Second Year Kick Off

I emerged from my first year of teaching surprisingly unscathed. A few chaotic moments struck, such as the first time the power went out in class (I soon adapted to this because it happened quite frequently for a while), the time a student accidentally sent my entire desktop computer crashing to the floor (it remained intact, say what you will about slightly older technology), and the time a student choked on a piece of candy in class. Though hard to forget, the chaos was few and far between. In fact, most of my first year was characterized by positive interactions with hardworking students. And a healthy dose of middle school humor and sass.

After gallivanting off to Wisconsin to spend a great, albeit brief, summer with family and friends, I am back in Puerto Rico for my second year. While my mentality for my first year was mostly focused on survival, my goals for this second year are all centered on improvement.

First bulletin board of the year.

First on the docket: classroom management. Last year I used a tally system in which each class acted together to try and earn more tallies than the other classes. Detentions followed the school-wide policies and rules and were given to individual students as needed. As far as rudimentary classroom management goes, it mostly worked most of the time. That system was pretty bare bones, but gave some semblance of positive and negative behavior. The flaws, however, were that it did not reinforce positive behavior in individual students and the rewards were not immediate when the class did succeed as a whole.

This year, I looked around for new ideas and eventually took bits and pieces from several methods before concocting one to test in my classroom (essentially, this method is PBIS). On a clipboard I have a spreadsheet with each student's name, the date, and spaces for recording tally marks. I selected five positive behaviors that I wanted my students to do daily in my classroom:

• Raise their hand (RH)
• Respect others (RO)
• Be on-task (OT)
• Be prepared (P)
• Listen attentively (LA)

At the beginning of each week, I select one of the behaviors for students to focus on and write it on the board to remind them. If students are "caught" doing the behavior, they receive a tally next to their name. I also tell students that they can earn tally marks that day for two more of the behaviors that I have secretly picked, however I will not tell them which ones I am looking for. (One student already asked me if not telling them which additional behaviors was just a ploy to get them to do all of the behaviors. Yes, yes it is.)

The number of tally marks that a student has at the end of each period is the number of times their name will go into a Rewards Drawing. Because my school is "paperless", I do the drawing online using this website  which puts the names into a color wheel and selects one at random (the students have been enjoying seeing how many times their name is on the wheel and waiting in anticipation while it slowly spins). Because I want to get them hooked on this system, I have started by drawing three names each class period, but I will eventually lower this number. When a student's name is drawn they have their choice of the following rewards:

• Late Work Pass: Student may hand in homework 1 day late without losing points
• Sit by a Friend for a Day
• Listen to Music During Work Time

The rewards are printed coupons that I made, but the student gets the instant gratification of seeing their positive behavior pay off, which they have thus far seemed stoked about. I also explained to students that part of being responsible is not losing their coupons because they will not be replaced. 

Though it is only our second week of school, parents and students seem to like this system. While I'm sure there will be a moment or two of chaos, I hope that this year brings an abundance of positivity and lets students know that their good behaviors are appreciated.

The Hunger Games

This Spring, when I broke the news to my 7th grade students that they would be reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I was shocked to hear a series of groans:

"But Miiiiiiiiiiiiiss, I've already read that book!"
"Oh, I saw the movie like a million times so I don't have to read it, right?"

Though the students who had read it before enjoyed The Hunger Games, I could tell I was on a mission to make the book interesting a second (or even third) time around whilst still helping the first-time readers navigate Panem and keep spoilers at bay.

My stab at a Hunger Games bulletin board.

I do not agree with the method of teaching this novel with students competing against one another as tributes because it glorifies the Hunger Games-- something the novel itself discourages. However, I did give students a taste of how much strategy the tributes needed in order to survive by staging tribute interviews. Each student assumed either the role of a tribute (of their own creation) in an attempt to win sponsors or the role of the interviewer (channeling Caesar Flickerman) to ease the tribute's interview and schmooze the audience into sponsoring the tribute. Each interview was scored as a pair and the rest of the class voted via text message on Poll Everywhere to anonymously say if the pair had won their sponsorship. The students quickly learned that both roles were equally important in order to achieve success, which helped us focus on the significance of minor characters in the novel as well.

