Back to School!

BACK TO SCHOOL IN JAMAICA
SEPT. 2011
The big event after summer camp ended and before I left on vacation was that the barrel of books the ROMEO group had shipped from Boston arrived in Montego Bay. The ROMEOs are a bunch of Retired Old Men Eating Out, including my father, who had set themselves a goal to collect and send books to my school. What dears! I had heard that getting a barrel was quite a process, but I did not expect 8 hours of a process! Fortunately, Ms Gowie came with me, and found someone with a truck to take us and get the barrel back to school. The process was to present papers at one window, and then take them to another window etc. for the whole morning. We skipped lunch because we didn’t dare leave our spot in case they called our name! Then when the barrel got to us, we had to wait for a customs official to open it so we could take everything out and have it inspected. I wanted to take a photo of the large sign in the warehouse which detailed the 8 steps necessary before you could leave with your barrel, but another sign stated NO PHOTOGRAPHS! Eventually around 4PM we did get to leave with our barrel! 3 of “my” summer camp boys came and helped unload the books and stamp the books. It was so cute to see these reluctant readers stop and look at various books! And such a lovely assortment was sent to us. A real blessing.
I spent the last 2 weeks of August back in the US having a wonderful family vacation visiting my daughter’s and meeting my new grandson, then off to my son’s and a family reunion in NH where we enjoyed a rain day courtesy of Hurricane Irene. Still no hurricanes in Jamaica for which I am thankful! I returned with a second suitcase of 49 pounds full of books and school supplies from Hallettsville Elementary School in Texas. One of the teachers had visited our school while she was vacationing in Jamaica and offered to send books. Since shipping is so expensive, I suggested she send them on to my daughter also in Texas and I would get them when I came to visit. Was I ever surprised when instead of 1 box of books there were 5 boxes waiting for me!
School opened on Monday, September 5. We have 3 new teachers and 2 who began in the spring of last year. The staff makeup and atmosphere is quite different and seems of more a positive, energetic nature. I hope so. I was asked to help train the new teachers in how to give the new MOE diagnostic test. That was a nice compliment! Along with the usual first week of school chaos, the MOE (Ministry of Education) was sending an inspection team on Sept. 13th for 2 days. So there was a lot of frantic cleaning, organizing, and meetings about what should be prepared. I helped out where needed. This was very stressful for the staff.
Now, the third week of school I have finally begun my pull out groups of 3 or 4 students from grades 3 and 4. This is my favourite part of my day- I truly love working with these small groups. And I am pleased that this year each class has a scheduled time to come to the library. This will, I hope, begin a regimen that can be continued when I leave Breadnut Hill Primary. The next project is to work out a computer room system that works. It is nice to get back in to the school routine.