Wait.. it's Friday ALREADY?!

On the whole, this week has been awesome. Time is flying by. It’s been three weeks and I finally feel like I’m settling in and getting into the swing of things!

The volunteer who will be teaching World History and Geography at Ocean Academy this semester hasn’t arrived yet, so I got to teach both all week. It was so much fun! (Probably helps that they’re two of my favorite subjects..). I just wanted to get a feel for what the students already knew about each of the subjects, so we didn’t do anything too difficult. In Geography, I just asked them to list the 7 continents, 5 oceans, and as many countries as they could. Some knew quite a bit more than others, but most could at least name most of the continents and oceans. They’ve never had a geography class in school, so some of them were unsure of the difference between a city, state/district, and country. In History, another subject in which they have absolutely no background, I made a list of important historical events, scrambled them, and asked the students to put them in chronological order. Only a few were able to do so, so I went over them and talked a little bit about each event. The good news is, even though they’ve never studied geography or world history before, most of the students seemed fairly engaged and interested. The volunteer who will actually be teaching the course (WH and Geography will be taught as one class), will be here next week, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to continue to help out.

My Leadership Project class is going really well too. There have been a few switcheroos, so I ended up with a final group of 15 students, which is perfect. On Tuesday I passed out their journals/notebooks and we had a teamwork brainstorm. After we talked about and defined ‘teamwork’, we went outside and played Human Knot. Most of the students participated in the game at least once, and they all said they enjoyed it. Yesterday, I gave them an intro survey so I could get an idea about how they feel about their community/leadership/their ability to make a difference.. that sort of thing. I just read through their survey answers now, and I’m really encouraged by some of them. Even most of the students who marked that they were uncomfortable acting as leaders right now or never have done so in the past indicated that they believe they can make a difference in their community and that they’re motivated to do so. Some of their additional questions/comments were great, and will be really helpful for me, going forward. I plan on giving them a similar survey sometime in March, and another at the end of the semester. After they completed the survey, we played Toxic Swamp. I was a little disappointed with the lack of participation; only about half the class played. Granted, the space wasn’t ideal, and many of the girls have expressed some wariness about playing some of the games since they have to wear skirts. Still, that’s something that we can deal with. Next class I’m planning on giving them a breakdown of what they’ll be graded on for the semester, and remind them that participation will be a pretty large percentage. Despite the lack of participation, I’m still feeling pretty encouraged about the class, and I can’t wait to get them started on their projects. The only thing I’m a little disappointed with is the fact that I only get two class periods per week. It’s a ridiculously limited amount of time, so we definitely won’t be wasting any of it.

I had my first confined water dive this afternoon. Two of the other students in the class, Estrella and Byron, also got in the water with all the bulky, awkward gear for the first time today. As someone who is a bit of a basket case about being able to breathe, it took me a while to get used to the confined breathing of scuba. Thankfully, I only had one mini freak out/coughing fit! We stayed in shallow water today and practiced skills like clearing the regulator and mask when they fill with water, and using a buddy’s alternate air source if we run out of air (which was when I sucked water in my mouth and nose; the alternate air source is hard to pull from..). Before my fit, I was able to settle in and stay underwater for 15-20ish minutes, which I gave myself a pat on the back for. Tomorrow morning all 6 of us will be going to Coral Gardens to complete our first open water dive, which will be 40ish minutes underwater, I think. Eeps! I’ll try to remember to bring my camera and take some pictures..

After the dive, I intend to have a relaxing weekend. I might go to a rooftop sunset yoga class tomorrow, and Ben and I might hop over to San Pedro on Sunday, but we’ll see!

Happy weekend :)