Ah mi gat wahn gud gud taim

  Hi again!

I want to use this blog as a chance to share some final thoughts and say hello from back home in Vancouver! So... Hello! :-)

I've recently really enjoyed reflecting on the experience in Belize in all its aspects: the workshops; teachers; co-facilitators; administrators; old and new friends; relaxing in the Cayes; adventures in Cayo; the amazing food, and; long bus rides to Punta Gorda.

First, the workshops...

The teachers in Belize District were very willing and eager to learn something new which was made my job so much easier. During week one, I really appreciated the patience exhibited by the teachers while dealing with Hurricane Ernesto, other schedule changes and especially the changes made on the fly due to slow internet connections and other technical obstructions.

 I had a large group (27 teachers) for the first week and I felt that each of them was able to add a few more tools to their pedagogical tool kit. They were also able to come away with new knowledge about how technology integration can benefit them on an individual basis in and out of the classroom in each of their own unique contexts. At the same time, I was able to learn from them and gathered lots of new ideas ranging from ways to use Google Docs for collaboration that I hadn't thought of to issues in education in Belize and Canada that I had never considered.


Then there were the other adventures...

In the seventeen great days Nicole and I spent together in Belize, we were able to seize the opportunity to see as much of the country and take in as much of the culture as possible. Of Course, there was our first weekend in Caye Caulker which included snorkeling with nurse sharks and stingrays. What else is there to say? It was amazing. It was also great to meet up with many of the facilitators in Cayo, and make the most of the postponed workshops due to the hurricane. We were able to see Cahal Pech and Xunantinich - both of which were both educational and awe-inspiring.

One of the highlights of the trip was taking the bus down to Punta Gorda for a weekend and visiting friends there. We all went out to the falls at San Antonio instead of Placencia and it turned out great! It was a fun weekend full of highly anticipated reunions, great food, swimming at the falls and we even squeezed in some relaxation and a football (soccer) game.


We finished off our trip with a weekend in San Pedro and wind down. It was nice to slow down the schedule before ramping it up again when we got home.  So, in closing, I'd like to thank everyone again for the opportunity. It was a very rewarding experience and I am glad to have made new friends - Belizean and Canadian alike, no chroo? I hope to keep in touch and I know I will certainly do all I can to remain involved in the Belize Literacy Program.

Ah wi gat wahn gud gud taim, no chroo?

  We had a great time, eh? ;-) > 

Cheers

When the stars align...

To start with, I apologize that I have no pics to post at the moment. I am at the school and do not have my camera or SD card with me. I wanted to share my day with everyone nonetheless.

Before today:
I delivered our workshop in a condensed 2-day format to 27 teachers at E.P Yorke HS here in Belize City. It went well but we had our fair share of challenges; the internet, in particular. After the first day I had to reconsider much of the workshop and how to work around a very slow internet connection and other strangely unique web browser issues that we experienced. This included installing Google Chrome on all the PC's in the lab, setting up continuous pings and pairing up teachers to one PC to free up bandwidth.

In the end, the teachers still felt that they took some valuable information and skills from the two days. Before the end of that second day, however, my Belizean associate, Noel, advised that there was a nearby high school that he knew had a much more efficient lab so we investigated to see if we could use it... so an hour into my workshop with group #2 today, I got word that it was available so we jumped on the opportunity and moved everybody over... the stars aligned. :-)

My group was only 7 teachers (unsure why) and the computers and internet speeds are on par with any lab I've used back home. So to let everyone know, with a small class size and hardware that operates the way we are used to (or better), the day 1 workshop went extremely well and almost exactly as planned and right on time. Kudos again to Sandra for all the materials and planning.

I saw a lot more learning happening today with very little tech-frustration and it was nice to have a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
I'll post pics and another post soon!

Cheers,
Will

When life gives you lemons (or hurricanes), make lemonade!

The teams in northern Belize were moved south to the Cayo district to stay safe from Hurricane Ernesto.  We had some heavy rain for a short time in the evening, but felt no other severe effects at our location.  Since classes were cancelled, we decided to learn more about the culture of this beautiful country with a trip to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich, only 1 km away from the Guatemalan border.  On our way to the bus, we walked by a playground built by a rotary club, so  we stopped for a photo opportunity.

The ruins were beautiful; they are amazing structures.  We enjoyed a light lunch on the top of Plaza A6, before retreating back down the ruin.  On the way down, we spotted some howler monkeys playing in the trees.

On our way back , we received a phone call indicating that any storm danger has passed and that we would be returning to our respective locations to go back to the real work we came here for - to coach the teachers of Belize in curriculum implementation and technology integration. It is an adventure here!