service; some weeks will feel like they’ll never end while sometimes entire months blink past.  February was certainly one of those months and with any luck the next few weeks will as well.  School has become a routine and we just finished our first term.  I retested all of my At-Risk groups and was pleasantly surprised by the growth that I'm seeing in them!    One boy in particular not only went from only knowing 3 letters of the alphabet to now 23/26, he also could pronounce all the short vowel words I threw at him (mat, sat, fat, hit, mit, lit, etc).  Malo lava David!

A few weekends ago I went to my friend Lu’s village to have a girl’s weekend.  It was a pain getting over there thanks to the buses.  I had to leave school a half hour early, wait outside for the bus which ended up being half and hour late, go to Apia, wait for another one to her village, and travel all the ways there.  All in all about 4 hours when she only lives about 30 min by car.  Bleck.  Lu lives in a village shaped as a circle around an open field which is different from mine that is in a line.  She has a whole house to herself so I got my own bedroom to crash in for a few nights.  It was also a treat to learn that she has cable TV!  This means 10 channels: MTV, BBC, CNN, 2 Bollywood, 3 Samoan, and 2 others I’m forgetting.  The Bollywood ones felt random.  For dinner we made pasta which was a treat.  In the morning we continued with the palagi eating by making pancakes in nutella and syrup.  Yum!  Her mom had mailed her some food treats and Lu was nice enough to share.  You don’t understand what a hot commodity some of those things are until you live off of chicken and ramen noodles for an entire month.  We decided to head over to Lalumanu Beach for the day.  Some guys from Apia who are returned Peace Corps volunteers came in and picked us up.  They were apparently spending the weekend in Lalumanu as well (hmmm, coincidence much…?).  So we all spent the day swimming, getting sunburned, and laughing over stories.  Definitely one of my better weekends.  It’s nice to feel a part of a group for once and it’s such a good one to be in.  I feel lucky.






My brothers are so funny.  They are always getting into mischief and it’s usually when the older one comes home from Apia on the weekends (he goes to Primary school there).  A few weekends ago I was reading in the main fale when I heard banging and laughing.  I thought nothing of it but then five minutes later when I was walking back to my fale I noticed yellow footprints all over the ground.  Following them I couldn’t help but laughing at the sight: my two brothers and the family dogs had yellow all over them.  Apparently they’d been playing in paint barrels.  Well naturally I started laughing and ran to grab my camera.  When I came back they were getting a severe scolding from my sisters and were being set to work scrubbing the paint off the driveway.  They were warning about how when my host dad got home he’d make them really sorry but he never did notice.  To this day the footprints are still there haha!

Easter was interesting.  First off, no Easter bunny.  Which was kind of a relief not seeing some creepo in a bunny suit at the ball with kids on his knee (when did that start??). Had a bunch of relatives come in from various villages.  My host dad had a bunch of sisters so they all came (four total plus their families).  It was definitely a religious holiday here, as it was in the origins.  Went to church twice (Good Friday and Easter Sunday).  Even though I still couldn’t understand lots of it I did hear the word Eseta (Easter) lots of times.  During the Good Friday service we got a performance by kids from the secondary school reenacting the crucifixion.  They walked down the aisle with a guy playing Jesus dragging the cross and three others whipping him.  From the sounds of the slapping I think they were taking their job a little too literally haha.  After service we all went back to the house and had our toonai (Sunday meal).  All the while this was going on, my family was pulling out lots of boxes of tin fish and woven mats.  Thinking something was going to happen, I walked over to my cousin and asked if someone was coming over.  “Yep, there’s a funeral today”.  Oh, well that’s news to me.  Sure enough, about an hour later cars started piling into the driveway and relatives started pouring out.  And what followed was definitely a cultural experience.  Lots of gifts were exchanged as well as money.  The favorite gifts to give in Samoa are woven mats and boxes of tin fish.  Woven mats come in various sizes and fine-ness.  For instance ones that are about 2x4 with 1 inch wide weavings are cheaper to make and are usually used for sleeping.  The ones given as gifts though are upwards of 5x15 with weavings of maybe ¼ inch.  Those take months to make and if they are sold can go for almost $10,000.  Well my family received 2 of those mats and we gifted one of ours.  The other popular gift tin fish is interesting and has a background.  Many many years ago, gifts of pigs and cows were given and often times if a fine was given it was in terms of that (i.e. 80 cows to be given to the victim).  Over time this has given way to tin fish being given instead.  When the person giving the gift calls out what they’re giving though, they don’t say “And here are 30 boxes of tin fish”, instead they still say “And here are 30 cows”.  Anyways, after the mats and tin fish the families divided up the slaughtered pigs and cows that were brought.  It was very important that every family present ended up with a part and each part had various meanings and importance.  My family ended up with two pig legs, a cow mid-section as well as the cow’s head.  It was interesting watching the young men carving up the animals while one of the relatives dictated what family got what.  Whew, it was certainly an eventful Easter weekend.