Student Work: Cinna's Design Book

Because many of my students were already familiar with the novel, we were able to delve deeper into the text and focused on characteristics and consequences of dystopian societies, using cameras as a way to manipulate situations on television, symbols and other literary analysis, and various activities using the text to support arguments they made-- the most entertaining of which was a heated mini debate on whether Katniss and Peeta's relationship was real or fake (arguments could not be made unless a page number and example were provided).

Student Work: Katniss and Peeta Scrapbook 

At the end of the unit I gave students seven choices for a creative project. As I had hoped, each choice was completed by at least one student. Many students opted to create a survival handbook for the Hunger Games, several created their own soundtrack to the novel with descriptions of how the lyrics connected to various points in the novel, a few created and drew their own versions of the costumes Cinna created for Katniss with explanations of why her look was important at that point in the novel, some put the Gamemaker on trial in a mock trial against a tribute, one pair made a scrapbook of Katniss and Peeta, a few comic books depicting a scene from the novel were created, and a couple students created their own dystopian societies to present to the class.

Student Work: Dystopian Society (Map)

Though many had read it before, the students seemed to really enjoy this unit and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them become more and more engrossed in the novel, angry at the Capitol, curious if our future could ever head in a dystopian direction, and defensive about what "real" love is.  Watching the students utilize the talents they have to create something entirely their own demonstrated that, with their creativity and innovation, the odds will be ever in their favor.



 Here are a few more projects:

Student Work: Comic Book

Student Work: Comic Book

That's Genius

You are not a genius. But, if you've ever experienced a moment of spontaneous inspiration that you simply cannot explain, you may have a genius, according to Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk "Your Elusive Creative Genius" (video below). Gilbert explains that in ancient Rome "genius" did not refer to a person, but to a creative spirit that rained inspiration and aid onto writers, musicians, dancers, etc. The benefit of this view, she explains, is that if a work flops, the genius is also partly to blame; similarly, if a work is highly successful, a writer must give credit to their genius and cannot claim it is solely of their own creation. It keeps creative minds sane.

I watched Gilbert's TED Talk approximately three years ago, shortly after seeing a documentary on the white-tailed tropic bird. This bird mesmerized me with its long, sleek, white tail that trails through the air as the bird glides and dives near ocean cliffs. And I felt it: my genius, if it had a form, would be the white-tailed tropic bird. I promptly changed my laptop background to a picture of the bird rocketing above the waves to remind me to write. Inspiration, no inspiration-- it need not matter because eventually my genius will chip in to do its part. I used to wait until the first line of a story or poem would attach itself to my brain to begin writing, but I wanted to learn to start with nothing and create something. To this day, my laptop background is still the white-tailed tropic bird.

One problem:
I haven't been writing.

I've made stabs at stories and penned a poem or two since then, but my writing habits seemed to write themselves off. A full-time teaching job has not helped, try as I might to adopt the philosophy of my Puerto Rican coworkers to not bring much work home. Somehow, not-writing became my routine. But then my genius showed up.

The salt sections were to the left, the beach to the right. 

Yesterday was our first official day of Spring Break and so a few friends and I ventured to the Southwestern-most tip of the island to Playa Sucia. The beach is part of a natural reserve--and the DNR was there to protect it, knowing it would be busy. There were areas of the ocean that are saturated with so much salt that the water is pink! Another section looked identical to a frozen lake with a light layer of smooth, glittery snow sitting peacefully on top, not a wave disturbing it. These areas are not part of the beach itself, but are along the road leading up to it and they are used to "mine" salt.

Playa Sucia, from the main part of the beach.

The beach area was stunning, of course. Puerto Rico never seems to stop showing me the extravagance of nature and I've learned I'm a sucker for anything ocean-related. Along the right side of the beach were some rocky cliffs, easily hiked, that lead up to a lighthouse. We took in the various views from each cliff edge, all showing the same view but in a slightly different way. At the very top, just before we decided to enter the lighthouse, I saw them. White birds trailing a banner of white after them through the sky. I thought I had seen them near Guayama at the beach, but after seeing them up close I realize I was mistaken. They were magnificent.

