By Hallie Coon and Keniesha Pinder
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At Deep Creek Middle School, the eighth graders and their Island School buddies have been working on the issue dengue fever. The class has divided into many smaller groups to work on projects such as the radio group, print media, standing water, and the community presentation group. Continue reading
by Cacique Update Editor Claire
It’s early morning and Annie and I are sitting on the dining hall deck as the sun rises in front of us. Each of us are busy at work writing blogs. This is the scene that unfolds every morning for me being on blog chores, each time with a different cacique. I have the pleasure of sitting with the cacique of the day and hearing about what was special for them that day. Often times it’s events that were barely memorable to me, but as they describe it, I get a brand new prospective on the past day. These past few days have been long workouts, then sleep-ins which means we don’t have chores. I have missed this tranquil time in the morning these past few days. I love the idea of reaching out to everyone at home through writing and I am glad that we’re back to chores, even though things are about to get even more busy and exciting here at The Island School! Eight-Day Kayak rotations start Monday!
The anticipation of the coming weeks is buzzing on campus. In the short time we have been on campus everyone has come together so much it’s so strange to think half of us won’t be here. Kayak is another exciting event which the whole community comes together to enjoy and work through together. The sun has come out on Eleuthera! We hope the weather continues as our first group heads out on their kayak trip!
Back at home, it’s easy to think that when you turn on a tap, water will come out. Here at The Island School, however, we have learned that water is not an unlimited resource. In fact, our water supply is contained within five underground cisterns on our campus. The water that fills our cisterns comes from the sky, and roofs across campus collect this water, which then flows directly into the cisterns. We draw water from one cistern at a time for drinking, cooking, showering, and various other purposes. Each morning during chores, the Cistern Crew is responsible for measuring the level of water in each of the five cisterns, and entering the data into an Excel spreadsheet. This data is then examined to determine how much water we have used up and how much is left. The problem is that, currently, there is no real system behind deciding which cistern we draw water from. Over the past few weeks in math class, we have been figuring out a solution to this problem.
by Caciques Annie B. and Marius
Annie: Today I was truly inspired. In our Literature class, we had to write a 12 line “Found” poem, relating to the current book we’re reading, Omeros. In a “Found” poem, the idea is to find words or lines from a piece of work that stick out to you, and create a poem out of them. In this assignment, we were told to do this within our most recent assignment of reading from Omeros. Seeing as it wasn’t a graded assignment, I assumed most people would throw 12 lines about Achille’s identity struggles onto a sheet of paper ten minutes before class… but I was wrong. I was in awe as I sat in listening to the poems people had written in class the next day. Everyone had created such incredible pieces, and it really showed me how much people care about this place we’re in. It showed me that we really are in an incredible place with incredible power, and the fact that everyone put so much effort into their work was incredibly inspiring. One poem especially stuck out to me; Jane Drinkard wrote a phenomenal poem referencing the pain and inner struggles that protagonist Achille faced in Omeros. Continue reading
by Caciques William and Katie H.
William: Waking up yesterday morning, the only thing on my mind was Morning Exercise. This was the day of our second timed Run/Swim. I thought of countless ways that I could improve my time from the previous Run/Swim. Listening to other students around me I could see that this was everyone’s goal, to do better. I feel that my time here at The Island School has nurtured within me the spirit of self-improvement and that between each student a motivation to cheer each other on. The inspiration to do better seemingly was the theme of the day. Continue reading
The students of Deep Creek Middle School need your help!
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Our softball team needs spare baseball and softball gloves to help win their first softball game in the school’s history. Last year DCMS came so close to accomplishing that goal but fell short by just one hit or catch on multiple occasions. This year the students plan to break the streak and bring home a victory. DCMS has proven to have competitive, if not superior, teams in other sports like basketball, where the girls went undefeated and won the Eleuthera championship, and track, where DCMS won 20 medals at the all-island track meet. One of the reasons we haven’t had the same success in softball is our lack of resources. We don’t have enough gloves at the school to supply both our boys and girls teams. We managed last year by having our girls and boys practice on different days but it left no time for other activities like eco-club, drama and junkanoo. This year we have access to two different fields, so we now can have practices on the same day, however, we still do not have enough gloves. Some parents have already purchased gloves for the students, but since gloves run about $60 each that is not an option for everyone. Please help out the students of DCMS by bringing down any old baseball or softball gloves that you would be willing to donate when you come for Parent’s Weekend in November!
