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.

Eighth Grade Graduation @ Saipan Community School

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers:
This is my blog about the end of my year at Saipan Community School. I have much more to say in future blogs about Taste of the Marianas, a local poetry reading contest of a local poet (now deceased) my students will be taking part in coming up, and my progress in creating a bible devotional book for outdoorsmen. Kara has said that before I do that, however, she will write a blog entry about the end of her school year. So, there is still much to say about our time in the C.N.M.I.; I guess you could say it is something to look forward to.
The end of my school year was one of joy and sadness. The eighth grade graduation was held at the Saipan Multi-Purpose Center. I never had a middle school graduation and did not know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. First, the joys of finishing the year in ceremony were many for students, parents, and teachers. Joys included many awards given, a chance to see the culmination of hard work ending in graduation, and a chance to see students sad yet excited to move on to the next step in their lives. Awards ranged from graduating with honors (3.5-4.0 from 6th-8th grade), A & B Honor Roll for 4th Quarter, Perfect Attendance (8th grade year), Loyalty Award (students who have been at the school since kindergarten), President’s Academic Achievement Award (silver and gold), Ukulele Elite Award, and the perhaps most coveted Citizenship Award (I say most coveted because the teachers pick this particular student). I particularly enjoyed the keynote speech by our maintenance man, Rommel Tisejo. I enjoyed it not for eloquent speaking abilities, but from the simple yet true analogy of relating life to the structure of a house. The questions he asked of the 8th graders were good questions to ask and I pray that those students took them to heart and consider them as the go on to Saipan Southern High School, Marianas High School, or some other institution (perhaps one in their home country).
The sadness of graduation was not that I missed all of my eighth grade students, but rather that many of the student given speeches by both the Salutatorian & Valedictorian mentioned how the eighth grade class got into trouble a lot and misbehaved frequently. This is all true, of course, but I was saddened that throughout the year the behavior had not been adjusted as it could have been if students had listened more and not talked back to teachers at our school. My prayer for all the students at S.C.S. is that they know how much we care about them despite the difficult situations they put themselves in by their behavior. I did receive a few parent comments later thanking me for talking with them about behavioral issues and keeping them in the loop. That made my day as a teacher. I, along with other junior high teachers, was given a rose from an eighth grade student and had a photo opportunity with another 6’1 eighth grader who has a special place in my memory.
Lastly, the day after graduation I had a party with my seventh grade homeroom in which they brought food to be shared after chapel. It was a fun time, half-way through the party, however, many of the students left to go play dodge ball, which is a great way to end the year and I was allowed a few moments of reflection in my classroom. After students had left, all the staff were taken out to eat by the pastor and his wife to a restaurant called Gentle Brook. There were two cakes after the meal to eat, one was a fruit cake and another was a cake donated by a grateful parent who wanted to thank us all. We are truly blessed to be at S.C.S. and the various cultures that make up our school have given me a lot of insight into being a teacher. The funniest thing was a gift I was given by one of my Korean students, a 4 GB hard drive…to think it used to be an apple! Enjoy the pictures I have posted.
Sincerely, Grant

Pictures are:
1. Picture of the fruit cake (yummy) we ate at while Gentle Brook restaurant. The pastor was kind in buying a cake for the celebration and Gentle Brook's manager was nice enough to keep it in the fridge while we ate.
2. Picture of my kids going through the line of food in my classroom.
3. A picture of me with my eighth grader kind enough to bring flowers for us teachers.
4. A picture of Kara play dancing with one of her students after graduation.