Two of the white-tailed tropic birds that stopped me in my tracks.

I half-skipped half-ran to the edge of the cliff to watch them and attempted to snap a few pictures. Three years ago I was enchanted by a documentary on white-tailed tropic birds, and yet part of me never expected to see one in real life. Since moving to Puerto Rico I'd been keeping my eye out for them, just in case, but they had become more of a symbolic ideal of creativity and writing that I only hoped, but did not actively seek, to return to.  But there I was, watching them pirouette above ocean cliffs, swoop down above the waves and somehow gracefully shoot back up to the cliffs like it was the easiest thing in the world. And I realized that was the end of my excuse to not-write. Because you simply cannot stop a creative spirit.

 Gilbert's TED Talk, "Your Elusive Creative Genius"

Something's Gotta Give

One of my classes and I started off on the wrong foot this school year; in fact, let's call it a peg leg. I wasn't originally supposed to teach the class, and though I was definitely willing, the following problems quickly battered the ship:

-We had no textbooks. Since the school purchased access codes to an online version of the textbook, I was informed no more hard copies would be purchased.

-When I tried to access the online textbook from my classroom, I couldn't project it large enough for students to read and the audio function would not play loud enough for the class to hear.

-Pop-up settings in the computer lab prevented students from accessing the text during class. This same problem occurred for most students at home.

-The school is "paperless" which means no copies and no handouts (unless students print them on their own). Printing each story would have been a ridiculous amount of paper.

It seemed for a while that each time I found a way around a problem, it would only cause another to surface from under the sea foam. I was frustrated and the students were flustered. Eventually, I took to hauling 22 textbooks from an upstairs classroom down to mine (and back again!) on days students needed to interact with the text.

In addition, this particular class loves to talk. Loudly and in disregard to anything else happening in class. In no time, my classroom had a palpable animosity coming from both sides. Consequences were set and administered, parents were contacted about behavior, and I knew this was not how I wanted to teach. Never had I thought I'd have a class where the teacher and students felt pitted against each other. It's not sustainable; something had to give.

I began by catering more to student interests. For example, we created a mock outline for a compare/contrast paper about Batman vs. Superman. Slowly I was winning over individual students. But it wasn't enough. Small groups replaced the majority of whole class discussion: students would break into smaller groups where they could better hear my instruction and then each group would present their discoveries. Class was going significantly better, but it wasn't until this week when the something finally gave.

 In past units, homework was graded and that was that. This time around, students are given graded assignments back with comments and are expected to fix any errors to make up the points they missed. It didn't seem revolutionary in any way, but it pushed the ship away from rocks trying to sink it. How? Because it gave the message to students that they are expected to succeed because their teacher wants them to. Because homework is for practice not punishment. Because if they put in a little more work they will be rewarded for their efforts. Because, even though they frustrate me, I want to help them.

That's what gave. It gave way to a positive classroom environment. It gave way to students proving they can behave better than before. It gave way to more fun with activities. It gave way to palpable respect coming from both sides. And it gave this first year teacher one heck of a learning experience!

Into the Blue Then Into the Blues

I love Frank Sinatra; he's the perfect accompaniment for ballroom dancing, writing, doing the dishes, and cooking [note: for the best results I'd recommend doing the last two listed items whilst also ballroom dancing alone in the kitchen]. Almost two weekends ago I couldn't get "Come Fly with Me" out of my head because I had an opportunity I would have never imaged before arriving in Puerto Rico: I flew in a very small airplane over the coast and part of the Caribbean Sea piloted by one of my co-workers.

We were celebrating another co-worker's birthday and Robert offered to take the birthday girl and a few more of us up in his plane. Around 11am we headed to the "airport". I use quotation marks because the airport was essentially a field of tall grass, a few abandoned buildings, a hose, some rickety-looking hangars, and a paved stretch of asphalt serving as the runway.

