The next decade....what's in store?

A great day at school today

I took two of our guests with me to school today. They had a ball, and the kids loved it!

Last week, I was chatting to them at Breakfast on a morning when I had to teach. So I mentioned that I had to go and do that and she said "oh, maybe I could come to see them." That was really great because I had wanted them to interact with some of the guests when they came for the Field Trip.

I reached ahead of the guests (couldn't let them come in my old jalopy so I booked a taxi for them) and prepared the classroom. The students were all at Assembly, except one boy (another Teacher's Assistant....very good at spelling) who had not been feeling well. He helped me to put name cards down on each chair. A couple students were missing, including Mr K. Darn.

Mr & Mrs S arrived before Assembly was finished. They chatted with one of the teachers. As Assembly was over, they kids came in, each one giving me a hug as they passed me by the door. I turned my back to say something to one of them, when I felt one of the students touch me to say hello. It was Mr T. He has never done that before, so that was his way of showing affection after our first session last Thursday. It wasn't overt, cause "bad man don't show affection."

Last week, I had got the students to prepare a question they would want to ask. I selected the most appropriate ones and told them who would be asking questions. I called each one up and gave them a microphone (it wasn't turned on) to use to ask the question. I told them they were pretending to be reporters interviewing a tourist.

Mr S sat in the back of the class while Mrs S was standing at the top. I had carried my camera so began taking photos. I went to the back of the classroom to get some shots when Mr T asked if he could take some photos. I showed him what to do and he was now the class photographer. Of course he took a gazillion and one photos!

At the end of the session, I asked one of the girls to say thanks. Earlier, before we started, I had told Mr & Mrs S that they suffocated the last guest speaker with hugs so I would have to caution them against that. They said "oh no, if they want to hug, that is ok." So a few of them hugged her, and then him. Mr T caught it all on camera. He did quite a good job.

I took them down to the Principal's office to sign the visitors book, then escorted them to the waiting taxi.

Later, back at the hotel, I met them telling the owner what a great time they had. They said they had never had so many hugs in their life. It was a great time today at school. Can't wait to see them in two months after I return from home.

Mr T: First session

In one of the very first lessons last term, when Mr T was acting up and disrupting the class, I told him that I was going to adopt him. He was not so interested then, and carried on with his antics.

This term, I made him write on the blackboard most classes. When I did not, he was back to his disruptive self. One Tuesday recently, he was really out of control. He was sitting in the back of the class and hit a boy very hard in his thigh. At the end of the class, his teacher and I tried to talk to him. He was seething. You could "see" the fire coming out of his ears. It was time for the intervention.

He wouldn't tell us what made him so angry. So then I asked him if he would like to come and help me for about two hours in my office at the hotel. He forgot his anger for a bit and managed a head nod. There was a glimmer of normalcy in it. I told him he would have to ask his mother and let me know next class. I told him that he would be shredding paper. It's one of those mundane tasks, but it needed doing and it would give me some more time to clear my desk before I leave the island for 8 weeks.

Next class, I asked him what his mother said. Yes. We arranged that he would take the bus to the hotel and I would drop him home. On the said day, it was also a class day. There was a free chair beside him so I sat beside him for the lesson (I had brought in a guest lecturer to talk about the Environment). He participated quite well and more importantly, didn't disrupt the class. I gave him "The Look" when there was an inkling that he was about to do something naughty.

After the class, I told him that as it was cloudy and rainy, I would come for him at 2:45pm. The teacher looked at his uniform and said "look at your uniform....that's how you're going to the hotel?" Buttons missing, seams coming apart. He said no....he had carried a change of clothes! So clearly, he was loooking forward to the afternoon.

When I reached at 2:45, he was not downstairs. I walked upstairs to his classroom. The teacher had them working still. When he saw me, Mr T turned to her and said "see what I tell you?" He must have told her to allow him to go and change. She apologized for me having to come upstairs.

