ATVs on Jost Van Dyke

Our latest BVI Adventure was on Jost yesterday, when we went ATVing around the island!  Thanks to Clint and Michelle, who purchased this fun adventure at last year’s Cedar fundraising auction, six of us were able to spend the day zipping around on these bad boys!

Frank took us all over the island, which provided for some breathtaking views and photo opportunities!

He also took us up and down some pretty steep hills!

We stopped for a drink at Foxy’s Taboo.

Then a couple of the ladies tried driving!  Yes, those things are actually moving!

From there it was off to Seddy’s One Love bar for lunch.

The fresh-caught seafood and homemade pasta salad was fabulous, as were the Bushwackers, but the service was horrendous!  That’s okay though.  We entertained ourselves while waiting with Matt and Stacy’s “Blind Drawing” games and Stacy’s “Make Me an Animal!”

Matt’s rendition of Tony is pretty life-like, wouldn’t you say?

And Stacy drew Clint as a lion.

After lunch we bounced around on the floating trampoline and raced with the paddle boats – phew, that was exhausting!  Another Nilla Killa from the Soggy Dollar, and it was back to Tortola!

What fun with good friends!  Clint and Michelle - thanks for including us!!

It’s back!

Today was a good day at Riteway!  Look what’s back in stock!

I haven’t written much about school this year, mostly because I know that many of our readers aren’t teachers. However, I got a lot of questions about teaching when I was at home, so I think it’s time to address them.

Cedar International School is an IB World School, which means it is authorized to teach the International Baccalaureate programmes. A key aspect of the IB is character education, through what’s called the Learner Profile. The character traits/actions of Caring, Inquirer, Balanced, Principled, Reflective, Open-Minded, Risk Taker, Thinker, Knowledgeable, and a Communicator are to be infused into our lessons daily. At Cedar, kids (and adults) are also encouraged to recognise others who display these traits through an ICIB, a slip of paper where the action and the IB trait are written down. At assembly every other week, the kids who were caught exhibiting the traits are recognised on stage. In many ways it’s like PBIS, but I feel it’s less external because it’s mostly kids recognising one another without the tangible reward. No one has waited until I walked by to pick something up and then asked for an ICIB for doing something they should be really doing anyway!

The other big difference is how student centred the educational programme is. Rather than starting with a list of facts all kids are expected to know and designing lessons that will address those facts, we start with a broad topic (like exploration) and design guiding questions to help shape the unit. There is a big emphasis on student curiosity and individual lines of inquiry. It’s most important that the kids are exposed to interesting learning experiences centred around the key concepts of the unit and much less important that each child learn the same things. This has, and continues to be, a big adjustment in my teaching! In so many ways it is wonderful to have so much professional freedom! I get to use strategies that I know are good for kids and design my instruction according to best practice! I’m truly using all the study I’ve done over the last few years on differentiation. At the same time, it can be a little daunting as well! As much as I resisted those school textbooks in favour of trade books, they were a good guide to follow. Without them, and with no grade level co-workers to guide me through what they’ve done in the past, sometimes I feel a little lost. Those broad topics can suddenly seem suffocating as I try to narrow them enough to address them in 6 weeks, while still addressing each of the guiding questions! Take exploration, for example. That includes ancient exploration, European discovery of the new world, and modern exploration of space and the oceans! That’s a lot of content to cover!

It wouldn’t be possible to teach such broad topics without the integration that occurs regularly. A lot of that happens within my own class – pulling reading texts and literature based on that topic, writing about that topic, etc. I did a lot of that in Olathe with our Science and Social Studies curriculum. Here though, that integration also happens with many of the kids’ specials. When we studied weather in class, the kids created Photostories about severe weather in IT, learned how to talk about weather in Spanish, created weather songs in Music, and researched weather topics in Library! I love how everyone is able to teach their own content through the same topic, and the kids love it too!

There is a lot more to the IB, but I think that’s a good place to stop for now!  Now I’ll take you on a brief tour of our school.

Here’s the view from the road.
The front entrance opens up into the atrium, which is like our multi-purpose room. The kids have assembly here every other week and this is where they come at dismissal to wait for their parents. Book Fairs, bake sales, and fundraisers happen here as well.
This is the Kindy area. They have their own play area there behind the gate.
These are the new classrooms that were completed the first week of school.  The stucco and a more permanent overhang are slated for this summer.

Here’s my door! Oops – I left the keys in the door again!
Our room is a big mess because we have Native Cultures projects everywhere!