Thank you in advance from all of us at Deep Creek Middle School!
An aquamarine ocean, stretching from the shallowest of waters to the deepest of abyss may be a lonely place; at times nothing but stretches of white sand and swaying sea grass is found upon the seafloor. Following a yellowtail snapper though, one may find themselves floating over a bustling patch reef. What is a patch reef you may ask? Located in shallow waters, these isolated coral reef outcrops, with an array of brightly colored fish and slow moving invertebrates; provide an essential transitional habitat for juvenile fish still unequipped for the strains of the open ocean. Continue reading
This year, the Human Ecology, Histories, and Literature Departments have collaborated on a series ongoing assignments. Each week students are asked to write a reflective essay that demonstrates their understanding of the themes from their coursework and effectively links these themes to their unique thoughts and experiences. Enjoy reading how our students have deeply and personally engage with essential questions, important to their course of study at The Island School…
This Weeks Prompt: How does culture affect one’s relationship with the ocean?
“The Glue that Holds Us Together” by Helen Russell
My first memory is at the beach. I was four years old at Bethany Beach, Maryland with my dad’s side of the family and I was playing in the waves with my grandpa. It was the first year that my brother was with us, having been born the previous winter and everyone was obsessed with the baby. Like a typical four-year-old with a new baby in the family, I was feeling pretty neglected. But that day my grandpa had said that he wanted to go to the beach just me and him, to have “grandpa, granddaughter” time. So we make our way to the beach, me with my floaties around my arms and my towel dragging behind me. The only way that I remember all these details is because of pictures I have of myself that summer. So we played in the waves and for the first time in my life, I wondered when the ocean ended. So I asked my grandpa how the blue went on forever and he said that it was like glue that held all the continents together. He said that they were so far apart that the glue had to stretch over the sides of the Earth and that if I could swim all the way out to the horizon, then I could see the next continent. So that was my first definition of the Ocean: the glue that held the continents together. Continue reading
by Lincoln Zweig and John Morris
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This was a very successful week for the lionfish research team. On Tuesday we had two great reading note presentations and started to work on our first group project. By our next class on Friday we had a PowerPoint set up that described our research group’s purpose. After a practice presentation we went out into the field. Each buddy team finished three transects at the first dive spot that went very well. However, the reef was quite flat so we didn’t see too many lionfish or grouper. A bolt of lightening then interrupted our dive, and we headed back to The Island School. Apparently the weather gods don’t like it when we dive on Friday. Saturday was an almost flawless day in the field. We got to both of our desired dive sites and had very well set up transects at each one. We saw more lionfish and grouper on Saturday because the reefs we visited had more ledges for lionfish to use as shelter. As a group we are definitely ready and excited for our presentation on Tuesday!
by Caciques Ellen and Zeke
Zeke:
During exploration time today, the waters at High Rock and Fourth Hole were a little less than nice to those of us who decided to take snorkeling trips there. Before brunch, a group of us from the boys’ dorm went to high rock for a snorkel. After being tossed around by the waves for a few minutes, we were soon chased out by the lighting we saw offshore and biked back to school, a little disappointed.
After brunch Erik Canfield and I took a trip to Fourth Hole to see if the octopus we had spotted earlier was still in his den. We couldn’t even find the den, and great deal of our time braving yet more waves that were trying to “turn us into chowder.” We didn’t see too much there, due to the water’s murkiness, so we headed back to school to try our luck at Boy’s Dorm Beach. The water was much calmer there, enabling me to get some great photos with my SeaLife camera. [slideshow]
On this trip, we came across a yellow stingray that appeared to be trapped in a fisherman’s cage. Continue reading