With parent’s weekend in the past, life at The Island School is slowly returning to normal. We began this morning with an exciting and challenging run-swim workout led by Charlie, Dale, Marcus and Ivy that included jumping off bridges and calisthenic exercises. Although everyone was sad to see their parents go, we are all jumping right back into the grind of Island School life.

Parent’s Weekend was a fantastic few days for everyone in the community, and it was nice to show our parents that we haven’t just been sitting on the beach all semester (even though we’re all way tanner than they are). The events began with our student led Art show, titled “Paddling Forward,” which was a big hit among all the parents. Some even requested to take their student’s art home, yet some parents seem to have forgotten…

The following morning was our Research presentations, a great demonstration of the diligent, hard work we have put in throughout the semester. All of the groups were very successful in conveying their objectives, methods and results, and most of the parents were blown away. The audience seemed very intrigued and impressed with our work in conjunction with CEI this semester.

The highlight of parent’s weekend for me was the Coffee House we held on Friday night. This was a great opportunity for the community to get together in a relaxed environment and enjoy ourselves. Peter C and Charlie were hilarious as always, and the vocal talent among the students was impressive. Noelle claims she had never sung in front of a crowd before, but her voice was incredible and I think she should try out for American idol. Girls North had a ridiculous, blind-folded, peanut butter and jelly eating contest that had the whole crowd cracking up, and we got to see a satellite launch during one of the intermissions. And we got cookies after. Overall, a pretty awesome night.

Now that parent’s weekend is over and we are in the final stretch, students are beginning to worry about having to leave this place. Instead of worrying we should enjoy the time we have left. Charlie Mauck always says, “don’t be sad because it’s over,  be happy because it happened.”

We are one day closer to the arrival of parents, and life is even more busy here at The Island School. We returned to our respective run and swim tracks today, and the swim workout was led by Maxey… by far the most challenging yet. Even though our workouts have been tough, we know we have to work really hard to prepare for the half marathon and super-swim.

Yesterday morning, half of the Human Ecology project groups met while the other half of students stayed on campus to prepare the Octagon at CEI for the art show. Students have begun transforming the space into a world class art show, and it is awesome to see how quickly everything is coming together thanks to such focused work.

My Human Ecology project went to DeepCreekMiddle School campus to meet with the PE teacher and discuss our plans. Our group is addressing the lack of athletic opportunity for Deep Creek kids. While we originally planned to build a baseball field, after speaking with local students and teachers, we have decided to focus our energy on an athletic equipment shed located on DCMS campus. Additionally, we will be constructing multi-sport nets and refurbishing DCMS’ basketball court.  Although we were thrown off track slightly, we were able to overcome obstacles and plan a project based on the needs of the community rather than the interest of our group. Accepting failure and rolling with the punches is definitely a key part of a successful Human Ecology project. Besides, without the change of plans we never would have come up with our project’s new name: The Grateful Shed.

Last night we did a practice run on our research presentations, and all of the groups were very impressive. Our community is excited to welcome our parents and share all our amazing work this semester.

As parents begin to trickle in, everyone is scrambling to prepare for their arrival. Students have been working hard to complete preparations for Wednesday’s art show, and all the research groups are getting ready for our biggest presentation so far.

Even with all the hype for parent’s weekend, we are able to focus on having a very fun weekend. On Saturday, both run and swim tracks did our longest workout yet. In the morning some of the runners ran almost 12 miles, while the swimmers completed a 2.5 mile swim, our longest yet. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but I feel much more confident about the super swim after having done such a long distance. Even though everyone was falling asleep during dinner, we somehow found the energy to drive to Rock Sound for our final presentations for Community Outreach. The community center group was the center of attention because of their bake sale, which included the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies anyone has ever baked. I almost teared up a little after my first bite… and I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. Island School and Deep Creek Middle School members of the Cancer and Plastic Awareness groups gave heart wrenching presentations about two of the most dangerous issues here on Eleuthera. To benefit the Cancer Society on Eleuthera, the plastic team also sold home-made jewelry we constructed out of pieces of beach plastic. Despite the serious issues discussed, Saturday was a great day for everyone in the community and it was great to see Island School students working hard and having fun with their DCMS buddies.

Yesterday was Ashley’s birthday, and a great way to end an eventful weekend. Last night we took a little study break, and had a cookout on the beach in honor of her birthday. The burgers were delicious, compliments to the chef . To top it off we sang happy birthday and ate some chocolate cake. A great way to end a great weekend here at The Island School.

Today at morning circle all of the girls surprised the whole community. They lined up in order of their circle numbers, and each girl had a different letter painted on their stomachs. The letters spelled out “Happy Birthday Dale, We love you” After everyone saw what they had spelled out, Dale stepped into the middle of the circle and we sang Happy Birthday. Although the boys were very confused, the celebration was a great example of how tight knit our community is.

The excitement continued as the caciques announced a break from Run and Swim tracks and that we  would instead be playing team sports….. and yoga. Students played basketball, water polo and I had an awesome game of soccer with a few other students at the Marina. Tsering scored at least 100 goals, and Anya stole the ball from me far more times than I’m willing to admit.

Human Ecology final projects are in full swing, and we have begun to have long block classes to work with our groups. We all are addressing a different problem at the Island School or beyond, and we work in groups to come up with a sustainable solution. Everyone is very excited to get started, and all the projects proposed are very promising. One problem students are addressing is the over-use of dive sites and how human contact can be a detriment to the health of the reef if it is visited over and over. An exciting solution a group proposed is attempting to sink a broken down bus at the saddle to create an artificial reef and an exciting new dive site.

As we prepare for parents to arrive, life at the Island School is very busy, but still just as fun.

My name is Jack Martin and I am from Philadelphia, PA. Newly assigned to write the upcoming student updates, I am excited to share my experience here over the next few weeks.
This past Tuesday was one of the most exciting Swim track workouts because we were finally allowed to swim in the current cut at the Marina. The cut doubles as a challenging exercise and a relaxing, lazy river, depending on which direction the water is flowing. Until this week, the cut had been off limits to students because of the strong currents and the not-so-friendly residents that swim through it. Although Scotty assured us the bull sharks were gone, having passed on seasonally to different waters, we spotted a small lemon shark about 10 seconds after we began our swim! A few girls shrieked and everyone stopped to look, but we were all quickly assured that a little shark like that is far more afraid of us than we are of him.

Yesterday, the shark research team had a second encounter with a Lemon shark, only this one was a little bigger… I was leaning over the front of the boat checking our fishing line, when I noticed one of our hooks was sagging deep into the water. As I began to work my way towards the hook, I spotted him. A big, beautiful 7-foot Lemon was hooked cleanly. This was our very first Lemon shark we caught this semester, and a very exciting field day on the boat. Two lemon sharks in two days is pretty typical of my life here at Island School… I wonder how many people in the world can say that?