Upstairs is the secondary school, as well as the Library, IT and Art Labs ( a couple of which I forgot to photograph before we left school on Friday.)
This is the pitch, and that building with the world on it is the music room.
The kids eat lunch on these picnic tables, right outside my door.
I’m really enjoying this experience of teaching abroad. I know I’m growing as a professional, and I feel the IB really has the right ideas about teaching kids to become the leaders of the future. I’m also really looking forward to next year, using the materials I’ve ordered myself (including Rubber Cement and all kinds of cardstock!) and having a better idea of what in the world I’m doing! Thanks for supporting us in our Teach Abroad Adventure!

Big News!

No, not THAT big!  We’re moving!

We’ve LOVED living in this house, but being reliant on cistern water became tedious and expensive over the last few (dry) months.  We knew some of our coworkers who are moving on after this school year had a great place that would be available for rent in June and was WAY less expensive per month, so we jumped on it!

When we met with the landlord a couple weekends ago, we didn’t expect her to begin the meeting by printing off the lease, but that’s how it happened!  She didn’t have many questions for us (Frank and Jane must have put in a good word) and even agreed to take $100 per month off the rent!

There are some other real plusses to this move:

1. Fans in every room!  No longer will Tony and I have to fight over who has to cook dinner in the hot kitchen! (We’ll probably still fight over who has to cook dinner, but for other reasons.: )

2. Bigger Kitchen – with a full size fridge/freezer!

3. Listening to the waves.  From our new place we’ll hear the waves lap up against the rocks!

4. Covered porch.  Our patio here is fabulous, but so hot in the midday sun!  I think the covered porch will entice Tony out onto the hammock more often too.

5. Town Water!! We’ll still have a cistern, but it will only be for backup, so I might be able to take a real shower!  Still not a long shower, but one where the water stays on the whole time…

All this AND we still have 2 bedrooms, but now the guest room will be en suite!  Plus, with all the money we’re going to save, I get to spend a little on redecorating!  The colour-scheme is less than ideal…

Thankfully, these couches have since been replaced (the complex used to be for short-term rental and this is the picture that was in the brochure) but the walls are still that peach.  Oh, and look at those drapes!  Don’t worry though, I have plans for this place!  Before and after pictures will follow in July!

 

 

 

Scuba

Last weekend Tony and a bunch of our friends went out scuba diving off Dead Chest Island.  I’m not certified yet, but I went along to snorkel on the surface while they went down below.  Here are some of the photos from the day:

I enjoyed watching the divers descend, and when they disappeared, I enjoyed watching the fishies!

Home Alone

Tony was off island this week, back on the mainland USA.  Unfortunately, he went home for a sad reason.  A close family friend (Aunt Peggy) passed away last week and Tony went back for the funeral. : (  We feel very blessed that it is relatively easy for us to make it back for things like this, as not all of our friends are so fortunate.

Tony left last Wednesday (our actual anniversary date – so glad we had last weekend to celebrate!) and this was the first time I’d been home alone overnight since arriving here on Tortola!  The first thing I did on my way home from work that evening was stop off at the store for a big spray can of Insect Killer (there was an incident not too long ago with a massive roach in our sink… who knew it was already dead?!  Anyway, I wanted to be prepare this time.) and some of the foods Tony doesn’t like to eat!

Now I don’t generally like being alone, so I kept myself busy surfing the net, watching a sappy movie or two and getting a little crafty.   I’ve been really into these fabric flowers lately, so I made a few more of them.  Each one has velcro on the back so they can turn into a pin, headband, or clip.

I also worked on a new pair of flip flops.  The blue ones I did a couple weeks ago.

The biggest task was saved for today though.  Some of you may remember that Tony’s Groom’s Cake was never delivered on our wedding day.  Somewhat in protest, mostly because he was busy, he didn’t eat any cake that day!  So, each year on our anniversary I present Tony with a cake.  This year, for the first and probably last time, I decided to make and decorate the cake myself.  Joyce, it’s certainly not up to your caliber, and I don’t think I’ll be quitting my day job anytime soon, but I’m pretty proud of it!

The cake we’d ordered for Tony for the big day was supposed to be modeled after this hole on the Pebble Beach golf course.

Not to shabby, huh?  I even crunched up some of Tony’s Cocoa Puffs to add texture to the cliffs.

Now Tony is home again, and hopefully we’ll both be here for awhile!

 

 

 

Guavaberry Spring Bay

For Christmas my sweet students’ families presented me with a gift certificate to Guavaberry Spring Bay on Virgin Gorda.  GSB is literally next door to The Baths, so their beach is littered with the same ginormous, beautiful rocks and has the same great snorkeling around the rocks below the waterline.  We decided to use the certificate for an anniversary weekend away! (Three years on April 25th!) And, because this is now their “off-season,” my one-night certificate turned into TWO nights, for just a little bit extra!

