Goodbye Maldives - Hello Thailand

A very fond farewell to all my e-friends who followed my tales while I was in the Maldives!  I had a fantastic stay while on the island of Holhudhoo.  One day..... I do indeed hope that I will be able to visit the Maldives again!

Now.... I am in Thailand working with Friends For Asia to help them expand their volunteer program from Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, to Surat Thani in the south. This is a new, exciting challenge for me!

 You can follow my continued tales at....

http://www.surat2011.blogspot.com/

Please stop by and visit!  I'd love to hear from you too!

Mr. T

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!

Classroom management 101

Proximity is an easy classroom management tool to use.... by moving throughout the classroom, the teacher can monitor learning, check for understanding, and bring students back on task if need be.

Sometimes at the end of a long day.....

Sometimes at the end of a long day, it is nice to sit at the beach on the island of Holhudhoo, and watch Mother Earth quiety and colourfully close out the day.

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.



Colour my house.....

The colors of simplicity...



Yellow for the sun, blue for the sea and pink for .....





The color of the horizon... blue on blue





Green for peace, white for the clouds, and pink for the sunrise.



Brightly and vividly for creativity....preschool gate.

 


Colour my house the colors of the rainbow, then let me sit and relax!



And colour my floating house.... the colours of the sunrise on the sea...



The elephant in the middle of the room - Classroom Management!



Discussions of classroom management can be intense!  My professional development session on this topic with the Meynaa School English teachers was no exception.



It is amazing how quickly students learn what a teacher's hot buttons are! Students are experts at identifying hot buttons and pushing them! The trick for the teacher is to understand this principal, keep their cool, and never allow the students to get under their skin! 





Classroom rules and procedures were a big topic of conversation. 

I asked the teachers to think about what their expectations of their students were?  These expectatons were stated to me in general terms.  So I then asked the teachers if the students knew what their expectations of them were?  None of the teachers shook their head yes.... their expecations had not been verbalized to their students.



To ground my question about teacher expectations I used the example of bellwork. Bellwork or a spong activity at the beginning of class, was a new concept to these teachers.  So I explained to the teachers that my expectations of the students related to bellwork was very specific.

For example, my expectation of my students was that when they came into the classroom, they would sit down at their desk, get out their notebook and immediately begin working on the bellwork.



The key to good classroom management (for me) is a fast paced, student focused, and engaging lesson plan.  Students know what is expected of them, the teacher gives explicit instruction, questions are asked with "think" time given before the teacher randomly calls on a student to respond, the teachers allows for ample student processing time for new information with a partner, multiple learning stules are used, and the lesson ends with a quick assessment of the learning objective.



I was on a roll this whole sesson as we discussed classroom management with tips, stories and practical solutions.  The workshop became a blurrrrrrrrr of activities and action.... none of which I got on film..... because.... we were all so engaged.... just did not think about taking pictures!














    




 







Sharing what I've learned

As a mentor teacher with Rialto Unified School District in California, I attended many very productive seminars that taught me dynamic, productive, engaging research based instructional strategies.

Given my mentor position, I spent my days observing the learning going on in classrooms and holding reflective conversations with the teacher immediately afterwards.  The goal .... to help the teachers reflect on their practice so as to improve their teaching.

Through all this, I was able to learn the theory and observe the practice of many highly effective instructional strategies.  While volunteering in Thailand, I've been able to practice these strategies so I have first hand practice using them.

Now that I am retired,  I am able to share all I have learned, observed and practiced,  with the teachers at Meynaa School in the Maldives! 

Thank you Rialto Unified School District!

Holhudhoo Full Moon Party!

The evening was cool, the full moon was slowl rising over the island of Holhudhoo, so what better time to strole along the beach and enjoy Mother Nature's display!

The moon, as it peaked in and out of the clouds, was a hauntingly beautiful sight.

Okay.... the peaceful watching of the full moon rise over the islands in the Maldives is perhaps a very different experience from the wild full moon party on Koh Phangan in Thailand!


