2021: A Year of Hope

 

Happy New Year! I don't think there's ever been a year the world has been more excited for than 2021. To say 2020 was a hard year would be an understatement. Many people suffered from or lost loved ones to COVID-19, while others experienced job loss and other struggles. While I am thankful that Coronavirus never got out of control here in the Cayman Islands, 2020 brought its own devastating losses for my family. In April, just before Easter, my grandmother passed away unexpectedly. And just one month later, my aunt was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. She passed away in November, only six months after her diagnosis. She was a special lady, a retired educator, the woman who inspired me to become a teacher. We had a close bond, and that made losing her even more heartbreaking.

Student Crayon Organization (with a Freebie!)

I have a secret to share: Community supplies are not a thing here in the Cayman Islands - at least not in our public schools. 

The first time I ever saw community supplies used in a classroom was during my student teaching experience in the US. I was bewildered. "You mean all these supplies are just shared among the students? They don't have their own?" I asked my CT. However, as strange as it seemed to me at the time, I was also able to see the benefits of using community supplies in the classroom. Although I've wished at times that I could do that here in my tiny island school, I've also recognized that there are many benefits to individual supplies too. With the coronavirus pandemic, one of those benefits has become more obvious: If each student has their own supplies, germs will not be spread through the sharing of community supplies. 

So today, I'm sharing a super easy - and sanitary - way to store your students' crayons. 

Lessons from Lockdown: Cloudy Vision

I'm back for the final post in the Lessons from Lockdown series, which kind of ended up more like a trilogy than a series... haha. But hey, my intentions were good! You might also have noticed that Teaching in the Tropics has had a makeover since the last blog post. After 5 years, I felt like the site needed a new, modern look that also reflects what this space has evolved into. The wonderful Kassie from Designs by Kassie did an amazing job with the new blog design! She was a joy to work with and I am so thrilled with how it turned out!

Lessons from Lockdown: The Essential Thing (Classroom Edition)

Almost two months have gone by since my first Lessons from Lockdown blog post, and I never imagined it would be this long before my second post. To be honest, I initially created this post on April 8th and have had it in draft mode ever since. Two days later, my grandmother passed away unexpectedly, so with that, plus online teaching and finishing my master's program, blogging had to be put on hold again. I still have a lot to share, and I'm looking forward to blogging more regularly now that I'm done with grad school and am more settled in to the rhythm of teaching online.

Lessons from Lockdown: The Essential Thing

Lockdown. It's a word I sure didn't expect to be hearing in 2020, but here we are. The world as we know it seems to have turned upside down over the last couple of weeks, and the Coronavirus has caused a level of change and disruption that we never imagined was possible. However, I think it’s been helping all of us to learn some valuable lessons too. It's been a long time since I've blogged on here, but I feel compelled to share what I'm learning during this time through a blog series called Lessons from Lockdown. (Ironically, when I came up with that title, there was no official lockdown here in the Cayman Islands, even though most people are being cautious and staying home. However, starting tonight, we will be going into a full lockdown for a few days to try to prevent further spread of the virus in the days ahead.)