Classroom guests

At the start of the year I learned that we would be having some guests in our school this October. Apparently we have a "sister school" in Japan and have been regularly sending students back and forth. I don't have a good idea of the arrangement, but I get the impression that a group from one school visits the other about once every 4-5 years. Earlier this week we were given some more specific details, the most important being that there will be about twenty students and five teachers here for three days and each Japanese student will be paired with a "buddy" here that they will follow for the day. All in all, I think that this is a really excellent program. Most people would call my school "diverse", but in that way that most public schools are. Students are exposed to a mix of white, black and Hispanic groups and cultures, but have little experience with anything like Japanese culture. The students here seem excited and, frankly, anything that gets students here excited is a good thing.

Yesterday I learned the not-so-great details. Apparently 15 of the "buddies" from my school are students of mine, including ten in a single class. This means that for three days I am going to have an extra dozen (ten students plus two teachers) in my classroom. For the moment I am just ignoring the fact that I don't know how I can physically fit that many extra people in my room, which is already overcrowded. What I am focusing on is the request from our administration that, since I have so many guests, I make sure my lessons those days "show our guests some positive details of North Carolina." Of course, I am expected to still stay on the pacing guide and fit my lessons to the state standards. I am not really worried about Geometry (which will only have about seven guests) since I have been told that one of the Japanese teachers is willing to do a big origami project (which should actually fit the standards quite well and won't get me too far off the pacing guide). What I am really stuck on is Advanced Science (which will have the full load of 12 guests). According to the district pacing guide, those three days are right in the middle of an 11 day unit on ocean ecosystems. So, I am supposed to come up with a project for ocean ecosystems that somehow also highlights North Carolina? I realize that we do have a coast here, so the connection is not as bad as it would be if I was still in Ohio, but it will still be a big stretch. Of course, I probably should also mention that I have not been further east in this state than Wake County and don't know a thing about our coast.

As I see it, I have three options. The simplest is to just ignore the fact that I have guests and teach the lessons that I would normally. Although it is tempting, I have no doubt that this would get back to the administration (actually, I suspect that they might end up in my classroom those days as well), and they would not be happy with me. Also, I imagine this would be pretty boring for the guest (why fly halfway around the world just to learn about things you already learned about at home?). The second option is to just scrap my pacing guide and standards and come up with some North Carolina based science lesson. This probably wouldn't get me in trouble, but it would cost me three days with my students and we already are expected to cover more material than we have time for. Also, I have not lived in this state for that long (just a touch over one year) and really have no idea what I would cover in those lessons. North Carolina is the focus of the 8th grade social studies curriculum, so maybe one of them can help. The third option is the ideal, which is to some how find a way to teach about ocean ecosystems and North Carolina at the same time.

Although I am not sure it is actually possible, I am still holding out hope that I will be struck with some brilliant idea and actually pull off the third option. Um... anyone know of any good North Carolina ocean ecosystem lessons?