New School Year

School Starts Again - February 8th

School is about ready to start for the 2012 school year.  Sister Thorne and I helped last week with some inservice training.  She shared some interesting insights on how to use posters stating basic truths about the learner to build their academic self confidence.  Despite her nervousness and hours of preparation it went very well and was well received by the teachers.  

Sister Thorne explaining each poster to the Moroni Teachers

I spoke on improving professionalism and classroom teaching.  It is fun to be able to use the scriptures in preservice training.  The Computer/ Technology Instructional Technology class is winding down.  We taught teachers how to embed videos and pictures into power points, blogs, and wiki pages.  We helped them develop a teaching blog and how to edit a wiki page.  The wiki site we used was the kiribati-lds-pioneer wiki, each participant entered their personal history under one or more headings.  It provides some interesting history and insights into many of the teachers early beginnings and the road to teaching at Moroni High.


Sister Thorne has been busy giving the English proficiency exam to several recently returned missionaries and helping them complete their application to BYU Hawaii.  The deadline for Spring semester is January 31st so many have been scrambling trying to get everything finished.  I have been creating a new wiki site, where all the ITEP classes can be posted.  It will include a syllabus for the each class, assignments, readings, videos, and links to other important information. Hopefully it will help future ITEP couples not have to reinvent the wheel each time they begin a new course.  Hopefully, we can also start sharing information with other ITEP couples in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.  The site lists all the required ITEP courses in the Table of Contents, so class participants can find all the information they will need at one on-line site.


A new ITEP college class will begin the week after school starts SPED 200.  The focus of the class is on serving students with disabilities and special needs.  It will be a challenge, because there is no special education in any of the public or private schools in Kiribati.  The only school that serves students with disabilities was started in 1991 by the Red Cross and is now operated by the Australian Government.  About 100 students are served at the school.  One of our focuses in the class will be to raise awareness of the need to educate all I-Kiribati children regardless of physical or learning challenges and limitations.


Lots of students and parents are on campus each day trying to register for the new school year.  It is nice to have the students back on campus.  Our ward's Sunday attendance drops down to the size of a branch during the school break and many of the classes have to be combined.  The flight from the Marshall Islands didn't make it again last week, but we did get some Christmas cards a few weeks ago from Ward members.  We have several cases of dictionaries from the Rotary Club that are still stranded in Majuro along with Christmas packages and who knows what else.  There are four new missionaries stranded here for the past few weeks trying to get to their new area in the Marshall Islands.


Last Sunday we spoke in Sacrament meeting, so it has been a very busy couple of weeks and will continue for some time.  We also alternate teaching the 'Gospel Doctrine class, which is enjoyable but also takes a lot of time to prepare.  The Moroni Ward is mainly composed of high school students with about 12 families assigned to the Ward to help teach and administer the Ward.  The Bishop and 2nd Counselor work for the Church at Moroni and the 1st Counselor owns a technology business.  He was recently elected to the Kiribati Parliament and was appointed to the Presidents Cabinet as Minister of Trade.  The Minister of Education is also LDS and President Tune was appointed to a three person advisory council (the first LDS to serve in what is a very prestigious position).  The LDS Church is now the third largest religion in Kiribati and members are having a positive impact in education, business and government.


News from Home


New from the home front Shannon was very excited when we called her.  Her drill team took first in Region competition and she took 2nd place in the drill down.  All this happened on her birthday, she said it was the best birthday ever.  We called Drew and Luke on their birthday, it was fun but 5 year olds have a short attention span.  Jenna turned 8 and was baptized in January, so it was fun to SKYPE and get the latest from home.

Shannon with the Region  Championship trophy and her Drill Down medal

Drew posing in one of his costumes 

Jenna with her Birthday Cake

We are still waiting for photos of Jenna's baptism and birthday pictures from Drew and Luke.  It did rain nearly every day last week, which was good it was beginning to get very dry.  JJ sent us a picture of him and his mom and the snowman they built.  We asked Jorja if she had built a snowman but apparently she is into snow angels instead.  In Kiribati it takes a highly trained expert to tell Summer from Winter.

Most of the people in Kiribati have never seen snow- other than in pictures

Life is good under the Coconut and Palm trees!  We hope it is the same for each of you.