When we got to the hotel, I showed him where our washroom was. I told him to change, wash his hands and then come back to my office. I turned to go, and then turned back to tell him something else and caught him grinning with glee. Priceless.

First task was to look at application letters, see what position the persons had applied for, use a highlighter and highlight the position, then put them into like piles. He had difficulty reading some of the words, so I went through a few with him before I asked him if I could leave him for 15 minutes alone. I mentioned the word TRUST, given what he had done with my gas pedal. "Yes Miss." So I went to eat. When I got back, he had progressed quite well. I then helped him a bit by highlighting some and he would place them in the appropriate file. He got it.

Next, it was time to shred the paper. Oooooh. A machine he had never seen before. I gave him rules. Nothing with staples and no envelopes were to pass through the shredder. I told him why. I gave him a staple remover and showed him how to use it. I also told him he would have to give the shredder a rest ever so often. So while he shredded, I got on with more work. When it was time to empty the shredder into a garbage bag, I explained that for safety, we had to plug it out first, or else his hand could get caught in there. So each time after that when it got full, he piped up "you have to plug it out."

I heard him say "oh, no paper clip, no staples, no hair." What are you talking about Mr T? He had looked and saw the symbols with the line crossed over them on the shredder. Then I heard him exclaim that he nearly passed a staple through, but he caught it in time. Good son. Then he spotted an envelope and told me "that can't go in there." The fella has a brain.

It was time for dinner when the shredder decided it had had enough and stopped working. (It does that all the time). I took him to the Canteen, introduced him as my son, and he was served. I left him with one of the ladies whose son goes to the same school. When I got back, she had left, and another who is a mother was sitting with him. He ate all, except the tomatoes.

I had told him he would spend two hours. It was now nearly 5:30 so I told him we had to call his mother, since she must be wondering where he was. I told her I would bring him soon. When I hung up, he said he didn't want to leave. I told him five minutes more of shredding (it starts back working after a good rest) and then we would have to go as I had told his mother we were coming soon. He pleaded. No son.....time to go.

When we were walking to the car, he said he wanted to come again. I told him I was going away, so when I came back in May, he would come back. He said May was far. I said not really and that by the time he blinked two times, I would be back. Who tell me to seh dat??? He then said "See, I just blink two times and is not May yet." Priceless.

He lives up a steep hill near my Post Office. He told me to go up the hill and turn around. He then told me to blow the horn. He wouldn't come out of the car until his mother came outside. He wanted her to see him sitting in the front seat of a car! Oh, when we were driving home, he told me that when he was 16, he would drive my car!

I said hello to his mother, who was very pleasant. He resembles her. They live in a modest house. She has a job and so I think he has only missed school once since I have been teaching there from last year October. I told her that I told him that he is a bright boy (he is) and that he just needs a little more focus (a favourite word of my mother to youngsters) so I would be letting him come there again. She said thanks.

Now one of the things Mr T kept bugging me about was the children's activity centre, which he had seen on the Field Trip. I told him that only guests in the hotel could use it. When we were leaving and he was protesting, he said he wanted to sleep in the hotel. Smart boy. I told him that if he gets one of the scholarships we give to students from his school when he passes his Common Entrance, and he does well in high school, he just might win a stay for two nights with his parents (we have done that before). His eyes lit up. Something to keep him focussed....right?

The sessions will continue and I will let you know how we get on. I will see the class on Monday before I leave. When he was with me, he told me the other students were asking him where he was going with me. I suspect that some of them will tell me they want to come too. But that won't be possible because this is only for Mr T, who I hope will turn from being The Troubled One, to a Shining Star.

I got my kids back!

So, from my last blog, you thought last semester was the last time I was going to officially see the kids, right? Me too....until I got an email from the Ministry summoning me and the other tutors to a meeting. I had missed a meeting in December because I was away and dem never bodder to sen' no minutes!

Anyway, started back during the week of 24th January. Because I am going to be away for 8 weeks from 1st March, I have to have two classes per week. As the people here say "it forcing," but as seeing the kids each week is such a delight, I don't mind.

