All About School

On Sunday, coming home from church, our car broke down. Again. So, that meant that we weren't able to get to school Monday or Tuesday. We got it fixed Tuesday morning, actually sooner than we had expected. We still had time to go into Port of Spain that afternoon to get violin strings for Roxy and tickets for the Children's Carnival tomorrow. So, we missed two days of school. However, it doesn't really seem like we missed anything at all important. On Monday, I was told there were only 4 out of the 9 teachers who came to school, 2 of which are students at the college there, so live right on campus. So, my class only had one class session because the other teachers who came weren't even supposed to teach us. Then on Tuesday, my form teacher was still gone although more teachers were there, but only about half the students in my class came. So, missing two days of school didn't really mean anything.
~Olivia

Our school has entered a mural competition! The competition is that any school that wants to can choose a wall somewhere on the school compound, and paint it. The VAPA (Visual And Performing Arts) teacher at our school told me that most schools would have one big wall to the back of the school that would be tall, but ours doesn't. So instead, we are painting the wall next to the basketball court. Unlike most walls (which would be tall and so would only have a portion painted), ours is approximately the length of a basketball court and slopes up a hill to the height of about 5 feet at the top, so we have been painting the whole thing! Mostly it is a project for the form twos, but a few of the days, they have needed help, and so I have helped paint some of it too! They are mostly painting people; some fictional and others students and teachers from the school. One morning a student came around and took pictures of all the classrooms, and so they have painted a few of those on the wall too. The painting must be finished for tomorrow. With all the drips we have gotten on the court, we might as well be painting that too!
~Roxy

Our school (the classes we teach at the theological college) are also underway. Last night was our third week of classes. As I write that I wonder how it can be possible. I am teaching a class that is basically the next class for social work majors after one I taught in fall. That one focused on family and group work. This one focuses more on community work. I realize that I have probably used my community work social work skills as much or more in pastoring as I did in social work.
This semester I was able to find a text book on the island that I really like and is up to date. I found two copies of it only, though. I bought them both with the idea that I would use one and I would put the other on reserve in the library. But my students protested arguing that one copy on reserve would not be enough for all of them to share. One student has a copy machine at home. She offered to copy the book for everyone for the cost of materials. So far she has been managing to bring some of what I have assigned for the next week, but not always all of it. She thought it would all be done next week.
These students have so much happening in their lives. She, for instance, works during the day as a security gaurd, then teaches dance classes, is a single mom with a teenage son and is taking something like 5 classes - more than a full load. Another of my students is in a similar situation only she works at a bank. Another has a new baby. The students from other countries are more likely to live on campus and be younger. There are small dorms there which I would guess house no more than 10-20 students in all. I really admire the level of commitment many bring given all that they are juggling. I thought I had a busy crazy life when I was a student. I certainly did fill my time. But I have to say that I did not contend with all the things many of these people do. Teaching them has been such a great part of what I've gotten to do here.
~Barb

The class that I am teaching has been going well, too. This semester, I am much more comfortable with the subject that I'm teaching than I was last term. Unlike philosophy, which I hadn't studied formally for more than 20 years, preaching is an area in which I received an advanced degree less than a year ago. It's also something I do on a regular basis, so have much more real experience with the subject.
I had originally been told that I would have two students in class. When I received the roster on the first day, however, there were three students on the list--one of the two I had originally been told about and two others. I was also told that there was another student who really wanted to take the class, but wasn't able to since he was also enrolled in Barb's class, which was scheduled to meet at the same time. Since he is a Social Work major, her class was required for him to graduate. But since he is getting a minor in theology, he really wanted the preaching class as well. So after checking with the rest of my class, we moved the time up a couple of hours. I now teach from 3:00 to 5:00; then Barb teaches her class from 5:00 to 8:00. It means that we need to pick the girls up from their school a little early on Wednesdays to make it to WITC on time. But we still only need to go there one day a week; and the student who really wants to be in both of our classes is able to do so.
~Richard