Sabbatical Phase 1: Eleuthera!

On sabbatical!

First stop: The Island School, Eleuthera, Bahamas. Picture a windswept fishhook-shaped island, 110 miles long and often no more than a mile wide, due east of the Florida Keys; crystal clear waters in unimaginable shades of turquoise; on-site solar and wind power; gardening in raised beds and hanging half pipes in the school Farm with food crops grown all over campus; composting of food scraps, seaweed, yard and animal waste; pigs, goats, ducks, chickens destined for the dining hall; aquaponics and fish farming at the Cape Eleuthera Institute; forty-eight 10th and 11th grade students here for a semester of place-based learning; and about as many faculty, fellows and interns. We arrive during the first week of the new term, when all students take part in a 3-day kayaking orientation and a 3-day SCUBA orientation. Classes begin next week. Every day begins with some form of physical activity, such as swim-run or SCUBA Psychosis, plus campus chores before breakfast.

Staying with our nephew Rob and his fiancée Nadine, both teachers at the school, we enjoy the life of the school all around us, partake in meals with the school community, and explore the surrounding area. Rob gives us an evening walking tour past their boat, the Fisher's Hornpipe, to the marina at the end of the cape. Larry and I sleep on board the FHP in the Triangle Cut next to the school, while Henry enjoys the guest room of Rob and Nadine's bright and airy campus apartment, overlooking the sound. We bike the Eleuthera "Boulevard" Loop with Nadine, learning about the resort and 18-hole golf course that was built there some 35 years ago, and of which little evidence remains. Tuesday afternoon, we snorkel at High Rock with Rob; wander through the school's Farm and Institute learning about local flora and fauna; and watch the neighborhood nurse and bull sharks chow down on scraps tossed into the marina waters by the day's successful fishermen.

Wednesday we rent a car and drive (on the left!) up to Governor's Harbor for lunch and body surfing at the Old Club Med Beach with its amazing pink powder sand. Car rentals here are an informal affair; a word-of-mouth search turns up individuals willing to rent their spare cars to travelers in need of automotion. Ours is a Nissan Presea, rented by Gigi at the Coco Plum restaurant. Her daughter drives down from Rock Sound to pick us up. After a stop at the bank, the car won't start. Gigi's daughter handily pops the hood and gets out with a tire iron to tighten a connection on the battery. Confident in our ability to handle our new ride, we drop her off at the Coco Plum on our way north, cruising the Queen's Highway to Governor's Harbor.

Thursday we do our first two SCUBA open water certification dives; enjoy dinner of conch burgers (each 'burger' pounded for several minutes before being breaded and deep fried) at Sharil's in Deep Creek; and move from the Island School over to the Cape Eleuthera Resort, a 10-minute walk up the road and a major psychological shift from the eco-conscious mindset of the school to the consumer comfort focus of the resort. The two aren't really that far apart-- the school has plumbing, electricity, internet service, comfortably furnished rooms, apartments and common areas, delicious meals, and a warm and wonderful staff-- but we find the availability of unlimited hot and cold water a great luxury after the 1-minute (cold) "Navy showers" and "if it's yellow, let it mellow" advisories on campus.

Today, rain and iffy weather postponed our second session of diving, so we're hanging out in our luxury condo, watching with horror the news coverage of Japan's earthquake and resulting tsunami, and getting ready to go snorkeling at 4th Hole if the weather clears. This afternoon we pick up son Sam at Rock Sound airport and our family vacation begins a new phase.

Stay tuned!

Making plans

I've been granted a 3-month sabbatical by my school to visit TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) practitioners and users of other methodologies which differentiate instruction to better serve all learners; study schools with successfully articulated K-12 language programs; and share ideas with educators thinking about the place of language acquisition in 21st century education.

Three snow days and a long weekend in early February gave me the chance to research my options, talk to teachers and administrators in other schools, and start to plan my itinerary. I have four major trips scheduled so far:

1) In early March: A family vacation to Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, to visit my nephew and his partner who teach at the Island School. While the IS does not offer language instruction, it does offer an exciting place-based curriculum, using island and marine ecology as the basis for study of math, literature, art and science. I'm hoping to get inspiration for my gardening-based Spanish curriculum at Westtown. (As a side benefit, all of my family will complete our open water SCUBA certification!)

2) In late March: a New England road trip to Glastonbury School District in CT, to experience their exemplary K-12 language curriculum which uses a set of cross-disciplinary essential questions to guide instruction at each level; and St Johnsbury Academy in VT, a semi-private high school where the language department has embraced TPRS as a key tool for language instruction.

3) In late April/early May: a western trip to San Francisco, where I'll visit the Tamalpais high schools which use TPRS district-wide; and return via Denver, with 3 days seeing various languages taught at various levels K-12 in the Denver Public Schools, using a variety of TCI (Teaching with Comprehensible Input) methods.

4) In mid-May: a Midwestern road trip to Canton, MI to see a friend who teaches upper level Spanish using TPRS at Salem High School, near Detroit; Cincinnati, OH to visit the K-12 language program at Summit Country Day School, where use of TPRS is just part of a school-wide focus on developing global competence; and Pittsburgh, PA to learn about the K-12 program at Sewickley Academy and see how they have succeeded in integrating a Global Studies program into their K-12 curriculum.

Between long-distance visits, I hope to sit in on classes with colleagues at local schools, work in my garden, and reflect on what I learn through entries in this blog.

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