Daily Update, Student Update, Uncategorized

No Phone, No Problem

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Before I came to The Island School, I didn’t know what it would be like to live without a phone or Internet; none of us did. Our generation has grown up with access to both. The Internet was always a part of our lives before coming to IS, never further than the smartphones in our hands. It was bittersweet to surrender our devices immediately after landing in Eleuthera to start our semester.

The first week was surely a change for us all. I constantly felt like I was missing a piece of me. I was always so accustomed to feeling the subtle weight and bulkiness of my phone in my pocket; it felt unorthodox to lose the sensation. As time progressed, we all became more and more acclimated to the lack of Internet. After being here for over a month, the loss of the web and my phone is the last thing on my mind. Instead, it has been refreshing to disconnect from those distractions and live our daily lives like all of our parents did when they grew up. Communicating with friends now means actually finding them and talking to them.

Doing papers means taking notes in class and talking to teachers; Wikipedia is no longer a last second option after a week of procrastination. Checking the weather app is no longer necessary, as our eyes are more accurate in sighting rain clouds off in the distance than any weather radar around. Life went on before the Internet existed, and it will certainly do the same for us here. It may be unrealistic to think we will all avoid the Internet and give up our phones when we return to our lives back home, but at the same time I hope this experience gives us all a new outlook on what really matters in our lives.

by Zach McCloskey

Uncategorized

Getting Comfortable Doing the Wobble

Each Island School student has a Deep Creek Middle School buddy during community outreach where we help them achieve a goal to better their society. Last week Island School students had the unique opportunity to socialize with their buddy outside of the classroom environment during the DCMS dance. The dance was held at the Marina Pavilion where we all rode our bikes or took vans while the DCMS students took bus to the Marina. When I got to the Marina I was cheerfully greeted by my buddy and his friends who were all excited to dance to the music and eat good food.

It was an incredibly fun experience when the DCMS students made a large circle for a dance off while dancing to “Wobble.” At first, I was a bit shy to join this dance off circle but my excited buddy quickly pulled me in the middle and forced me to dance. I am grateful for my buddy doing this because after that moment I felt so accepted within the DCMS community that I kept on dancing until I got tired. After this, some students went to Sunset Beach to witness one nature’s most beautiful spectacles: the sunset. After seeing the sunset, the party continued into the night where all the students kept dancing and building friendships. Events like this, I have realized, allow people to break their comfort zones and build friendships with people they would have otherwise ignored. This event proved incredibly important for me and my buddy because we have learned more about each other and will help us reach our goal that we have set off to accomplish.

 

News

Dr. Joanna Paul’s Trip to South Africa with EdVillage

Joanna working with Vuleka staffThis past March, Dr. Joanna Paul (Director of Education) travelled to South Africa with EdVillage and a team of international educators to conduct some teacher training workshops and school reviews. “This has been a wonderful professional development opportunity for me,” said Dr. Paul. “Our focus on conducting school reviews, training teachers and principals and delivering school improvement workshops provided me with the opportunity to learn new skills and hone familiar skills in a new context with a new team. My learning was supplemented with school visits and stimulated by working side by side with a team of international educators who each brought different perspectives to our school improvement work. It has  been interesting to compare the work that Deep Creek Middle School is doing in The Bahamas with that of low-fee schools developing in South Africa and share different ways that the two models could inform each other.“

Joanna and FernandoDr. Paul worked in and visited several schools in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, including African Leadership Academy (ALA). “ALA is a sending school for The Island School and it was wonderful to see the students in class and in the field in Johannesburg.” During the visit, Jean Fernando Randriamiajason (Summer ’13) showed off the new permaculture farm that he has designed on campus. While he is busy making a profit on the organically grown vegetables for his entrepreneurship project, he is also finding time to lobby the school to install a rainwater catchment system on campus.

Student Update, Uncategorized

Ferris Bueller Said It Best…

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…When he said…

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That’s pretty much how we feel right about now.

How do you start a blog post about where we are in the semester? Days can be tallied, sure. It’s been 37 if anyone’s been counting. Those days have been filled with 6:15am wakeups, morning workouts, 3-day kayak trips, scuba diving, and so many other activities that make each one of these days so jam packed and busy.

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It’s often said that the days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. I would be baffled to find a single student or faculty member that didn’t agree. Each week seems to come and go faster than the bacon does at Sunday brunch, which is astounding in itself. We have less than 2 academic weeks left until the heavily anticipated 8-day kayak and down island trips. Rumors surrounding the 48-hour solo on the kayak trip have been floating around since Day 1, and the buzz has only increased as we get closer and closer.

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Lighthouse Beach

As we move forward through the term, we have all noticed each day getting hotter and the ocean water getting warmer. The Bahamian winter–which is surely nothing to complain about–is behind us and spring weather is emerged. Looking at the bigger picture, the 3-week kayak and trip rotation will take us to the middle of May. That will soon be followed by parents weekend, which we’ve all looked forward to since the moment our planes left the runway. After research symposiums are presented, the semester starts tapering off and June 12th marks the day of return to our families and friends.

Although dismal to think about leaving this special place we now call home, it makes us cherish each and every second we have left. We all eagerly look forward to what the next 63 days will hold.

by Zach McCloskey

CEI, News

Nigel Barker Tours The Island School Campus

TV personality Nigel Barker photographing the IS campus

Professional fashion and beauty photographer, host of TV’s The Face, and judge on America’s Next Top Model recently toured the campus’ of The Island School and The Cape Eleuthera Institute while vacationing with his family.  Mr. Barker was impressed with our commitment to sustainability and variety of programs offered by the organization.

