Saipan Community School 8th Grade Graduation

Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:

     As I write this blog, I am actually sitting in Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The topic of this post is Saipan Community School graduation.  It takes place on the day before the last day of school.  This year's eighth grade class was a good class overall and I felt a little more attached to them having taught them for two years which is 2/3 of their life as junior highers at our school. This eighth grade class only had 2 girls by the time of graduation, which created a unique class dynamic.  My prayer for the graduating eighth grade class is that they would continue to grow and search for God.  I say this because not all of the students at our school are Christians.  I pray that the influences they had while at SCS will influence them more towards Christ and his love.
     After graduation night, the last day of school (May 25th) was a half day filled with lots of food and games.  I have attached a few photos below of our time together.  This "fun day" is a day spent with their homeroom class and teachers.  Junior high teachers pair up to tackle the responsibilities of homeroom.  My seventh grade homeroom class ended up feeding the 6th grade home room because they had brought so little food.  Let me rephrase that... they brought food, but it was junk food.  I hope you enjoy the photos and explanations (click on the photo to enlarge the image).

Kara at eighth grade graduation standing next to Pastor Roger Abe of Saipan Community Church's Filipino Service.

Me with one of my Korean eighth grade boys at graduation.

Me with one of my two eighth grade girls. The beads around my  neck were given to me by Mary Grace's mother.

 

Me with one of my Chinese eighth grade graduates.  I tutored this boy and he has come a long way since I had first met him.

Me with Mary Grace.  She spoke as the Salutatorian for her class. She is wearing many beautiful flowers and the island tassel with what looks like corrugated green circles actually happen to be dollar bills haha.

On Mary Grace's wrist was a bracelet that is made of the National Flower of the Philippines known as the Sampaguita or Arabian Jasmine (Jasminium sambac).  I was told that in the Philippines they usual make these into large wreathes for graduates.  The neat thing about this flower is that it is one of the most fragrant flowers I have ever smelled.  Due to limited availability in Saipan the wrist bracelet was all that could be done. 

I was invited to eat dinner with Mary Grace and her extended family and friends.  I have felt very privileged to know Mary Grace and her family.  If there is one thing I have learned from the Filipino community of Saipan it is generosity and the overwhelming sense of kindness.  In the states, I would wager that it is very uncommon to be given gifts by students or be asked to dinner by them.  I pray that when I have kids someday I will be able to instill this sense of kindness in my own children towards their teachers.

This is a picture of the food we had during our homeroom party. Starting in the front and zigzagging left to right we have Kara's Mexican roll-ups (in tin foil), Chinese fried rice, various types of Sashimi (thinly cut raw fish), Sushi, Korean Spice Rice Cakes with toothpicks in them for quick grabbing, chocolate cup cakes, BBQ pork skewers, chips/dip, ?, doughnuts, and popcorn.  The drinks were off to the side.  In this picture is my seventh grade homeroom partner Ms. Nierras.

This is a picture of some of my students playing Halo during the party.  The expression on their faces is exactly why grades go down at different times during the year.