One of the old hangars.

The plane was small and could only seat the pilot and one passenger at a time, so we took turns waiting on the ground. When it was my turn to climb inside, I was amused by how closely the inside of the plane resembled an old Oldsmobile my father used to have-- give or take a lot of gears and meters on the dashboard, of course. Despite only seating two people, the dashboard allotted for quite a bit of leg room. We put on the headsets so we could hear each other talk, then took off down the runway.

This stretch is perpendicular to the runway.

I was expecting a jolt when we left the ground, but none came. It wasn't as jarring as a large commercial plane, in fact, it felt just like driving in my father's old Oldsmobile; a bit bumpy at times, but reliably comfortable. We flew over the coast near Arroyo and glided over part of the Caribbean Sea. As we doubled back I had the option to pick if I wanted to fly over Guayama and see the buildings or stick with the sea. Since I couldn't keep my face away from the window to try and take in all of the water, rocks, mangroves, and sandbars, I couldn't part with the sea. These things are beautiful when you're level with them, but seeing them from up above and being able to see mangroves and sandbars hidden from you on the ground is amazing. The water whitened and jostled to show movement, but from the sky everything was placid.

After we landed Robert took another skyward trip so I waited on the ground where my heart was promptly stolen by a black lab mix puppy. One of my co-workers had given the puppy crackers which he chewed with utter joy. I noticed he was having trouble swallowing the crackers because of all the salt and went in search of water. By one of the abandoned buildings there was a water dish that had once been white but was now saturated green from various vegetation/mold growth. With no other options, I washed the bowl under the hose as best as I could and called the puppy over to me. He came right up to me without any qualms, drank some water, then laid down in the shade. 

"My" airport puppy. You can see the bugs in the picture.

The poor little guy kept squinting his eyes and appeared to have some type of eye infection. He wasn't putting all of his weight on one of his back legs, his ears were dirty, and I could see bugs leaping off him (the only thing that stopped me from petting him). My brain raced with the possibilities of taking him to a vet and adopting him, but currently it does not appear possible. When Robert came back he said this dog was relatively new to the airport and that, unfortunately, airport dogs don't last long. What he was referring to was that the dog was abandoned at the airport, and because the airport is basically a field far away from water, the dogs left there don't survive very long because of lack of food and someone to turn the spout to refill their moldy water dish. 

Stray dogs are a huge problem in Puerto Rico. After meeting "my" airport puppy, I researched the entire next week to see if there was a way I could finance adopting him. While this adoption is sadly iffy at best currently, I do plan to adopt a stray from Puerto Rico before I leave for good. In the meantime, however, I came across some fascinating information about strays on the island, including the statistic that there approximately 3-6 stray dogs for every square mile in Puerto Rico. Because there are so many strays, most of the animal shelters are at-capacity and are forced to euthanize animals because they can't afford to keep all of them. 

I came across several organizations trying to combat this problem and they even offer overseas adoption for people in the States. The dogs are rescued from streets and beaches, given all of their shots and treatments, and are sent on planes to the arms of their new family in the States. If you're interested in rescue-adoption or information about the organizations check out: http://www.islanddog.org/home.html

For more information on the dog overpopulation of Puerto Rico there are tons of sources. Here is one from the Huffington Post which mentions what life is like for these dogs: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cesar-millan/saving-the-satos-stray-do_b_1470597.html

While I'd love for Fate to give me the go-ahead to adopt this airport puppy, I realize that this poor little guy is one of many. It makes me sad that I can't rescue him right now, but I will take a dog home with me when I leave Puerto Rico for good. The day at the airport started high and went rather low, but it was a great experience to see more of what Puerto Rico has to offer: both the beautiful and the bitter.

You Say Tomato, I Say Manipulation

It's that burning question: Should Puerto Rico become the 51st state, remain a commonwealth, or become a free nation?

