Review week for 1st Quarter exams

This week was review week for the 1st quarter exams. I had a test for my music class on Monday, and then the rest of the week was review for my classes. As I was reviewing with the Algebra classes this week, I came to the realization (though I had noticed before) that most of them are still counting on their fingers. How can they be freshman and juniors and still be counting on their fingers? I don’t really know, but I think that is one reason why the freshman were having such a hard time with positive and negative numbers, even though I taught them how to use a number line.
I came up with a suggestion this past weekend about getting the high school students to help the elementary students with their reading. We have quite a few struggling students in all grades in the area of reading comprehension. I was thinking that getting the high school students involved with the younger students would help both groups with their reading skills and also bring the school together. Some of the seniors already tutored struggling students, but now other high school students are helping. This week the elementary classes were divided up into reading levels so that they could have tutors come from the high school for help. Each grade has their own reading class in the morning and in the afternoon they have the divided reading classes. I hope that this program will help our struggling students to improve their English and reading abilities.
Wednesday night we had our regular prayer meeting at the school. Afterwards we had a Yokwe party for people leaving Ebeye. There was a potluck and people talked about those that were leaving. A Filipino family and our school’s accountant are leaving in the next couple weeks for the Philippines. Our accountant is going to finish her training to be a CPA. As part of the Yokwe party, Mr. Batlock played the guitar and sang a Marshallese song while all of us walked around the room in a circle. I must say it was kind of weird to be walking in circles and not knowing the song they were singing. After the song finished, we each placed a dollar in the bowl in front of the people leaving. It is a farewell offering to them.
The Pastor was supposed to fly to the Philippines on Thursday to attend the meetings for the Southern Asia Pacific Division and Guam Micronesian Mission, but Continental had mechanical problems and delayed his flight 24 hours. On Friday, he went back to the airport on Kwajalein to get his flight. They rerouted him to Honolulu (about a 6 hour flight) to take a direct flight to Guam (about a 12 hour flight), and then on to the Philippines. I cannot imagine spending that much time on a plane!
After school and chapel on Friday, I went back to the apartment to finish making quarter exams. Some of Megan’s 7th grade students came and invited us to a birthday party. We followed the students as they led us to the house. As we walked past the school the students were saying something about girls from the public school fighting behind the store across the street (right by the ocean). They left Megan and I to go watch the fighting, so we waited a few minutes for them. When we got to the house the birthday boy told us to sit down at the picnic table. Agnes, a teacher’s aid at the school, gave Megan and me bottles of water. They served homemade pizza (it was amazing and greasy), ice cream, cake from Kwajalein (expensive cake), and Barbeque Lay’s chips. After we finished eating they brought out a piñata and a little boy was hitting it, which was really cute to watch. When they finally broke it open, candy and toothbrushes (yes, toothbrushes) spilled out onto the ground and the kids were scrambling to pick them up. It was interesting to be somewhat of an observer at the birthday party (and the tallest one there). Megan pointed out some of the students who didn’t eat their food but covered it to take home, saying that they most likely ate very little at home. It was interesting to see the contrast between the well-off family and the kids that were at the party. The great part is that those who have more money are usually willing to share what they have. I think that is something we could all do well to practice.