A bad day to be a duck

A little bit more about Bermuda...

The Bermudian accent is quite unique, it is a cross between a Jamaican and English accent. Students often "axe" me questions in class. I have some students who axe me to go to the "Lu" others want to go to the baaathrm. They generally speak quite quickly all the time, but they move slow. Everyone is always late, what they call island time. The school is extremely loud all the time. Students shout down the hall at each other, and they all try to talk over one another. One teacher from Brooklyn, Annette, likes to yell at her students all day. Her class is two over from mine and she teachers grade 5/6. She grabbed one boy by the ear and dragged him into my room this week so the child would spit out his gum. No gum, but cellphones are okay as long as you keep them in your locker. I got an email on Thursday to look for girls who had their nails painted, because during mass the VP noticed that some had colour on their nails. This to me seems a little too controlling. I think there are more serious things for me to spend my day doing other than checking out manicures in class.

~ Teaching perhaps ~ Privates school are great for plenty of reasons, but in maintaining order you must also teach respect. I find that this school is trying to maintain order in an environment where the students don't respect the teachers. I try to demand it, and take control of situations when confrontation occurs. The school however has adopted the pass the buck theory, where you just give them conduct points and then the principal deals with the issue. This diminishes the power of the individual teacher as they are made out to be tattle tales. I enjoy the public systems theory of each teacher dealing with the problem and as a last resort send the child to the principals office. I think the private system is worried about protecting their investments and rightfully so, but it is definitely something to consider when choosing education for your child.
This is a very different private school environment then what I experienced at Albert College over the past two summers. The students that I've had there were absolute angels, and they all wanted to learn.

The bus is an interesting mode of transportation, where else can you find a collage of personality and a jigsaw puzzle of appearances in one place. Two women were chatting on Wednesday and they were both Irish. Their accents were so thick that I could barely understand what they were saying as I ease dropped on their conversation. I was only paying attention because one of the girls was new to the island and I wanted to hear any advice that might apply to me as well. In the morning the bus is packed. The aisle are full of people standing, I don't know if I'll enjoy the bus in the summer with the smelly people and hot conditions. I like to listen to music or read my book while riding on the bus. I am always sure to say hi to people, but I have yet to have a conversation. Everyone keeps to themselves and minds their own business on the bus. I think it's fun for now.

Jackie, the health and science teacher, picked me up three times this week when she saw me waiting for the bus in the morning. Janet the Language Arts teacher has been gracious enough to give me rides home from school several times this week as she passes by my area on her way home to Somerset. The staff at the school is extremely nice, and everyone seems to get along. When she brought me home yesterday there were six young boys chasing away the ducks from the pond on the seventeenth hole. They were throwing things at the ducks and trying to attack them with sticks. I walked over to talk to the leader of the pack. He said that his dad was the course manager and he had told him to get rid of the ducks. "They poo all over the course," said the kid. I told him to have fun but try not to kill any of them. He said that they were trying to hurt one so they could catch it. "My dad will give us $20 for every duck we catch." They were out there for another few hours tormenting those poor ducks.

Today has been the most relaxing day thus far here on the island. I woke up this morning and started to clean the apartment. I did my laundry and I read a book by the pool while waiting for it to finish. After that I went for a run. This time instead of my usual loop I went farther down south shore to horseshoe bay, an absolutely gorgeous little beach. I cut through a path back to the Fairmont Property grounds to where their private beach is. From there I made my way up the steep long hill up to the top of the resort and then I cut through the golf course back to my place. I got lost around the 18th hole where I found two golf balls (Callaway Big Bertha and a Tit-less Pro V1). I was scanning the edge of the course on the way to the house and sure enough across the street from my place there was a dead duck in the woods. The duck had a few broken wine bottles around it so I'm not sure who murdered the duck but it was so sad to see. There was only one duck left in the pond area. Poor little duck...