Not wanting to overstep my boundaries in a culture I'm just being introduced to, I have carefully avoided blurting out this question in the the event that it would be unwelcome and/or appear to be a loaded question coming from an American with little knowledge of what this question is really asking. But on Halloween, waiting out an Elementary School Halloween party, amongst superheroes, witches, zombies, princesses, and an assortment of furry animals, it came up in conversation with one of my Puerto Rican colleagues, the High School History teacher. And I have a feeling you won't find this printed in many US textbooks.

Oddly enough, it began with a rant about tomatoes. The tomatoes here are very orange and very expensive. For example, four medium-sized tomatoes, undeniably orange, are packaged together and fetch the price of $7. After agreeing with this complaint, the History teacher said, "But you know why, don't you?" Actually, I had no idea unless it was a cruel ploy to withhold the good tomatoes.

"Produce is so expensive because Puerto Rico is not allowed to trade with anyone except the US," she explained.

I mentally walked through the local grocery stores and recalled the signs on each produce item saying where it was from. Costa Rica. Chile. Mexico. But how is it possible to only trade with the US when Puerto Rico clearly gets produce from other countries?

Let's say you pick up the bananas from Costa Rica in a local grocery store in Puerto Rico. Those bananas did not travel from Costa Rica to Puerto Rico. They went from Costa Rica to the US to Puerto Rico. Why do this when it would be cheaper to export from Costa Rica to Puerto? Because Puerto Rico's commonwealth status prevents it from trading directly with countries except the US, which allows the US to collect an additional profit from the item it's "trading" with Puerto Rico.

Taken aback, and moderately confused, I asked about the role the US plays in relationship to Puerto Rico. And, more importantly, what's in it for both parties?

Being a commonwealth gives Puerto Ricans US citizenship, military protection (somewhat), and welfare money. Puerto Ricans can still not vote in Presidential elections unless they move to the US.

"That's it? Why is that appealing?" I asked.

My colleague went on to explain that the welfare money was somewhat ridiculous in proportion. In her hometown, she said approximately 60% of the people who lived there did not work. And not because they were old or prevented by any other means. It's because the US welfare gave them paid houses, paid cars, cellphone plans for $10/month, and even free wi-fi. Why work if you don't have to?

But this welfare, she explained, is likely doing more harm than good. Because some of the people receiving this money are content with not working, but still desire attaining a more extravagant lifestyle, it is not uncommon to sell drugs on the side, leading to potential violence.

What does the US get out the relationship if it's paying a crazy amount in welfare? Though it sounds like a lot of welfare money, when you consider how small the island is (though somewhat densely populated), it's not really all that much to a large country like the US. Especially when the US collects additional profits from Puerto Rico for trading produce, the exports that come from Puerto Rico like fruit and coffee, and the booming tourism industry. Though the US is giving money to Puerto Rico, it's collecting far more in return. Additionally, because Puerto Ricans have US citizenship, they are eligible to be drafted during wartime.

Essentially, the US is bribing Puerto Rico with the welfare money, dangling cellphones and lifting the curtain on paid houses to say, "See? You NEED us. Look what we will give you. You'll never have this without us." According to the History teacher, some Puerto Ricans believe that this is true (also for additional reasons, I'm sure), which creates a split on the issue of statehood, remaining a commonwealth, or becoming a free nation. Others see what the US is really gaining from the relationship and noting how severely it pales in comparison to what Puerto Rico is gaining.

I asked my colleague for her opinion on the statehood, commonwealth, or free nation question. She is on the free nation side and explained that Puerto Rico has very fertile soil and a nice climate, which allows it to produce an abundance of crops, helping it to be self-sustaining. These resources would also make it an appealing trade partner with other countries. Furthermore, with a lack of welfare money from the US, people would no longer have the luxury of not working; this means that the drug and violence problem would eventually diminish because people would be in the workforce and able to make ends meet without ridiculous added costs from things like shipping bananas to the US before they arrive in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico has never been a free nation: it was under Spanish rule before the US snatched it away as a war prize. It's an interesting and saddening dynamic between the US and Puerto Rico--and one that is often neglected in schools and textbooks in the US (how convenient....). Though I'm sure this barely scratches the surface of the issue, whenever I see those orange tomatoes I will now think "manipulation" instead of "expensive".

