How has life been since I left the Maldives?




Now that I'm in Thailand, helping Friends For Asia start a new program in Surat Thani.....I've been about as busy as:

"A cat on a hot tin roof!" 

 

Am I going crazy.... or just losing my mindfulness?

I did it again!  Today! 

I mixed my blogs.... not the worst thing in the world... but my Surat Thani stories were not meant to be part of my Maldives blog!

Time for me to refocus......

On living life as a human being....
rather than...

Living life as a human doing.

Juggling too many blogs!

I think I'm now juggling too many blogs!  Hence.... my Maldives Adventure blog suddenly became my Surat Thani blog too.

Okay.... so a little bit of Thailand was added to the Maldives.... that sort of thing can happen.... just not too often let's hope!

Okay Pooh Bear.....

"You don't recognize me Father?  I'm your son!"

These were the first words out of Pooh Bear, the first time I met him.  Okay... Pooh Bear (nickname) whatever you say!

Pooh Bear, like most all of the students at Meyna School, had a great sense of humor.  This is what made my volunteer assignment so enjoyable on the island.

So many fun, fantastic characters!

Little boy and his dad

One of the Maldivian secondary teachers, playing with his son at the island's playground.

Tangoes to practice English while having fun!

Tangoes is a challenging puzzle game for adults as well as students.  It can provide an opportunity to practice one's English, while solving the problem.

I introduced the game to Nahidha, Deputy Principal of Meynaa School, and her son. 

It did not take long before the boy was working on his own, solving the puzzle.  Since he seems to prefer speaking English over his first language of Dhivehi, we had a fun time working together to solve some of these rather difficult puzzle combinations.

Maldivian brooms

Making a hand broom by cutting palm frauns into individual strips.

The daily morning ritual of sweeping clean the streets on Holhudhoo Island.

Another day, another demonstration lesson

Class begins with my greeting the students as they enter the classroom..... getting a pulse on what might lay in store for the next 45 minutes.

Objectives are written on the board.

Students are on task, engaged in the assignment.



For this listening activity, students first listened only as I described a scene.... only after I finished my description, could they pick up a pencil and start to draw..... Here's what I described to them......

There's a house in the middle of the paper.
Two trees on the left of the house and one on the right.
Five mountains behind the house.
The house has one door and two windows.
Six clouds in the sky.
Four birds in the sky.
The sun is on the left hand side.
A river begins in the first mountain on the right,
It flows down in front of the house.
There are three fish in the river.
A cat sits in front of the house.



After the lesson, I met with the teachers to reflect. 

Thinkers think,
And doers do.
But until the doers think,
And the thinkers do,
Real classroom based - student focused learning
Will continue to be,
Just some more words,
In the already over burdened vocabulary of,
Talkers who talk.

Little Maldivian girl......



Playing in the sand at the beach.



A couple weeks of demonstration or model lessons by Mr. T



Following the two weeks of professional development workshops I provided the teachers at Meynaa School, the administration asked if I would conduct some model classes.  The idea being for me demonstrate, in a classroom environment, the instructional strategies I'd taught and for the teachers to observe me teaching.



After providing new information through direct instruction, students, in pairs, participate in the "Think-Pair-Share" activity where they reteach each other the lesson I just taught. 

While students are busy teaching each other, I can move around the classroom and check for understanding to see if they got what I taught.



Sometimes, a little proximity by the teacher helps keeps students focused and on task.




As I taught the model lesson, the English teachers (back far left) observed my teaching.  Then after each model lesson, we'd meet and reflect on the lesson.



My e-connection to the world

See that little thumb drive type unit on the left side of my computer?  That's my personal modem that gives me internet access.  There are no wireless connections here on the island of Holhudhoo, and there are no Internet Cafes either.

So everyone buys their own personal modem for somewheres around $70 or so, and then pays for the minutes when connected to the Internet.

Given the tiny island's rather isolated location way out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Internet signal is extremely weak .... calling for great patience when sending emails, uploading pictures to my blog..... and skype calling for me?  Forget it!

Let's tell a story..... using Story Cubes!

Here's a fun educational game I brought with me from California.  Story Cubes!  Inside are 12 cubes with figures on each side.

It's one of the educational tools which is kinesthetic, visual and auditory.  Great for kids of any age.

First a student in the group, rolls the cubes.  Here's where the story begins...... with "Once upon a time ......" and the student uses one of the cubes. 

