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.

New way of looking at the work week...





The weekend, here in the Maldives, basically begins Thursday evening.  Friday and Saturday are the weekend.  Friday is the day of prayer, and then Saturday is more of a free day.

The Maldividan work week starts on Sunday...... so tomorrow, Sunday my work week begins too with two workshops scheduled.  The first workshop will be at 10:30 a.m. for about 20 Meynaa School secondary teachers covering issues related to diagnostic, formative and summative assessment.





My second workshop will begin at 8:45 p.m. for some 20 elementary teachers at Meynaa School.  This will be more of a planning workshop, where teachers will discuss their professional development needs. 

The focus question for this workshop will be:
"What kind of training do you need most to advance as a teacher?"

Based on this needs assessment, I will then design and conduct a series of professional development workshops for these elementary teachers.



Teacher teaches 1/3rd of the time and Students teach 2/3rds of the time - Listening and Comprehension Strategies

Mini Power Lessons have the teacher teaching for a short period of time (1/3rd) and then the students teach and reteach each other for 2/3rds of the time.  I teach, then with the timer running..... Student A teaches Student B what I just taught.. followed by Student B, again the timer is running, teaching Student A what was taught.

Students hear the information two times and teach it one time.  This is an excellent way for students to process information.  When checking for understanding while using this strategy, the teacher finds that student comprehension of the lesson is usually 100%.

To model this instructional strategy, I tell students about my life growing up on a farm in Minnesota.  The part of the story the students find most fascinating is that there was no running water on the farm, no bathroom, and no hot water.

When I tell them that all seven family members took a bath only once a week, and that we all bathed in the same water.... my mother first, then my sisters, then me, then my older brothers, and last my dad..... Neeless to say, by the time my dad took his bath, the water was pretty dirty!  The teachers in the workshop could not believe it! 

Here on the island, people take three baths per day!