Funny and memorable tidbits:

• Being asked quite seriously if I was from Russia because I don’t like the heat
• Being locked in the school bathroom.  Who puts locks on the OUTSIDE of stalls?
• Killing my 6th centipede
• First marriage proposal (I told him “no” if any of you had any weird doubts)
• Getting bit by a dog
• My host sister exercising by running around the front lawn in circles for 5 minutes.  You go girl!  You did more than me.
• My new baby host nephew.  I’m an auntie!  Dadrian is beyond adorable and I was able to hold him when he was a mere 5 hours old.
• Giving my host brother Daniel a Batman shirt for his birthday and then having him wear a cape and zoom around the house for days.
• Sports Day at my school where “soccer” turned out to be lets throw a soccer ball at each other
• Being told “you look rather fat today”
• Watching Juno and my brother asking me if the pregnancy test was a flashdrive.
• Sitting down in school and my dress’ zipper breaks exposing my whole back.  Aaaaah that was so embarrassing…
• Yelling “GO MANU!” as the Samoan Rugby team played in the Tokyo 7s.  Did you know they're one of the best in the world?

School Begins!

2/6/13

Huge earthquake in the Solomon Islands about an hour ago.  Samoa is under a tsunami watch.  I have to say, I have goosebumps just thinking about it.  My bag is packed if I get the call from Peace Corps to head to the hills.  After experiencing the earthquake in Japan in 2011 I have a healthy respect and fear of tsunamis.  My mom and dad both texted within 10 minutes of each other to make sure that I’d heard about the earthquake and was keeping up to date on tsunami warnings.  I love that my parents look out for me!

Update:  Tsunami watch canceled 2 hours after being issued!


Well I’m halfway through my 2nd week of teaching!  The first week fell away in a blur with students spending the first few days cleaning the school which was sorely needed after the hurricane back in December.  The teachers lounge and the science classroom were worst hit but the rest of the school had a lot of greenery damage.  So lots of pruning and sweeping for the children!

The school that I teach at is years 1 – 8, basically the equivalent of grades 1 – 8 in the US.  The difference here is that each year is only 1 classroom of students.  We’re also short 2 teachers this year so year 3 and 4 and years 7 and 8 combine into one classroom each (that’s about 60 kids in one classroom).  There are a little less than 250 kids at my school and I’ve been assigned to hold literacy groups with years 4, 5, and 6.  The school itself is designed in a line with an outlying building that serves as a cafeteria for the teachers.  My school has a beautiful computer lab and library full of books and computers donated from sister schools in Australia.  It was fun walking into the computer room and seeing Macs from the 90s.  It felt like going back to my elementary school with the elegant curvature of the Mac computers in the bright blues and greens.  Opening up the Mac, I ruffled through some of the educational games on it and while the names didn’t mean anything to me, upon opening them up I recognized instantly some of the games that I played as a child.  It really brought back the memories.

Wednesday of the first week I began my testing of each student for their reading level.  I then broke each year into At-Risk, Middle, and Advanced groups so that I can adequately meet the different levels of capability.  I’m rather pleased with the Advanced groups in each year.  Their reading level comprehension is quite good and certainly leaps and bounds beyond my Samoan reading comprehension.  I’ve been given the Library to hold my groups in so I’m thrilled to have access to all of the books.  MESC (Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture??) recently received a grant from the US to purchase reading aid books at various levels for schools that have Peace Corps placed in them.  I’ve glanced through the books and can’t wait to use them.

         Another task I was given was taking pictures of all of the students for a student registry that the pule wanted me to type into the computer.  So I whipped out my handy dandy Sony Cyber-shot and proceeded to take pictures of almost 250 people.  It was actually a really fun exercise to do.  The guys got all cheeky and flashed “gang” signs or did over the shoulder looks haha I was cracking up.  In the end though I cropped all the pictures for just the head so it didn’t matter what they did below the neck.  My favorite group though was the 1st and 2nd graders.  They were absolutely adorable beyond belief.  One poor guy was bawling then I called his name and he quickly wiped his eyes and got up front, tears still rolling down his cheeks.  The teacher was just giggling throughout, I love her!

Finally today I finished with my testing and began my groups.  It was a relief to finally get started with my real work and to get to know the kids.  Though it is rather daunting having to learn 100 names!!  Eeeee well I have 2 years to do it.

There was a big controversy yesterday.  In parts of Samoa, the families of the village take turns to provide lunch to the teachers each day while school is in session.  Yesterday, the village council voted that that would cease to happen in my village.  The teachers are upset about this and I’m not really sure what’s going to happen in the long run.  It’s an interesting cultural aspect but it doesn’t truly matter to me one way or another.  On one hand I got delicious curry chicken from the parents, on the other I can bring my own lunch.  It’s up in the air about how this’ll turn out.

Just for funsies, heres a few of the Samoan phrases I’ve been using in the classroom!  Have fun trying to pronounce ;)

Fa’ata’ita’i mai         Repeat after me
Fa’avasega Put in order
Nofo i li’o Sit in a circle
Valivali le ata Color the picture
Moe’i’ini mata         Close your eyes
Tu’u i fafo se’evae Leave your shoes outside
Usu le pese o mata’i tusi Sing the alphabet song
Na’e malamalama i le palakalafa lea? Do you understand this paragraph?