Hi everyone!

Just a quick little update on my donation drive, the book drive, and English class in general.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in my various drives over the period following the hurricane. Because of your generous contributions, I was able to take boxes of books and supplies to multiple primary school classes, one of the pre-schools, and of course our students and teachers at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. I still have exercise books and pens left, so if you are a local teacher reading this, please let me know if you can use any!

Lately, things have been settling in at the high school. We are all becoming accustomed to the ‘new-normal” that is the shift system. It’s strenuous, but everyone is making do. The hardest part about this post-hurricane life for me is having to visit the campus where most of our buildings were demolished. It’s especially hard to see the spot where Room 6, my classroom, once stood. I miss my class and having my own space, but perhaps this is a lesson in remembering the nomadic nature that we have moved from as human beings. Nothing truly lasts forever.

My students and I have slowly been adding new books to our Amazon wish list which you can check out here. It’s always being updated and the children are ALWAYS excited when I show up with new books. I have some students who look for me every day to find new titles. They send many thanks to all our amazing supporters. Since I no longer have my classroom, I keep books in the trunk of my car. Mobile Library, maybe? LOL.

Thanks to you, we now have three class sets of To Kill a Mockingbird, one class set of The Pearl, one class set of A Raisin in the Sun, one class set of The Tempest, and three class sets of dictionaries! You have no idea how amazingly helpful these resources are to my department. It is impossible to teach literature without the literature.

My next challenge will be to create class sets of Animal Farm and Twelfth Night. I’ll be sticking these titles on our wish list so that we can accumulate them over time. Again, thank you to all who have donated to the book drive!

In honour of the upcoming World Poetry Day on March 21, I have arranged a poetry competition for high school students under the theme “Identity”. The competition is divided into two categories, namely lower school (First through Third Form) and upper school (Fourth through Sixth Form). I’m trying to secure two Kindle Fires ($49.99 each) to use as prizes. A generous patron has already pledged one of the devices, but I am still working to secure another. If you would like to contribute to this, feel free to send a gift card of any amount on Amazon.com (even $1, everything helps!) to vanessacthompson@gmail.com. Any excess funds will be used to purchase novels from our wish list.

Once again, thanks so much for the support of not only my blog, but also my passion to turn all students into writers and literature aficionados.