 

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!

Simple tools can make a big difference in the classroom!





A timer and a method for randomly calling on students by giving each student a number and then drawing a boat (with numbers on the bottom) after having asked a question.

I gave the teachers an assignment today to identify three main summary points in a text they'd read yesterday in the Reading Comprehension workshop.  They were given 30 seconds to indentify the points.  I then used my random method to call on teachers to give me the answer. 

Within a very short time, the pace of the workshop increased substancially and the anxiety level of the teachers also increased substancially!  They knew they had limited time to search for the answers and that at any point in time, any one of them could be called on for the answer!

Good pacing and keeping a certain level of student anxiety during the lesson can be a good thing ..... it keeps the lesson interesting, keeps the students on task, and it reduces classroom behavior problems.

A couple of keys to the successful use of calling on students randomly.

First.... always ask the question first, allow some "thinking" time,  and then randomly choose a student to answer.  If the student is chosen before the question is asked, all the other students will check out and not listen.  By asking the question first.... everyone knows they could be called on!

Second ..... if the teacher calls on a student and they say "I don't know" the teacher can not let that student off the hook.... or every subsequent student when asked the question will say... "I don't know!"  Instead, tell the student that you'll be coming back.... even if that means having that student repeat the correct answer given by the next student.



Think - Pair - Share Strategy

I continue to spend a good amount of time discussing the need for mental "processing" time for the information that is presented by teachers to students.  More importantly than my just talking about it, I have the teachers practice it too!

The basic concept is that the teacher provides a limited amount of information, then gives the students time to talk with each other about what they've just heard.  In other words "processing" time.

When given time to "process" the information presented, the brain then is able to move that information from the short term memory into the medium / long term memory.

As teachers, we want to provide ongoing activities to help our students process information from their short term memory into their long term memory.  Think-Pair-Share is a fantastic strategy for doing just this and it can be used continuously.

What I observed in the classrooms

My first week at Meynaa School, I observed many classrooms.  That week was a period of review, since the term final exams were scheduled for the following week.  As such, teachers noted to me that no new teaching was taking place .... just review.  I could understand this.

What I observed during those review periods, was that teachers would hand out a text for students to read and on the reverse side were a series of comprehension questions.

I noticed that before reading the text, the students immediately went to the questions.  Good test taking strategy if students are using this as the framework from which to read the text.

However..... students would read the question, then search for key words in the text that might give them a clue as to the answer.  They'd then write what they thought the answer to be in the space provided.

Had the students read and comprehended the text?  Not really ..... hence the reason why the English teachers in unison requested help from me with reading comprehension teaching strategies.

Volunteering in paradise!

I can hardly wait to arrive in the Maldives!  I will be volunteering at the Shaviyani Atoll Education Center on the island of Komandoo.

In addition to teaching English to children, I will provide inservice training to the teachers at the center.

My other dream

Last night I had a dream ..... I dreamt I was walking in water.... beautiful blue turquoise water ..... silently, I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.....

the blue water continued beyond the horizon....

Only the next morning did my nocturnal dream walk take on significance.  I had been dreaming of the Maldives Islands .... where I will spend May and June 2011 as a volunteer teaching English.

With the Maldives Islands boasting some 1,200 islands, the island of Komandoo will be my home for a couple of months.

Here's a map of the Maldives Island. The Male Atoll, middle of map, is where the international airport is located.  Move your eye straight north from the airport to North Miladhunmadulu Atoll, also called the Shaviyani Atoll. It is about 132 miles northwest of the capital city of Male.  

Komandoo is one of 52 islands that make up this atoll. Only 15 of the 52 are inhabited.

  The island is 344 yards long and 273 yards wide.  To put this into perspective, an NFL football field is 120 yards by 50 yards.... so the island is about the length of 3 football fields and and as wide as five fields.

e-join me in the Maldives and follow the adventure!