It's over before you know it

August 13, 2012

It's Over Before You Know it

Today we did some great interactive activities to learn about the levels of enquiry, learning styles, gradual release of responsibility, and the constructivist model. There was great discussion and the Belizean teachers seemed to really buy in to the idea that children learn by doing.

At lunch we were informed that the workshops would end tomorrow. I still had three days planned and now I only had a morning. It felt horrible to announce that we would be ending early and that I could not deliver on my promise to provide workshops on all of the topics they felt they needed.
Chris and Maria did a fantastic workshop on Long Term Lesson planning. The group stayed in and worked on unit plans until well after 4:00PM.
Tomorrow we will do a morning session on Assessment and another on daily lesson planning. After that, they will need the afternoon to plan their workshops. Patrick offered to do a workshop on cross curricular planning using story books. Everyone in the group agreed to stay. They so badly want every opportunity to learn!

GW

There's a Storm Brewin'

Aug 7, 2012

There's a Storm Brewin'

We have heard that the hurricane is moving north towards Yucatan and may not hit Belize City dead on as previously thought. We heard that our colleagues in Dangriga and Punta Gorda will stay put rather than making the long drive north to Aguada. Those of us in San Ignacio are obviously going to stay put as well. We have been taking advantage of the recent cloud cover and spending more time outside. Even baby Fenton was able to spend a good portion of the day in the pool without fear of burning or over heating.

We are not certain when the workshops will start up again. We also have no idea what we will do when we return because the point of the week was to train teachers to lead their own workshops for week 2. It has not been suggested that we run the workshops instead, but that may be a solution.

Our internet is very slow and intermittent. Communication via email has been difficult so we are keeping our cell phones charged and ready.