The End of COM Spring 2012

My time as an instructor at COM has officially come to an end.  At the end of the semester, we had to have a little fun and take some pictures of course!  I had really great groups of students who made it really fun to teach every day.  I will certainly miss them.
I make sure to make at least one treat for each class at some point in the semester.  This time left it to the end, but better late than never, right?!  My first treat was for my ESL class, and probably my best snack for Pohnpeians yet!  Popcorn with Kool-aid and salt for dipping!

Thanks to Grandma, everyone was able to have their very
own Kool-aid packet!

The red Kool-aids are the most popular

The Josephines

Crazy about salt - so terrible!

Making the Kool-aid & Salt dip

Thank you!!!

This Thank You sign was the highlight!  He totally took it upon himself to make this sign so that I could take a picture and send it to my grandma.  He came up and said, "Teacher don't you want to take my picture?"  Love it!

The whole English for Business Purposes class

For my two Business Math classes I decided on a different treat.  Especially since so many of my students overlap.  For some reason I found myself talking to these two classes about S'mores on quite a few occasions during the semester.  I knew it would be cruel to leave and never let them experience a S'more.  I couldn't figure out a way to have the ultimate, true S'more experience because I might get in a little trouble for trying to build a campfire in my classroom.  I ended up just baking them in the over right before class, which worked surprisingly well.  So they're not the best but still good enough to give them the idea.

Put the marshmallow on the graham and roast in the oven
until golden brown on top

then plop them over on the chocolate and squish!

 

Business Math - Section 2

Business Math - Section 1

For me, I think the highlight of this treat was the e-mail I got from one of the students right after eating her first S'more.  It was so great I can't resist just coping it verbatim for you to enjoy too:

laurie,

The s'more you gave us this morning is so d.e.lisious...

where did you get those things that make s'more??? so i could go and buy and make me some more...

that taste blow my mind today i can't cnstrate on final exam with phyllis...

 Oh how I love it!

COM had a final ceremony for awards and farewell to us WorldTeach teachers.  It was so nice of them.  I really hadn't expected anything.

President Daisy gave a speech full of thanks for all the
staff and faculty

Then they presented us with certificates and gifts

Certificates of Appreciation

Lovely co-workers

And then they even fed everyone - staff,
faculty, and students

So much deliciousness!

The official end to my contract was graduation.  On May 15th, 165 COM students walked across the stage to receive their diplomas and certificates for all their hard work.  It was really great to see so many of them celebrating a huge accomplishment.  I hope and pray that they will be able to continue on and put their education to good use.

The sea of blue graduates

Each student came forward to be announced like this:
"From the beautiful island of ________, graduating with
a degree in _________, (graduate's name)."

They were each given a lei as they exited the stage - I wish
I had had an island graduation :)

Way to go Sebastian!

The moving of the tassels

What a great year it was!  I am so thankful that I was able to work at this school with all of these students and co-workers.  It was a great exposure to a different area of teaching.  It renewed my desire to teach.  It taught me that I can enjoy going to work every single day.  I learned how much I really enjoy teaching older students.  I learned that I love teaching math and business.   I learned that I would be perfectly happy never teaching English again.  And so much more!