Founder Chris Maxey welcomes Mr. Barker and his family to The Island School
Joseph Elideau and Johnny Alexis pick fresh tamarinds from the orchard
George Giannos (F ’10) demonstrates how the aquaponic garden works

 

 

 

Student Update, Uncategorized

Somewhere, Something Incredible is Waiting to be Known

During our first querencia, we were exposed to the three important styles of writing that we will be using throughout the semester, which includes Personal Narrative, Descriptive, and Natural History writing. Through our three prompts to reflect upon during our querencia time, we learned how to work with each style of writing.

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Later that week, students expanded their skills of specializing these three styles by writing an anonymous excerpt from each piece they wrote during querencia time as examples of what each style looks like. We then put all of our examples into one pile for the whole class to pick out of and practice identifying each style.

After organizing the excerpts into the categories of Personal Narrative, Descriptive and Natural History and discussing the reasoning behind our choice of which category to place it in, Olivia designed double sided posters to hang up in the dining hall as a way to share our voices in the contexts of our first impressions of querencia.

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“Have you ever noticed that trees never sway the same way twice? The color of the lights refraction on its boughs gives it away” and “the waves encompass all around them in great storms, then recede like long hands, dragging back all they can carry” were some profound examples of our descriptions of querencia. This assignment allowed us to let our mind run freely and document our surroundings while still teaching us how to write in very different styles.

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Have you ever noticed that trees never sway the same way twice? The color of the light’s refraction on its boughs gives it away.
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I lay back staring at the clouds wondering what it would be like to be able to drift as freely as they could.
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In this place I feel very happy
Alumni, Aquaculture, Cape Eleuthera Institute, CEI, Deep Creek Middle School, Events, News, research, Uncategorized

The Island School is on Google Maps Street View!

The Island School is excited to announce the launch of Island School Street View!  You can now take virtual tours of The Island School, Cape Eleuthera Insitute, and Center for Sustainable Design campuses, as well as iconic locations around the Cape as if you were there!   To move througout the tours, pan around the “photosphere” and click on the hovering arrows or circles located on the screen.

The Island School Campus Tour has six locations throughout the tour: The Flag Circle, Entrance, Boathouse, Dining Hall, Boy’s Dorm, & Boy’s Dorm Beach.
Cape Eleuthera Institute has four locations: CEI Entrance, The Wetlab, CEI Walkway, & Hallig House.
The rest (DCSM, The Sand Bar, The Offshore Aquculture Cage, Cathedral Rock, Scuba Class on the Cobia, and Weirda Bridge) can be found on main Island School profile page on Google Maps.
Click to see what it's like to dive The Cage!
Click to see what it’s like to dive The Cage!
Student Update, Uncategorized

Junkanoo Jamboree

After settlement day we all gathered at my settlement, Tarpum Bay, behind the elementary school before walking over to the festival. We walked along the beach until we arrived at the festival.

Photo by Abby Gordan
Photo by Abby Gordon

The second we arrived everybody had the same idea, food, Food, FOOD! The four stands had long lines within seconds while everyone bought drinks, conch fritters, cupcakes, pigs feet and much more.

Abby, Julia, Abbe and Robin at the Tarpum Bay Homecoming!
Abby, Julia, Abbe and Robin at the Tarpum Bay Cultural Fair!

After most of us were satisfied we began to here the loud rum of Junkanoo music so we turned to see the brightly colored costumes. The elementary school had won a Junkanoo competition and was preforming for the festival.

Junkanoo Rush in Tarpum Bay
Junkanoo Rush in Tarpum Bay
Junkanoo costume!
Junkanoo costume!

 

Boys and girls dressed in bright costume and danced and played instruments through the streets of Tarpum bay
Boys and girls dressed in bright costume and danced and played instruments through the streets of Tarpum bay

All we could see was the radiant colors and lights moving around in a blur with the kids smiling and dancing their hearts out. After the amazing performance, other people went up and sang songs that we knew!

Everyone was laughing and dancing. One local girl, around the age of nine, decided all the girls needed to dance with a boy so she was setting up pairs left and right. After several of the boys learned how to spin and dip their partners, John S. called us all into a circle, we counted off, and left our second saturday night activity.

Student Update, Uncategorized

A Time to Reflect

As defined in our first Literature reading assignment of the semester, The Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez, querencia “refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure, a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn – a place in which we know exactly who we are.” Its importance is such that “our search for querencia is both a response to threat and a desire to find out who we are. And the discovery of querencia hinges on the perfection of a sense of place.”

Photo by Mackenzie Howe
Photo by Mackenzie Howe

The Island School strongly emphasizes the importance of having a sense of place for a specific area and having time to reflect on our personal doings and think about the meaning within the beautiful place we are living for these three months. By this idea we are encouraged to find our own querencia or place where we feel most at home. Island School students got their first exposure to what querencia really means when we chose our personal spots this past Thursday. We were given three hours for our first querencia time to find our spot and reflect upon three writing prompts exemplifying our natural history, personal narrative and descriptive writing.

Photo by Mackenzie Howe
Photo by Mackenzie Howe

Many of us were able to find our querencia spots rather quickly, but I on the other hand, had trouble finding the perfect place that I wanted to be connected to. I tried three spots before finally settling on a place on the white sand of No-Name Harbor where I was able to feel completely alone. I had never explored much of the island before, so when finding my spot, I tried to lose myself in the overgrown back-roads eventually leading me to the beach. After having ample time to decompress and reflect upon the past busy week, I started my journey back to campus which I found to be much more difficult than my bike ride there. I attempted taking a different route thinking that it would get me home quicker but got lost multiple times. Thankfully I eventually found myself at the entrance of campus again. After much thought, I realized the virtue of my spot being so remote; although I was lost in the woods, I could confide in the fact that my querencia spot was far away from anyone else where I could truly reflect by myself and work on my “perfection of a sense of place.”

By, Mackenzie Howe