June 15, 2008

Majuro Teacher Man
The last couple of weeks have been pretty intense for me, largely as a result of my recent association with the Republic of the Marshall Islands Ministry of Education. Those of us accepted to instruct RMI teachers in the remedial English course spent the week before last in training and prep meetings. The initial shock was to hear from the program administrator that there was NO CURRICULUM whatsoever. Previous years’ programs had not produced the desired result, so they'd scrapped the curriculum, had no standard text books (understandable since the teachers to be taught range from 2nd to 6th grade English proficiency) and there was a question as to how much access we might have to copiers. We were encouraged to come up with our own teaching tools, and let them know when we found something that works. Some of us are better equipped with talent and experience than others, to function in such an environment. But we all decided to pull together, share materials and trial exercises immediately, and see if we could produce a result more satisfying than just a paycheck. Tamara, ex-administrator of the Worldteach program, spent a day battling for access to the test scores of last years' participants. I call them participants because the students are all teachers.....a bit confusing. Anyway, Ministry officials were afraid to let her see them because of confidentiality laws, but without them, we couldn't rank participants into more homogeneous groups to assign the 11 classes. In the end, she won, and spent hours ranking them. Then only about 25% of them showed up. We formed the classes blind. It shows. We each have the whole range in our classes.
So, for the last week, we each spent 4 hours a day thinking on our feet to keep everyone engaged, not insult anyone, and come out with a better educated group than we started with. We’ve thought of strategies, scrounged materials, tried things out, and in every break between classes we meet each other to share what seemed productive and what flopped. Most of us have reviewed the grammar we haven't studied for years, then sorted it for what our classes might be able to absorb. I'm keeping individual lessons on each subject pretty short, skipping from grammar to sentence structure to vocabulary to paragraph structure. Early on, I defined "vocabulary", and "structure" for them. That's where we're starting from. They're a good natured group, and moderately well motivated, but culturally timid about speaking out. It took me 4 days and the help of one of the other teachers to start getting a little participation. All of us instructors are still spending a good 4 hours a day after classes trying to figure out what to say the next morning. But we all see some progress. And we're all learning about the RMI education system......well it's not really a SYSTEM....and why it seems to be just a smidge below par.
Meanwhile, fuel has gone well over the $6 a gallon mark, rice has tripled in price in 6 months, and desperate, poverty stricken Marshallese are starting to pilfer gasoline if it's left accessible, so we're careful where we park the dinghy. It's pretty bad when an outboard motor that only holds a quart is a target for the siphon tube. All this notwithstanding, work on Sequester continues apace. With me out of the way a lot of the time, Karen has finally been able to finish making the mainsail cover for the sail we bought a year ago last month. It looks a lot better than the bedsheets and towels we were using to keep the UV rays from rotting away our propulsion. Easier to put on and off, too. Most of my projects are confined to planning and ordering for the next two weeks, but that's productive too. Now it's time to grade notebooks. This missive is dedicated to my sister Betsy, who lives like this ALL the time and still, with help from Tim, managed to raise four (more if you add in the strays they took in) pretty good citizens of the world. Life ain't always easy, but it need not be dull. Ted