"Once upon a time there was a big tree."  The next student then adds to the story by using a different cube.  Each subsequent student continues the story, using a different cube until all the cubes have been used.  The students might roll the cubes again and start a new story, or continue the one they are on.

In small groups during the primary school workshops, I had the teachers practice telling stories using the cubes.

A fun, creative exercise, with some challenging elements when you are the student who must continue the story using the last..... perhaps difficult cube picture!

Going Green.... Holhudhoo's Green Gateway to the island

Two very large and very old trees, growing maybe 20 feet apart, form a majestic green gateway from the port, to the island of Holhudhoo!

No one I talked with on the island knows for sure the age of these trees.



Growing downward from branches, high up in these old Banyan trees, are a kind of branch that eventually grows into the ground, sending down roots, and in effect forming a unique new tree trunk.



The red bunch of roots in the middle of the picture have yet to reach the ground and start a new trunk.  How many more months or years before that tangled mass of roots reaches the ground?  I have no idea.....



Given the phone booth behind the tree, gives one an idea of the size of the trunk.  How many roots have slowly, over the years, grown down from the branches to form the massive trunk of this Banyan tree?

It's all in how we look at ourselves... and others too!

Okay... I have no hair on the top of my head, and when I get into the humid tropics, the hair on the side of my head frizzes out ..... making me look like a clown!

Not a really good professional look when I am suppose to be facilitating educationally focused professional development workshops.



Now, should  Mr. T take this guy's advice and buy that gel?



Or should Mr. T take this guy's advice and buy this gel?

Okay.... I bought the gel and I still have no hair on the top of my head. But check out how nicely the hair on the side of my head lays so flat, what with all that gel plastered on!

By-the-way..... You did notice it's the same guy offering the advise in both pictures with the same container of gel.... didn't you? 

How do we see ourselves?  How do we see others?
Perception!  Perception!  Perception!
So....

Where there is perception, there is deception.

Listening... it's more than just your ears!





Good listening skills involve more than just your ears!

Mr. T explains to the teachers how their students' listening skills can be developed over time.... using some fun and rather unusual approaches.




Students are to listen only.... they are to do all of the calculation in their brain only.... no paper and pencil!

A young elephant weighs 1500 kilo.  It eats half its weight in grass every day.  How much will it eat in one day?  Five days?

If grass costs 10 rufiyaa per kilo, how much will the elphant owner spend on grass in five days?

 

It's all in your head.... no paper... no pencil! 

The teacher reads this problem to students and they then answer it. 

2+2 - 1 X 2 - 2 divided by 2 + 1 = (     )

The variables here are the speed at which the problem is read and the length of the equation to be solved!

Start easy, with simple, short problems.  Then as the teacher diagnosis their student's abilities, more and more numbers can be added, bigger numbers, more complex calculations.... you might even include the square root at some point!



This is a fun one to do if students have been sitting in their seats for awhile.  It gets them up and moving about, as well as challenging their listening skills.

The first student says.....

"My favorite animal is an elephant."   
Note: the item could be a city, food, book, a famous person, etc.  

Each subsequent student must repeat each aninmal the other students have said before them......

A way to make the same listening skill exercise more challenging is..... notice in the above picture how I am now in the middle rather than at the right end?

After about the third student has said the phrase, "My favorite animal is an elephant, cat and monkey,"  have students one and three change places!  This puts a new twist on the listening exercise!  Student number four will suddenly have a very perplexed look on their face!

Try the above with numbers! Tell students to think of their favorite number, then begin the exercise

"I like the number 9!"  And then it is up to the subsequent students to add to the list of favorite numbers.  See how many numbers can be added before a student can no longer remember them all!

 Try a drawing activity!  The teacher gives the students an auditory description of a picture they want the students to draw...... but only when the teacher finished!  So here goes...

Draw a house in the middle of the paper.
The house has one door and three windows.
One tree is on the left of the house.
Three trees are on the right of the house.
Five mountains are on the horizon behind the house.
Six clouds are in the sky.
A river flows from the first mountain past the house.
Three fish are swimming in the river.

The teacher could stop at this point and allow the students to draw the picture.... or if through past similar activities the teacher has assessed that the students can do more..... the teacher keeps adding more items to be drawn!



Lunch time!

It's lunch time for Mr. T on Holhudhoo Island!  What special Indian dish has Mr. Boopathy prepared today?



