Snail Lab!

An excerpt from a recent e-mail:

I finished my first week of teaching biology - I thought I'd shoot a quick e-mail to tell you that I'm still alive and smiling (mostly!). I started out the biology course with a snail lab, where kids observed snails and saw how they eat and move and all that sort of stuff. Getting the snails was an adventure - winter is still winding down here, so there weren't any out on the property, so I had a series of funny phone calls to pet shops - "Hello, I'm a high school science teacher and I'd like to do an experiment on snails - do you have any?" None of them did, and eventually one told me to try calling some plant nurseries. Problem is, nurseries kill snails - they don't want them eating their plants. but I went to one nursery after another and finally ended up at one way out of town. the guys there were super-nice, they had a farm out back and said they would be happy to find some snails for me. So I soon found myself with a bin of about 30 crawling snails! Only issue was that the nursery was about to spray to kill their snails, so they had to give them to me a week early, which meant i had to keep them alive for a week!

we pulled it off, and it was totally worth it - the kids loved the snails, love getting to play with something that's actually alive. they went to all their other classes and talked about biology class, which is super gratifying as a teacher :)

First Day of Class

Class at ALA has begun, and in true form it was a bit of an adventure. It was my first time to teach, and I had carefully prepared an introductory lesson looking at the huge scope of biology with a video called the Powers of 10 and going over the aims of the class and bringing in cool facts to catch their attention . . . and then at breakfast found out we were having 15-minute periods because the timetable was still in progress. (It is an utter beast of a brain-teaser that some staff had worked on unsleeping for several days.) So the plans went out the window and we adapted to quick introductions. I took the kids through why biology is important, what we'll study, and what the class rules are. (I'm not a big fan of rules, so I only had three: Fun, Work, and Respect.) But I guess ultimately it was good - a reminder that preparation isn't everything and some practice in rolling with the punches.

More classes today, this time an exploration of snails . . .

Vusi

One week done. One whirlwind of a week. The students are here, and they are amazing. I live on a hall with 26 boys from 19 different countries, each with their own story and each incredibly talented. I have been riding an intense roller coaster this week, feeling the intense rush of finally meeting all the kids and the overwhelming weight of the logistics that have to be coordinated. (I thank God for Brian and Ryan who have put so much effort into managing all the little details.)

Yesterday, I met with my advisees in a series of one-on-one meetings. It was refreshing to engage the students for the amazing people they are and leave behind the barrage of questions about broken locks and missing toilets. I escaped for a two hour nap in the afternoon, and, since we were off-duty in the evening, we went out for Italian food with Tim. Very good to get away and come back ready to go at it again.

Tonight, we celebrated the opening of ALA with a fine dinner where a number of students gave speeches. And then we had the concert. A South African musician named Vusi Mahlasela came and gave us a private concert, and he was phenomenal. He's a sort of Zulu folk singer, an acoustic guitar player with a band behind, and one unbelievable voice. Vusi sang at Mandela's inauguration, and he apparently is Dave Matthews' favorite artist. As he sang, I kept noticing that all the vocal quirks that are so characteristically Dave Matthews, I was seeing in Vusi - I was looking at the source. It didn't make me like Dave Matthews any less, but rather admire Vusi that much more - he sang with such joy and power.

And the students were having a blast! For the second song, two of the Kenyan girls went up and performed a song they'd written about ALA with Vuso and the band. And wow - it sounded incredible! By the end of the set, all the kids were at the front dancing up a storm. I think the coolest part for me was seeing how music and dance broke down the language barrier. I have a French-speaking boy on my hall who's English is still developing, but he's incredibly smart and works very hard at practicing. Tonight, he was in the center of the dance floor, showing off his moves to the delight of the whole student body.