Sticky notes and tropical settings

Hiya friends, family, and fellow blog readers. It has been a little while since I last posted so lets get to this.

 The past couple days I have been sick(the little ones are always sick) and I must say Ms. Williams probably would not have received teacher of the week award(if there was such an award). There was a lot of sitting on desks, blowing into tissues, and sneezing like no other. I guess if the kiddos come to school sick and try to learn, I should try to teach my best sick. Anyways, the week is wrapping up and I am recovering from this nasty little cold of mine. 

Today I had teacher/parent conferences. Honestly, I was not expecting any of the parents to come but to my surprise I had 4 out 17 parents come. Success!(This may have a hint of sarcasm) They were all parents of my A students too. I did have to tell one mom that I caught her son cheating off my teacher edition book today and made him write "I will not cheat" 50 times. That was fun. As I was sitting in my classroom talking to my students' parents I kept thinking how it is so weird to be on the teacher side of the desk. Being a teacher still hasn't fully hit me yet. I have students and they come to me expecting me to teach them and they have parents that trust me, a 20 year old, to do that too. Why would they do that?

Can I just say that I love my kids. I really do. Every morning after I get out of staff worship and walk to the office some of my students run up to me and say, "Ms. Williams" with a big smile on their face. It melts my heart. Sometimes it surprises me that they like me because I am not there friend in the classroom. Today I had like 7 of my students hiding behind the office wall getting ready to scare me. I knew they were all there though(teachers are licensed ninjas) when I walked by them they were all shouting, "busted, we got busted" and then they took off running to the classroom. They make me laugh.

Classroom 16 can get crazy sometimes and there are moments that I just sit at my desk and breathe. One stressful day I took out my sticky notes and started making a list of all the positive things going on in the classroom. Doing this really helped me focus on happy things and not let the stress make me turn into the grinch. This is what I saw. I saw Jackie Hope playing teacher at the board and giggling the cutest, darn giggle you could ever hear. This little girl has the cutest personality and cheeks that you just want to pinch all the time. I saw Ryan and Mekyva playing hangman with our spelling words. I saw Sophia fixing a fallen poster. There is something about Sophia that is so soothing to me. She always knows how to make me calm. I saw Kavika at his desk and when he realized I was watching him he gave me a mischievous smile. I wish you could meet all my students.

As for life outside of the classroom, Pohnpei just keeps getting better. Last weekend I went out to P-pass with the surfers(it is known for being one of the best surf spots in the world). I am still not sure why because the reef is literally right below the waves so if you fall you get banged up. But what do I know. The waves were depressingly small for the surfers but I had fun in my floaty just floating in the line up with them. Yeah, there were like 9 surfers and one floater. It was awesome though to be in the ocean with the sight of pure blue water and an jungle island behind you. We were out there for around 5 hours and it rained so hard at one point that the island was not visible at all. 

You know how you see pretty pictures of islands and tropical settings on calenders and different places? I see those pictures sometimes here and I feel like I live in that really pretty picture. The beauty overwhelms me. I am just so blessed to live on this beautiful, slow-paced island. I want you all to experience this so badly. I want you to see, smell, and taste everything here. I hope that my writing has helped you get a little glimpse of the beauty. I have too many stories to put on here but I would love to tell you about everything someday. If you want to know anything in particular feel free to ask!

Shout out to Carmen and David from my church back home. I received two lovely packages filled up with more teaching supplies I could ever hope for. My students and myself thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Also to my wonderful parents who have sent me so many wonderful things. You guys are the best.

So this where I say goodnight for myself and good morning to you all. Thanks for reading. I miss you all and I will talk to you soon!

Much love from Pohnpei.

P.S- We are camping on an outter island this weekend. It is about to get Cast Away status over here. More to come on that later.