What happened the first morning back?

I got mobbed.....like a Rock Star! I arrived at the door to the classroom, and at least half of the 43 students rushed to the door and surrounded me. I could not breathe! "Miss, ah missed you," they said. Aw gee. I asked about their Christmas holidays, reminding them that they shouldn't measure their enjoyment of it by how many presents they got, because that is not what is important in life.

I enquired about who had left. One student, migrated to a neighbouring island, but he was replaced by another, so I still have 43.

Mr T, one of the troubled ones, was designated my assistant. He would write on the chalkboard every week. Otherwise, he will disrupt the class, guaranteed. I sought out Mr K at the end of the class, to tell him that I was so disappointed that he was the only student to miss the field trip. "Miss, ah didn't have bus fare to come to school." I asked him how come. "Miss, dey had to sen' mi bruther to school." He's in high school. He gets first dibs on the limited funds. Breaks my heart. So I told him that one day, I will bring him to the hotel to have lunch with me and see the resort. "Miss, how ah going to get there Miss?" I will pick you up....son.

Mr D, another of the troubled ones, was up to his usual defiant self in the first couple of classes. You would tell him to sit down, and he just looks at you, looks through you and continues doing whatever he was doing. *sigh*. His exterior is very stern, he looks detached. But a couple days ago, I saw him at the pedestrian crossing and I stopped for him to cross and then called out to him. He smiled! I said to myself "oh my goodness, he has a softer side!" Will try and bring that out.

They all have a softer side. This is why I couldn't watch one day as one teacher ran after Mr T and beat him with the ruler. Too sad. There are other ways man. Double sigh.

Two weeks ago, I came to class with a headache. That was the first thing I told the kids when I entered the classroom. I have a headache. I even made them spell the word. It didn't make one difference. They had just had an assembly, the first day after their school sports, so everyone was very excitable. They were up and down in the class, and I was fighting for their attention. So I just picked up my box and told them I was going. "No Miss, don't go." I went.

Mr T and Mr K came with me downstairs, telling me that the other students wouldn't stop talking. Not to mention that they were amongst the talkers! I asked them who would make sure on Thursday that the students behaved? Both of them volunteered.

I got into my car, Mr T asked me which pedal was the gas and which was the brake. I had no clue what he was planning. The door was still open when I started the car. The next thing I heard was the car revving like mad! Boy had put his foot on the gas pedal and floored it! I looked at him. He was laughing. So were the others. I asked the others to go back upstairs. Then I asked Mr T if he knew what could have happened. No Miss. If my handbrake was not up properly, the car would have gone forward and hit some of the children who were running in front of it. He immediately looked apologetic. Can't recall if he said sorry. But I knew he meant it. I didn't shout at him. I didn't hit him. No need to.

The next class, sure enough they were as quiet as mice. Well done! That afternoon, I went to the post office. When I got back to my car, I saw Mr K come off the bus and go into the post office. I went back in there. "Miss!" His eyes lit up. I knew he had a walk up a steep hill so I offered him a ride. He was so thankful! He lives in a tiny wooden house. He is content. He is happy. While we were driving there he asked me when he was coming to the hotel. Before the end of February....son.

At the end of the next class when he escorted me down to my car, he said "Miss, thanks for the ride again."

Mr T continues to be my assistant. He does a pretty good job. Except when he went to the back of the class and took a toy gun from one of the others and started to imitate a gunman! I took it from Mr T. The real owner then came up to me, hands folded, seething in anger. I asked him why he was looking at me like that! Then the following class, one of the teachers takes a part from a REAL GUN from one of the others. I understand I am to take it to the police station.

We have a field trip to go on. Originally, it should have been next week, but that won't happen. When I come back to the island, post-op, I will arrange that. They have already told me what they want to do. Go on a cruise ship. I will have to pull some strings to make that happen, as security got very tight after 911.

So I got my kids back......... and I'm so happy!