Rather than eating all my meals at a Maldivian restaurant on the island, one of the Indian secondary teachers at Meynaa School, invited me to eat with him at his house.  Boopathy is an excellent cook!  Daily he cooks some very tasty, spicy vegetarian meals for himself and a couple of other expatriat Indians who also work on the island.

Fun thing is that every meal is different!  Boopathy teaches chemistry at the school, so when he finds time to prepare all these tasty meals..... I don't know!

That's Boopathy on the right.... Rajan, in the center, is a lab technician at the island's health center.  Albert, who is also part of the meal time group at Boopathy's place, is  the schools computer technician, took the picture.



Differentiation - What's it all about? How do I do it in my classroom?

At one time, a teacher could teach a subject to a whole class.  Now, rather than teaching a subject to a whole class,  teachers teach individual students. 

 Differentiation is about how a teacher modifies their lesson plans, so as to regularly and continually meet the individual learning needs of each and every student in their classroom. 



The learning objective for the secondary teachers was to understand and practice how to differentiate by lesson objective.  In other words to write different lesson objectives, to meet the different needs of different students -  lesson objectives written by:

Thinking skill - the verb used in the objective
Content - what the students will learn
Resource - where the students will get the information
Product - what the students will create



The workshop objective for the primary school teachers was to learn how to differentiate instruction by:

readiness
interest
learning style



First the teachers wrote their own definition for differentiation and shared this with their table group.  Mr. T then facilitated a whole class discussion on the term.

The primary school teachers were given grade level lesson plans to review, using a handout Mr. T had created.  At each grade level, the lesson plan was differentiated by readiness, interest, and learning style.

When the teachers completed the handout, they discussed which form of differentiation might work best in their classrooms.

Mr. T modeled for the secondary teachers, a way of writing their lesson objectives by changing the verb.  In this example, the Unit Mr. T was teaching was "early humans."  The topic within this Unit Mr. T decided to teach was "tools used to survive." Mr. T showed three objectives, based on ability levels:

Students will be able to list three tools early humans used to survive.

Students will be able to compare and contrast the three tools early humans used to survive.

Students will be able to create a new tool early humans could have used to help them survive.

By changing the verb, the objective becomes more and more complex, therein differentiating based on ability grouping.



The basis for Mr. T's lesson was Blooms Taxonomy which he shared with the teachers.  At each level, the verbs change, so the objective becomes more complex, requiring higher order of reasoning.  For example, verbs that could be used in a lesson objective at each of Blooms' six levels could include:

Remembering:  list, define, recall
Understanding: classify, describe, paraphrase
Applying:  choose, illustrate, solve
Analyzing: contrast, examine, distinguish
Evaluating: appraise, judge, value
Creating: assemble, design, formulate



Following his having modeled how to differentiate by objective, Mr. T randomly gave teachers (small groups of two to three) a Unit word written on a piece of paper.  Unit words included, for example, Global Warming, Maldives, Economics, etc.

Teachers were then asked to select a topic within that Unit, and write a lesson plan objective for each of the six levels within Blooms Taxonomy.

At the end of the mini demo lesson, Mr. T used the "thumbs up and thumbs down" with the class to check for understanding - to make sure the directions were clear to everyone.



Teachers were given a specific amount of time to develop their six lesson plan objectives, using the Blooms verbs.

With the local Maldivian secondary teachers (a class of 14 teachers so only 5 groups), Mr. T had each group present to all the teachers, their lesson plan.... talking about each of the six objectives and explaining how at each subsequent level, the objective becaming more complex.

Here Mr. Hamad, the Deputy Principal at the school, explains his group's unit topic of democracy.



Teachers were divided into groups to work together on the assignment of designing lesson objectives, using the six levels of Blooms Taxonomy.



The secondary expatriot teacher workshop group was large, with 23 participating.  Rather than having each group share to the whole class, Mr. T had the small groups present to each other.  Each group was given a specific amount of time, using a timer, to present.  Then, when the buzzer went off, Mr. T asked the small groups to go in search of a different group to make their presentation to.

This procedure allowed the small groups to present their six part lesson objectives three times, and for them to hear the six part lesson plans of three other groups.

An added bonus..... teachers had been sitting at their tables a long time working on a difficult topic.... differentiation.... so this sharing out by small groups, got them standing up and moving about!



A brief reflection on the session, brought this part of the workshop to a productive end.