MJ Live

Friday, September 01, 2006

Culture Days (Written 9/1/06)

This has been a busy week with school but the best part of it was today – the end of the 2nd term. Before I talk about you let me tell you what's happened over the past couple of days.

On Wednesday, I gave my Year 13 kids their final CAT for the year (Databases) which I have yet to grade but when I talked to Sara she was surprised how well her kids did, so I'm hoping for the same outcome. While the final CAT was nice (Year 12 had their final CAT last Friday) it was even better knowing that Wednesday was my last day of teaching for the semester. This day seemed so far away in June, but it finally arrived and I was ready for another 2 week break. While Wednesday was my last day of class, it was not the last day of school – we had two events planned for the last two days.

On Thursday, the school held it's English Day which is basically an opportunity for the kids to perform skits and speeches in English to show how much they know. It was an especially scary time for the Year 9 and 10 kids (High School Freshmen) who were not very strong at English in the first place. Even though some kids had a hard time, I was impressed by the quality of English a lot of the kids knew – it's something that you don't really notice a lot because the students are always so quite and timid in class and when you do hear them speak in an excited voice it usually comes out as Samoan. It was a full day of just skits, dances and speeches which took place in the Samoan Fale of the school  (my front porch). A lot of the performances were very well done and I had an opportunity to see what the students thought of my/western culture – they had quite a bit of funny interpretations of my culture, but it was all in good fun. The most interesting thing about the English Day was the fact that this was the first time the school had competitions within the years – not the houses, so I guess that made it a fair competition for each of the students. The categories in the English Day were Speech, Poetry, Impromptu (where the kids are given the topic only when they are standing in front of the audience), Item (usually a dance item by the students in that particular year), Skits, Moc TV (this was for the Year 13 students only, they created a western advertisement and acted it out) and posters (in which I got to see what they think of our visual media). A lot of kids won certificates but everyone who participated was a winner simply because they're able to speak the international language of English. As a person who has grown up speaking English, you never realize how lucky you are to speak the dominant language of the world until you go somewhere where their first language is not an international language. This was a nice day of remembering that fact.

Today (Friday) was Samoan Day in which I thought we would celebrate the Samoan culture in the same way we did English Day. I was wrong. We held it at a different venue (it was held in an open fale on another catholic school property) and instead of having the entire school participate there were only 8 participants – a boy and girl from each of the school houses. It took me a while to find a comparison to this event back home but I found it – this was like electing a homecoming king and queen (except the students didn't vote for them, judges gave them scores – so it was more like a beauty pageant in that regard). Samoan Day was totally different from English Day – primarily in the fact that the entire program was in Samoan so I didn't really have a clue as to all that was going on. So I just went with the flow and snapped a bunch of pics and vids. This was also the second fashion show that I've attended while I've been here – who knew that Samoa was becoming the fashion show capital of the South Pacific. The portions were Samoan Fashion, Talent, Samoan Siva/Dance and then a Question and Answer section – both the boys and the girls did these sections, so this was also an all day event. I was very surprised by the amount of work that went into making all the outfits – it especially hit me hard because we have students who are having a hard time paying their school fees (going to school is a requirement in Samoa BUT there are no 'public' (aka  free) schools like the ones we have in the states) but they're spending a lot of money on this presentation. Just had to shake my head at that one but I enjoyed the show and all the effort that went into it. I think my favorite part of the whole event was just hanging out with the students outside of the classroom. Inside the classroom you have to be stern and keep order, but it's nice to crack a smile with them every once in a while. When I'm at these school type functions, unless I have to sit in a chair, I try my best to sit with the students on the floor and not be above them. While I was sitting on the floor watching the show, a random kid – no older then 1 years old – came up to me and just started hugging on me. I don't know where she came from but she just grabbed onto my shoulder and began hugging it. I thought this was cute so I didn't stop it – which was probably a shock to a lot of the people around me watching (not only the students, but the non-students and adults watching). After a bit, she left me alone and I went back to taking photos. While I was standing up taking a photo, she came back again and began hugging on my leg – that's when I snapped a photo of her (which will be in the album as soon as I can get it there), she smiled and then left again. The last time I saw her was when I was sitting down next to the students again and she came and grabbed my arm again, but this time she layed her head on my shoulder and tried to say something (not in Samoan, just baby talk) and I thought this was just so funny. Here I am at Samoan Day for my school trying to decipher baby talk – classic! Anyway, someone (I guess her sister) pulled her away from me but not 1 minute later she came running back and tried to talk again. It was a lot of fun and definitely the highlight of my day. So the event lasted from 9am to 1pm and the Ms. Chanel for 2006 is Kuinimere (Queen-Mary) from the Saga/Green House. The Mr. Chanel for 2006 is LagoLago (Lawn-go Lawn-go) from the Saga/Green House – so it was  a clean sweep for them. After the show, the students were handed their school reports (that's right, we're almost done with the school year and kids are just NOW getting report cards – don't ask me why, I just work here).

Now that I have officially finished my 2nd term of being a teacher, let's look back shall we. I would have to say that I have seen some real progress in the kids between the first term and the second term. In the first term I couldn't get them to answer me even if I put the answer on the board – some kids would answer, but the most quiet (and thus the one's that usually need the most help) never spoke up. During the second term, that changed – I think they finally got it that I don't care if they give me the wrong answer, I'll eventually give them the right answer. The only thing I'm interested in is the simple fact that they tried. In my Year 12 (Madeline) and Year 13 (Laura), two students who didn't say a word during the first term have been trying their hardest to do well in the class during the second term and I definitely took notice – it just goes to show that what I learned a while back works no matter what culture you're in: If you tell someone enough times that you believe in them and they can answer your questions, eventually they'll believe it and start answering your questions (or trying to). Worked for me – it can work for anyone! I didn't have to be as tough on the kids this term as I was during the first term because I know them better and they know me better – so it made for some fun classes at times. The only problems I had did not come from the students or the school, but from the board of education and their implementation of the computer studies program. It's only the first year and there are still some kinks to work out but there were a lot of times during this term where I was made to look inept because of the board not giving me something in time and that frustrated the students and myself to no end. That's another reason why I'm glad the CATs are finally over – it's basically clear sailing until I have to give them their school exams sometime during October/November.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost one year since I've been gone. This time last year I was on my way to a wedding and these kids were just words on a sheet of paper. My how things have changed. Now it's only a matter of coasting through the last 3 months of school and here comes Winter (Northern Hemisphere)/Summer (Southern Hemisphere) Break. L8r.

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