The Beach and Small School Woes

We had a chance to check out a different beach this past weekend. Hamilton Beach is one of the adult beaches on Kwajalein, with unescorted kids being entirely disallowed, and all kids disallowed by late afternoon. When we arrived, there were no more than 10 people at the beach, and it stayed that way for most of the day.

Arriving at the mostly empty beach... what a view! 

It was really a neat experience - the waters were warm and crystal clear, and the lack of people meant that you could really relax and enjoy the water without worrying about being bothered, or bothering others. We hung out for a few hours chatting with a few friends and had a pleasant afternoon.

I got a little roasted again, so I need to do a better job with the sunscreen. I swore I put it on this time, but apparently it wasn't good enough for living this close to the equator. So while it was an enjoyable weekend, I'll be sleeping on sun scorched skin for a few days now... again. Oh well... I'll figure out this sunscreen business eventually. Or my skin will turn into leather. Whichever comes first really.

The water looks like something out of a postcard.

But life isn't all beaches and and relaxation... school has been in session for over a month now. And my school is really quite an amazing place, with polite kids, small classes, and an incredible environment. Yet one of the biggest issues I hear from my students (and see myself) is the lack of curricular opportunities as compared to the states. With just 114 kids in the building, the chance for unique electives is sadly limited.

We do our best of course... the kids get to take art, music, home economics, wood shop, and computers. I think that's pretty darn impressive for a school of our size! But if a kid is perhaps interested in agriculture, auto mechanics, or speaking German, then they're basically out of luck. The same applies if they want to take most of the Advanced Placement courses (we have a few, but most AP's aren't offered). We do an incredible job with what we have, but we just don't have the ability to offer a ton out here.

So one alternative has been to phase in online classes in an attempt to include more electives. This lets the kids take classes in a whole array of subjects that we can't possibly offer. Some of my students will be starting this right now (we just purchased access to an online system), and so I'm interested to see how it compares to our in-house classes, and what the students think of it all. Several of my courses will be using this online content to go along with my teaching, so I'll get to see some results firsthand.

Guest Post: Tim Ryan - Teaching band and chorus on Kwajalein

Never in my life did I think I would be the band and chorus director for a school on an army base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!  Welcome to Kwajalein-a hidden paradise found in the Marshall Islands.

Kwajalein is a small atoll that once was a battleground site during WWII.  Today, The USA uses Kwajalein as a defense missile base-and there are many unique jobs found on Kwaj.  I so happen to get to be in charge of the central Pacific's most dangerous band!

Currently, I'm teaching 5th grade band, 6th grade band, Jr High band, High School band, stage band, and I will be starting from scratch this year a choir program that has been non-existent for years.





My favorite part about being here is how well music is respected. Kwajalein Jr./Sr. High school has 114 students total and I have 70 of them in my band program. The entire 5th grade class chose to do band this year and nearly all the 6th grade decided to come back to band this school year.  The first day of choir I had 21 students show up. By the second class I had doubled to 42!

Right now I'm working on getting a trailer mounted to my bike (everyone travels on bikes here).  I will keep updating as I continue my journey here on Kwaj!

School & some history

It's now been two weeks since the start of classes, and school has been going well. The difference in student behavior and attitudes is really rather remarkable compared to what I was accustomed to stateside. I haven't had any serious behavior problems at all yet.. not even a tardy student. Perhaps it's just the honeymoon period with a new teacher that they don't know yet, but I can certainly get used to this.

Unfortunately however, for a school that sits on one of the most technologically advanced military facilities in the world, the technology in the school is rather... lacking. The computers in my lab are roughly eight years old, with some that are probably older.

They're labeled with Windows Vista stickers still, but thankfully have at least been upgraded to Windows 7. That said, the new contractor who recently took over the school was just as surprised as I was, and has indicated new machines will be in the pipeline.

Oh yes, that's a Parallel port and a Serial port on there. When did those ports die? Late 90's, Early 2000's?  

But all in all, that's a pretty minor complaint. The computers do work... and my classes are great. I do feel a bit like a new teacher again because I'm constantly making PowerPoints and assignments, but I don't really mind because the new content is fun for me to delve into.

When I'm not working though, I've been trying to explore the island a little. For a history nerd like myself, I came across quite the treasure trove of discoveries. Kwajalein was a WWII battle site where the US fought the Japanese, and the remains of that battle are littered across the island. I went for a bike ride this weekend and came across this...

ON THIS SPOT THE 7TH INFANTRY DIVISION
MAJOR-GENERAL C.H. CORLETT, U.S. ARMY
COMMANDING
 MADE THE FIRST LANDING INCIDENT TO
THE CAPTURE OF KWAJALEIN ISLAND
BY THE AMERICAN ARMED FORCES.
FEBRUARY 1ST, 1944.
THIS TABLET IS DEDICATED TO THE BRAVE
MEN WHO FOUGHT AND DIED HERE.  

Yep, that's a blown out Japanese bunker.

So now I'm on a mission to check out the rest of the WWII sites on the island, and eventually catch a free flight to another island north of here (Roi-Namur) where there are a few more WWII sites to see. But that's a blog post for another day...

School starts

So after about a week and a half of getting settled into island life and getting my classroom and curriculum ready, the school year has finally started here at Kwajalein Jr/Sr high school. Students started on Wednesday of this week, and so I just finished my first week of classes leading into the labor day weekend. Here's a few shots of the school and my computer lab...

I'm teaching quite a mix of courses this year. I've got Introduction to Business, Business Law, Computer Programming, Computer Service & Support, as well as a section of 7th grade computer class and a section of 8th grade computer class. So it's going to be a busy year, as a lot of those courses are new to the school and so I'll be working on putting together curriculum as the year progresses.

I'll also be helping with technology integration in the district (surprise, right?), as we're going 1:1 on Chromebooks for the first time this year. I've got the Chromebooks inventoried and mostly ready to go, but just working out a plan on how best to distribute them to students. The staff will also need some additional trainings and ideas on Chromebook use and Google Apps, so I'll be leading a PLC on Google Apps for Education this year as well.

So what about the actual teaching? This first week has been good. My classes are small here (largest group is 13 kids), and the students have been great. Most every kid has been polite, well behaved, and fairly active in doing their first assignments. I know a lot of that has to do with class size and the local culture, but it just proves to me (in my head at least) that class size absolutely makes a massive difference in how a classroom functions.

I know that seems obvious, but there are many in the educational policy world that argue class size isn't a big deal... I challenge them to make that claim after teaching a class to 34 students, and then teaching that same class to 12 students. If every educational policymaker did that for a year or two, then perhaps everyone can revisit the class size conversation.

Anyhow, it looks like it will be a busy but exciting school year. But for now, it's time to enjoy labor day weekend. It doesn't hurt that this is a short walk from my place...