Today we did the “Tropenroster”, that means School begins half an hour later and ends one and a half hours later. Therefor we got a 2 hour break in the midday. So we did school till 13:00, did lunch, and then with the dingy to the beach. We spend a wonderful 2 hours at the beach, swimming laying in the sun and working on our tan. But even the best times get to an end and school is calling us back to the Regina Maris. Back at the boat, our day planning changed a bit. Sam called all of us to the middeck. 4 Students of us, Marit, Isa, Verle and Jeroen, worked out 3 Ideas to improve our school system. The first was to divide the Spanish groups in people with higher level and those with easier Spanish lessons. So now Madelon is teaching two groups differently. The second idea was to make a test planning for the next week, so you have your planning for longer time than just one day and your mentor don’t have to ask you every morning about your planning for the day. The third and biggest change they want to make, is to create a new school day schedule, so you stay in your watch rhythm, even on your school days. So when we are back on sea each student can choose, if when he is in the 1-5 Watch, he can do school from 1-5 and then sleep till 11 o’clock and then do school till dinner. If you are in the 5-9 Watch you can do school from 5-9, sleep till lunch and then do school from lunch to dinner. Nothing changes when you are in the 9-1 watch. This plan is not binding, you still can choose if you want to do the “normal” school schedule, but I think it is a great idea to keep your daily rhythm. After that and with compliments by the crew, that we would have been the first SaS year who offers a planning this early in the journey. We went back to school. That was it.
Thore