As you all know, students are greeted with quite a demanding schedule upon arrival. Still, we stress the importance of finding time and space to reflect on their experience, to re-tell a story, re-imagine a reality and re-construct an unsustainable system. Well, believe it or not, the staff has an equally formidable schedule awaiting them. So, in all fairness, I feel inclined to do the same, to allow for a paradox of regression, a moment to step back. As of late, my mind and heart remains afloat over the question ‘why’- why is this place needed. Well folks, simply put, the answer lies in the need for reevaluating education.
Cacique Update May 2, 2011
by Caciques JP Ferro and Mia Thomas
With our Human Ecology presentations taking place today, every student took part in a group whose purpose was to change issues around Eleuthera. JP and his group members (Jack, James, True, and Nathan) took part in a Lionfish project called, “Licensed to Lionfish”. Lionfish are invasive species that are taking over the Atlantic; they originate from the Indo-Pacific and they have no predators in the Atlantic. In this project, the group started creating a market for lionfish by connecting local fisherman with restaurants in order to help control lionfish
The Last Tingum
by Emma - The Blog Chore Master
The days are slowly counting down here at the Island School. Students are
starting to complete their “lasts”—we are on our last chore rotation, we finished our last classes, we did our last day of run track and swim track, we completed the last infamous run-swims, and our last weekend is coming up. It sets up an interesting phenomenon for the students because we are both excited by our accomplishments and proud of the challenges we have now completely overcome, but it means more and more of the things we once looked forward to are now in the past. For example, I have never liked the sciences. When I found out the Research Blocks here range from 3 to 5 hours, I thought I would be miserable and never get through them. Every time I walked over the bridge to CEI to attend Aquaculture, I celebrated that one more lab period was done. However in recent weeks, I have been dreading the end of Aquaculture. Not only have I finally passionate about something in the sciences, Continue reading
Cacique Update May 1, 2011
by Caciques Aidan and Lizzie
We are all beginning to realize that at this time next week we will be on a plane home. So many memories, experiences, and friendships have been made in the past few months it is crazy to think that in one week we will be saying goodbye to each other. It seems like only a few days ago that we were doing our first run-swim, getting assigned our first chores, and writing our first I-Search paper. Continue reading
Cacique Update May 31, 2011
by Caciques Adam and Caroline
Watch as “sharks” Justin Symington and Lucky go in for their underwater attack during the water polo challenge during Pirate Morning Exercise.
ARRRRRRRRRRRR pirates!!! Today, we started off the morning with a pirate workout. You may be wondering what a pirate workout is, and to be honest, we were all wondering the same thing when we started our count off at exactly 6:30, like we do every morning. However, this day was not like any other morning, when suddenly all the faculty raided the circle dressed in pirate uniform and yelling pirate lingo. Continue reading
Cacique Update May 30, 2011
by Caciques Emma and J-wow (Jessica)
Today was a day of completion and celebration. This morning was the last day of swim or run track. Swim track did a final timed swim assessment around Triangle Cut to see how they have improved since the beginning of the semester. All swimmers successfully beat their original time, and most even improved their times from mid-semester. Run track did yoga to stretch and recover from the half marathon they completed the day before. Then, we had our last Literature of the Sea class and Histories of The Bahamas class. It is a bittersweet feeling Continue reading
William and Brittany Trubridge Visit Campus
The Island School was honored to welcome William and Brittany Trubridge to Cape Eleuthera. William is the current world record holder for unassisted freedive to 100 meters or 328 feet. He and his wife Brittany, who is an accomplished yoga instructor, spent three days sharing their skill and passion with our larger community. Students and faculty were able to receive instruction in how to maximize their breathing and flexibility and participate on several freediving expeditions to nearby reefs. In the evening William gave a presentation with some background on his journey to become the best in the world.
The audience watched with amazement as he shared a video of his record dive, on a single breath using only his hands and feet (no fins) he went down into Dean’s Blue Hole. The deepest of all the subterranean caverns across the Bahama Banks, Dean’s Blue Hole is located on Long Island in the Southern Bahamas, 200 miles south of Eleuthera. His dive took a total of four minutes and eight seconds and the audience erupted in applause as he successfully showed the judges the tab that he carried back up from the darkness. Continue reading
Sunday Submarine Worship at Cathedral
“The most important thing to remember is to relax” – as Chris Maxey says. “Don’t be flipping your fins like crazy to go down and up –slow mellow movements. Before you take a deep breath, lie on your back and float for a while, calming your body and breath.”
We are paired-up offshore, floating near Cathedral and “off the wall” – places I’d heard about so often through SCUBA talk that they had grown into the stuff of myths. I pictured a medieval castle-meets-church covered in coral at the bottom of the sea. I thought of Walcott’s poem, The Sea is History, when the imperialist voice of the poem interrogates the Caribbean voice, “Where are your battlefields, monuments, your martyrs?” The Caribbean voice responds, “Sirs, in that gray vault. The sea. The sea has locked them up. The sea is History.”
The Caribbean voice goes on to describe their ocean-bound empire:
It’s all subtle and submarine,
through colonnades of coral,
past the gothic windows of sea fans
to where the crusty grouper, onyx-eyed,
blinks, weighted by its jewels, like a bald queen; Continue reading
Cacique Update May 28, 2011
by Caciques Elizabeth and Alec
We slept in this morning and then had our circle at eight so that all of the swim track would be well rested for the Super Swim, and the run track would be ready to support. Swimmers ate an energizing breakfast and finished some organization before their event while all the runners made some last minute preparations before they headed off on boat and shore to cheer on the swimmers. Three! Two! One! The air-horn blew at around 9:15 signaling the start of the four-mile Super Swim. Swimmers splashed past sunset beach with determination and enthusiasm. Runners cheered along the shore while boat support dove in the water to capture action footage of the swimmers.
The first place finisher, Math teacher Dave Burnham, completed the swim in 1 hour and 33 minutes. Then, the first place student, Caroline “RO” Vanacore, finished strong with a time of 1 hour and 37 minutes. The community came together to support the swim. Once all the swimmers were safely onshore, we headed back for campus for a recovery day. It was a successful day which ended with a mellow activity to help run track get ready for their half marathon! Congratulations swimmers!
Caribbean reef shark physiology
Recently published in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology: The physiological response of the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) to longline capture. By Edd Brooks, et al.
Read the article here.
Congratulations to Edd and everyone who supported this project!