Living on an island in the middle of the ocean has it's ups and downs. So does being an indigenous people.
One of the reasons I wanted to be a part of PolarTREC so badly, was that I wanted my students to learn about other cultures who experience their same lifestyle. My wish came through when I hooked up with Tonia Kushkin's class on St. Paul.
Last week I got a package in the mail, an invitation for my students to be penpals, with hers. My students are delighted to join hands with hers and learn more about the Pribilof Islands and their unique culture.
We had our first 'Lunchtime Letters Club' meeting yesterday. My students listened with great interest as I told them about my one day visit to St. Paul. I brought down the calendar that Tonia had sent and their eyes scanned each month's photo. I let them just look, hoping they would remark on a common aspect of island life.
It didn't take long.
Can they swim in the ocean? Look at the beach, it doesn't look very comfortable.
True, their photos contained more gray and black than blond and tan. My students wanted to introduce their new 'bruddah and sistahs' from the beach on up so that they could know more about our island home, Maui.
I gave them all ziplock baggies and sent them out on a mission to collect sand from all around Maui. Our first letters would focus on our beaches. A map of Maui, with the sand bag locations clearly marked will accompany our samples.
I can see this is the start of a wonderful learning experience:)