John's Next Step

In high school I worried that humans might eventually dig up and burn enough of the plants and animals that had captured carbon dioxide during the time of dinosaurs and giant ferns to revert the climate to one like that of the Jurassic or Cretaceous periods. However, I didn’t think that I would see much of the effect during my lifetime. That was over 40 years ago. In the last 15 years it has been painfully obvious to me and many other people that the climate is changing faster than can be explained by natural processes and not in a good way. When I was gardening in Missouri I noticed spring and the apple blossoms creeping earlier in the year and the first frosts coming later in the fall. On the surface a slightly longer growing season was good for me. Climate change is a global process. Those who cause the most climate change may not be the ones experiencing the initial negative impacts. In the short term some areas will benefit and some will be harmed. My home in Missou...

I used a bug net in Ghana, which is a malaria hot zone. However, I was in the dry Upper West Region and there was only a relatively short period of time during the single rainy season when mosquitoes were an issue and the government came around with a seriously killer spray once a year. So I didn’t actually have many issues with mosquitoes. I didn’t even tuck the net in all the way most of the time until I shared my bed with a camel spider. Afterwards, I made sure it was tucked in. This camel spider is from the dry area of Ghana - not on Grenada Grenada has had frequent rains over the last two weeks and I’m currently plagued with mosquitoes outside and inside the house. I don’t have screens and I commonly leave at least the back door open to get some air circulation. So bugs outside can easily find a way inside. My mosquito bat is getting a lot of use on the blood suckers. And when things get bad I’ll use bug repellent even though I’m not going outside. Peace Corps is ...

We had the feast day for Holy Cross School and Church this week. The feast of the Holy Cross commemorates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and we also remember Moses raising the bronze serpent. The early history around 630AD also recounts recovery of the relic captured from Jerusalem by the Persians. The school celebrated the day with a mass Friday morning and then arts and crafts before lunch. Students at school mass The teachers added to the school feeding program to provide a nice lunch for everyone by bringing a dish or something. I considered chicken fried rice, but would not have been able to make enough for even a little to go around to teachers and students. Cookies were an option, but I did not plan ahead and something like 6 dozen cookies would have taken some time. So I chipped in money for the meat. Call me a wimp, I know Theresa would. However, after I set the precedent other teachers followed my example. Lunch was very nice with the kitchen staff do...

The school year is off to a good start. The principal says “we are a small school but we are big”. That is, we don’t have a lot of students but we do big things. At the start of last year the school was already one teacher down due to retirement. Before I came in January another teacher retired and this year one of the teachers will be attending college. We were able to replace the teacher who left for college but we are still short the teachers who retired last year. Given the size of the current student population we are only allocated so many teachers so the principal has adjusted the staff. The first and second grades are combined this year. The new teacher is in grade five and the principal needed to figure how to staff the third grade. First school assembly One of the new signs in school Rather than just teacher literacy I’m more a general purpose 3rd grade teacher focused on math and language. I work well with my primary co-teacher who is a student teacher....

This week was the teacher’s prep week. The principal confirmed we are not moving to the new school at this time. Construction completes on the new schedule by October. We will move between first and second term, so January in the new building. I’ll be in third grade with a student teacher and the principal. We have six students registered. One is a transfer. The school likely would have gotten more transfers if the new building had been ready. But for now, it’s the current building with makeshift partitions between classroom space in the lower grades. Last year first, second, and third grade was in one class. This year third grade will be its own class. I worked with the student teacher to get things ready. Unfortunately neither one of us is very artistic. She asked me to decorate a folder for scheme of work, descriptions of what we will do in each subject. When she saw my “art work” she got a new folder and had someone else to do it. I guess it is important to show...