Last Friday we hightailed it out of school to get to the ferry dock for the 1/2 hour journey to VG.  When we arrived, Sharn was there in his cab to pick us up.  Then Tina checked us in and gave us a brief tour of the facilities on the grounds, and took us to our little cottage!

 

 

 

 

 

We knew the place would have a full kitchen, so we brought some food for breakfasts and lunches, but we knew we were going out for dinner!  The last ferry back to Tortola from VG leaves too early to be able to enjoy many of the fabulous restaurants, and this was our first overnight on VG, so there were several places we wanted to try!

We sat out on our deck, reading and enjoying the sunset for awhile.

Then it was off to dinner!  First on the list was Chez Bamboo, which had come highly recommended by both Doug and Kathy, and Clint and Michelle.

We ordered a Seafood Combo to share and a couple small plates (that turned out to be not so small!), including octopus!  Neither of us had ever tried it before.  I wasn’t a fan - too chewy for me, but Tony loved it!  Our meal was delicious, the ambiance was lovely, and the service was quick.  We walked back to our cottage and collapsed into bed!

Saturday morning we got to the Baths around 9 and snorkeled back from  Devil’s Bay.  The water was very calm and the sun was bright, so it was a great day to have our underwater camera!

I really liked taking photos of Tony diving down to explore!  He taught me how to adjust my ears for the pressure by breathing out my nose, but I still couldn’t go nearly as deep as he could!  It just hurt my ears.

We were both quite puzzled by this sea creature.  We still have no idea what he is, but are thinking maybe a cross between a lobster and a cockroach?!?

After our swim we spent the afternoon lying on this rock and reading.  This beach is a little down the way from The Baths and Spring Bay, so it was almost completely deserted!

GSB had a common room right off the main office with books and games to borrow.  During our initial tour, Tina said take any book you want, and don’t return it!  So I found a fabulous Jodi Piccoult book (Lone Wolf) to keep me occupied while Tony went out for another swim.

Saturday night we walked to The Rock Cafe for dinner, another place we’d heard a lot about.  Saturday night was karaoke, and the place was dead.  That was fine by me since I hate kaoroke, and we were able to enjoy our dinner in peace.  I’m mad at myself because I forgot to take pictures!  We sat out back, which was just beautiful.  As you walk out of the building you see 3 or 4 layered decks built amid massive boulders.  All the tables had big canvas umbrellas over them and candles on the table.  It was dark, so it made for a great romantic dinner.  Plus the food was phenomenal.  I had a fabulous shrimp pasta in cream sauce and Tony had a steak cooked to perfection.

Here’s a photo that someone else took:

For breakfast on Sunday we made Eggs Benedict!  That is one of my favourite dishes when I eat out, but this was the first time we’d ever tried making it ourselves, and I must say it was a big success!  We’d brought the package of Hollaindaise sauce mix, and almost everything else we’d need, with us from home, and the milk we were able to pick up at the the GSB Honor System Commissary for not much more than we’d pay on Tortola.  After breakfast it was back to the beach for a quick swim before we had to check out of the hotel.

Unfortunately, we didn’t know it at the time, but GSB has a bathroom with a shower just for guests who have departure times that fall after check out!  They really seem to have thought of everything!  No matter though, we enjoyed sitting around reading in the common room before calling Sharn for the 5 minute taxi ride back to the ferry dock.

We purposefully arrived at the ferry dock quite early so we could stop at YumYums!  This delightful little place is one I discovered (upon recommendation, or course) when our first visitors were here – Mom and Deeanne!  They have delicious ice cream!  The last time Tony and I were on VG was just after Christmas, so Yum Yums was closed.  This was his first experience, and he fit the phrase “like a kid in a candy store” to a T!  Standing open-mouthed and looking around at all the confections, he said, “There are just so many things I want!”  We decided on ice cream for me, a chocolate shake for Tony, and some Sixlets and Sour Gummy Worms to take home.

Here’s a photo of Yum Yums.  It’s not much to look at, but it sure is tasty!

After that it was off to the ferry dock for our trip back to Tortola!

While on our weekend getaway, Tony and I agreed that Guavaberry Spring Bay is a place we definitely want to come back to someday!  I’d also suggest it to anyone who comes to visit us and wants a romantic night or two on their own.  You’re already here in the Virgin Islands, so why not?!