A Vacation from.... Vacation?

Friday night we were sitting at a table at Tranquilidad, a restaurant on the shore of the ocean, watching brief flashes of lightning illuminate the dark clouds above the waves and excitedly talking about our mini vacation the next day: Culebra. Nobody could wait; a three-day weekend was exactly what we needed. We were musing the luxuries of the beaches we would visit when one of my friends suddenly said, "Wait... so we're talking about taking a vacation from vacation?" What irony! Here we were excited about traveling to a tiny tropical island for the weekend when, we were already living every day on a [relatively] tiny tropical island. What a problem to have!

Saturday morning we left Guayama at 530 in the morning and began our sleepy drive to Fajardo to catch the ferry over to Culebra. After waiting in line for tickets, we boarded the ferry and a mere 45 minutes later, were greeted by the bright blue water lapping the shores of Culebra.

Aboard the ferry.

In our rented white Jeep (which was new! no car problems allowed on vacaction!), we arrived before our hotel room was ready and, upon recommendation from the manager of the hotel, we went to a place called Zaco's Tacos. The atmosphere, people, and food were so good that we came back again the next day.

Next stop: Flamenco Beach. This beach is usually voted in the Top 10 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World. And it's easy to understand why! Green mountains in the distance, light colored sand (not quite white), and vibrant blue water welcome many tourists with brightly colored umbrellas.

A buoy marked a line where the bright water drastically darkened (indicating deeper water) and we swam out to snorkel there because a coral reef was hiding under the water. I'd only snorkeled once before and wound up being catastrophically concerned with the fact I was able to breathe underwater, so unfortunately I didn't make it to the reef. The few that did make it saw a few brightly colored fish among the purple and yellow coral. Next time, and with flippers, I'm determined to see it!

Flamenco Beach

We spent the remainder of Saturday at Flamenco, remaining even until we were the only people left on the beach as the clouds ceased casting pink on the rock face of the mountains and the whole sky darkened (and, less pretty: the bugs came out to bite us).


That evening we decided to check out the night life in Culebra. This tiny island is described in my travel book as "going back in time" because of the relaxed feel, zero rush for anything, and lack of chain and large businesses. Due to this, there wasn't much in way of nightlife, but we did find a bar called The Spot to hang out and even ran into a few other American teachers from the San Juan area and the bartender from Zaco's Tacos.

Zoni Beach

Sunday was for Zoni Beach. Farther off the tourist track-- the públicos (taxis) won't even take you there-- this beach only had about 15 people other than ourselves. Despite Flamenco being ranked in the Top 10 Most Beautiful Beaches, I'd have to give the award to Zoni. Similar to Flamenco, Zoni had the light colored sand, vibrant blue water, and green mountains in the distance. Zoni has less sand, but the green mountains and other islands (including St. Thomas) surrounding it make it seem like you are in the middle of a giant green bowl filled with water imitating a paint sample strip. Throughout the day the affect of the white, pastel blue, robin's egg blue, turquoise, bright blue, deep blue, and very dark blue arranged so that you could almost physically touch the lines where the colors merged never lessened. (Painters and Crayola employees take note)

Check out those colors!

We spent several hours being pulled, kneaded, and shoved by the ocean whilst enjoying conversation and the fact that we didn't have to do anything else. Every so often, just as one of us would become complacent with the ocean, we'd get a slap of salt water to the face. But when you're in a bowl of paradise this is nothing to complain about!

Heading back to Zaco's that night to watch the Patriot's game, and being the loudest table even by Puerto Rico standards, we relaxed and celebrated before going back to The Spot. We made a few more acquaintances that night and it was a fun night of conversation, silliness, and entertainment.

Leaving on the 1pm ferry today brought the reminder of reality back to us: another, albeit short, week of teaching in Guayama. Now that vacation is over, I guess we're just on regular vacation. Oh darn!