Regarding Teaching and Machete Fishing

Apologies for not being the most consistent blogger in the blogosphere...there's no excuse.

Being a teacher for two months has brought some good insight into my life -- but take this as it is...from a novice.

The most important attribute a teacher can have is compassion. To be truly effective, without a doubt, you need to care about your students, their well-being, and their educational progress.

And while most people will agree that this is obvious, or most teachers will say that they do have compassion for their students, they should know that having it is not enough. Truly great teachers will consistently *show* their compassion to their students -- just as great doctors do while briefing their patients before surgery, or great lawyers do when they stand up for their clients in the courtroom.

Of course there are some anomalies: a genius, but introverted doctor who saves a life; a skilled but ruthless lawyer who constantly gets his/her client out of trouble. But the majority of patients, clients, and students will remember that their best help came from someone who truly cared about them.

To make a positive difference in anyone’s life, you must sincerely care about them, first and foremost.

So that is my recent experiential insight...take it for what it is. I will not go into this much further since this is a public blog. I will say that as I continue to work on my teaching abilities, compassion is not the easiest trait to consistently display; but on those days when your intentions become especially clear, the reactions from the students are inspiring.

Meanwhile, school was canceled yesterday due to a Tsunami watch. After an 8.3 earthquake in America Samoa, it was announced on the radio that there would be no school and everyone should head to higher ground. So while many people just did work around the home - mowing lawns and whatnot - we followed procedure and evacuated. A few hours later we returned home, unscathed.

Fishing Update:

Another volunteer (Nate) and I went machete fishing with my landlord, his wife, and his mother about a week ago.

Materials used: Machete, Flashlight, Rope with copper tube, Booties.

Necessary Setting: 8pm, low tide, no moon.

Results: We successfully hacked five fish (ranging from 2 to 7 inches), a sea snake type creature, a softball-sized clam, and a crab left us his claw after a brief struggle. My landlord and his female entourage bagged about 30 fish in the same time period.

Four tips on fishing and eating your own reef fish:
1. One of the species, which we aptly named the “Stink Fish,” does actually taste much better than it smells...so go for it.
2. Many of these “Stinkers” are pregnant, leaving you an abundance of fresh island caviar.
3. Island caviar tastes like dried up little nuggets of unflavored Cream of Wheat.
4. Threading a copper tube through a fish’s eyes does not deal it a fatal blow, so try something else.

I have also caught two "Rock Grouper"out on the far reef. Though since I was alone each time, I had to come in right after catching them due to my extremities becoming severely entangled in my fishing line. Bait of the day: SPAM. Rock Grouper love that stuff...

In addition to fishing successes, we did have a week of school cancelled due to island influenza. Fortunately, all of the volunteers made it through ok.

A few of us also started a successful SAT private tutoring program during this time. It's free for the students who are willing to stay for two hours after school each day. And with the help of the Director of Education on Kosrae, we also found funding for lunches and transportation home, both crucial incentives. The kids take the test in a week so hopefully we'll see some good results...practice test improvements have shown that it's been working in theory, so everyone is optimistic.

I haven't taken many pictures since my last post, so I'll give you my link to my facebook pictures in case you haven't seen them. You don't need an account to access these, just paste the link in your browser.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409610&id=3409076&l=92743fe5a5

Otherwise, I hope you are all doing well. It's been great hearing from you.

Much love,

Ty


Currently Reading: A Separate Peace (still, I know...it's boring)
Currently Listening to: Michael Franti & Spearhead - Nobody Right Nobody Wrong