Hello friends, family, church members, and anyone else that stumbles across this blog,

It's been quite some time since I updated my blog... Sorry about that! I have been swamped ever since arriving, and haven't had much spare time. What spare time I have had, we've done activities as a group.

One of which has been SCUBA diving! Which is why I am posting an update...

I am now a PADI Open Water Certified Diver! Just finished the final dives today.

Anyway, figured I'd check in and mention that... I've got some more work to do to prepare for tomorrow's classes (primarily making 3 quizzes), so need to get back to that.

Nathanael Ramsey

Hello friends, family, and others,

It's been a little while since I've gotten a chance to put up a blog post.

So, a lot has happened... Unfortunately, I don't have the time to go into everything.

Yesterday was the 1-month anniversery of arriving here in Palau. It feels like I've been here for a long, long time (not a bad thing), but when I really think about it, it doesn't seem like I'm already 10% done with my time here.

Anyway, down to the details...

I am still teaching Yearbook, Newsletter, and 3 sections of Computers 1. Thankfully things seem to be slowing down a bit. I was actually able to get to sleep before 1am a couple of week nights last week.

I have successfully gotten Windows 7 back on all of the computer lab computers... This is a great relief, since I am now able to start teaching the things I had planned on teaching. Previously all of the computers had Ubuntu (a Linux operating system) installed on them, so Microsoft Word was not supported, and I didn't want to start into Keyboarding until I was settled on one keyboarding program (which needed to be installed on Windows, since I knew I was going to be installing that soon). So, now that I have Windows 7 on them, I can move on to more important topics in class.

Teaching has been going alright... Not that great, but yet not absolutely horrible. About half the students in my third section of Computers 1 hardly understand English, and several of them don't even try to understand at all. It's frustrating when you're standing right by them trying your hardest to help them undertsand, and some of them aren't even trying... AT ALL (for example, I was explaining stuff to one of them, and he fell asleep while I was talking to him... Needless to say, I was rather ticked off with him).

Aside from that, it's been going pretty well here. I just got back yesterday from a trip to Ngemilis (High Chief Aibidul's island (he's a Seventh-Day Adventist)) that lasted from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. I have uploaded a few pictures, and you can find the here: http://s731.photobucket.com/user/ElectroGoofyR/library/Palau%20Mission%20Academy%20-%202013-2014

Anyway, that's all for now... Hopefully I will be able to make another post in the near future.
Nathanael

Time for another update...

This time it's great news! I am now JUST teaching classes related to computers.

My current class list:

Computers 1 (3 seperate class periods)

Yearbook

Newsletter

So, I am still teaching 5 class periods, but at least they're all computer-related. So much better...

Also, we met on Sabbath afternoon to discuss the Pathfinders Club here on the island. I, along with all the other SMs and AVS workers, are involved with Pathfinders here this year. I, along with a far more experienced AVS worker, will be teaching the Guides. Definitely a bit nervous about that, since I've only spent like 2 months in Pathfinders.

-Nathanael

Quick update:
Received the final schedule today (the first day of student class registration), and Computers 2 was nowhere to be found on it... Asked about it, and turns out I'm not teaching Computers 2. I am, however, teaching English 1... Oh joy.

So, updated class list:
Computers 1
English 1
Yearbook
Newsletter

Hello,

Found some time to write an update! This one will be short, needing to head to bed soon.

So much has happened in the past two weeks... It seems like a lot longer since I left than it really has been.

Here's a very brief list of things that have happened:
Left from Dulles International Airport early Sunday morning, stopped in San Francisco and caught the next plane to Hawaii. Arrived in Hawaii early afternoon, had orientation for 3 days, and got to see some of the island.
Left from Hawaii, went to Guam, and caught a plane to Palau, arrived a couple hours after sundown. We were greeted by about 30 to 50 Palauans upon arrival.
For the next few days we toured around a bit getting a feel for the island and the school, then began orientation. Since then we have been making trips into town occasionally to buy supplies, and have been working on our unit plans and lesson plans for the classes that we will be teaching.
We went to the Melekeok State and saw the capitol, and then went to a "beach" (basically a little bit of sand, and then a rock-supported pier covered in ground and broken shells that jutted out into the ocean about 1/4 mile). There we saw some very colorful fish, and some squid.

Classes were finalized last week. I will be teaching: Computers 1, Computers 2, Yearbook, and Newsletter.

Classes officially begin on Thursday, and there is a whole lot of work to be done between now and then. I am about done with the unit plan (rough plan for the year) for Computers 1, and will begin the unit plan for Computers 2. After those are finished, I will need to make lesson plans for them for the next week (outlining exactly what I will be doing for the next week and a half), and work on getting the computer lab up and running. Currently Linux is installed on all 20 of the computers, and I am needing to get working on converting them over to Windows 7, and hopefully setting up an Active Directory server so that each student can have their own login, so that their files will be separated from the other students' files.

Hopefully I will be able to make a post in the next week or two with pictures, but for now this will have to suffice... The internet here is REALLY slow (usually around dial-up speed), so it will take a while to upload any pictures.

Now off to bed...
Nathanael

Greetings,

So, it appears that you have found my blog. Welcome!

This is my blog where I will be posting to keep friends, family, church members, and co-workers up-to-date with what is going on in Palau.

For those who just happened to stumble across my blog, here is a little bit of information about what I will be writing about, and why I am going to be in Palau:
I recently finished my freshman year of college, and am now taking 10 months to travel to Palau (click here to see where it is located on Google Maps) to be a Student Missionary. I will be teaching computer classes at the Palau Mission Academy, including Computers 1 and 2, Web design, yearbook, newspaper, and whatever else they have (I guess I'll find out when I arrive).

I will be leaving Sunday, July 28th, and will be flying to Hawaii for a general orientation for 2-3 days before continuing on to Palau. When I arrive, I will have two weeks to prepare lesson plans, and do whatever other preparation is required to get ready for the school year... Including learning web design. That's going to probably be the hardest class for me to teach, as I will probably be trying to keep a step ahead of the class as I go.

As I don't know how busy I will be, I can make no promises about the consistency nor the frequency of posts on this blog. At this point, I am going to try for at least a weekly update.

If you would like an email update whenever I make a post, there is an email subscription box over on the right side of the screen. I believe that it sends out one email each day that I make a post, rather than sending out an email immediately after I post.

The layout/design of this page will probably be changing a lot this year... I'll be tweaking it and messing around with it as I learn more about web design. This will probably be one of my test sites that will allow me to learn HTML hands-on with a working website.

Now back to packing...

Nathanael