Over the past couple of days, I've honestly been just "going with the flow" of things. My schedule? Not clear. My day? Who knows what will happen. My plans? They'll probably change once... or twice. Allow me to explain.
I met with the Ministry of Education on Tuesday to discuss a plan of action to get me back into the schools. I was under the impression that they would send out an e-mail to the schools that they would like me to work with. Then, I can travel around to work with the teachers in the classrooms, helping them to incorporate the concepts that were taught in the workshops.
Wednesday rolls around and the e-mail still had not been sent. After talking with them on the phone, they inform me that it will be sent out soon. Two hours later (keep in mind that we're working under Fiji time), I receive an e-mail that I am to visit two primary schools... later that day. 45 minutes before I'm supposed to leave, I receive another e-mail, informing me that I will not be working in the classrooms with teachers. Instead, I'll be conducting professional development sessions at both of these schools for their staff. AWESOME! (Please note that I was very excited to do this, but was freaking out a bit due to the time constraints!)
Fortunately, it all worked out. In fact, it worked out really well. There was one teacher at both schools that had attended the workshop, so rather than me trying to scramble around and stress out (well, I did... a little bit...), I decided to have them help me present the information from the workshop which, it turns out, was the best thing that I could have done. It was amazing to hear these teachers share strategies that they learned (some of which they had already tried in their classrooms!) with their coworkers. My personal favorite story came from Raichel, a Class 6 teacher who said, "Just because I made a kinesthetic activity for phonics, ALL of my students, whether they need the review or not, want to participate in my phonics lessons now!" That comment in and of itself made my day as it proved that I've provided suggestions to make a small difference in her classroom and now, she can (and did!) share these ideas to her coworkers. Hopefully, this small difference will spread to make a bigger difference among the students and staff at her school. I'm even more hopeful that teachers at other schools were inspired and are beginning to impact the education in their own classrooms and schools, as well. Sustainable project? I think (and hope) so!
Side note: you may be wondering how I was able to conduct 1-hour long professional development sessions at two different schools in one day. Oh, that's because the headmaster of the first school called a school-wide recess so that all of his staff could come to my PD in the middle of the day. No big deal. At least the students enjoyed my visit! (I think the teachers did, too -- but I felt awful that I was sent there to interrupt their school day! Oh, well!)
Today, I was instructed to wait for e-mails back from the remaining schools that the Ministry would like me to visit. Of the 6 that I contacted, I heard back from a whopping 0. Fortunately, I still had a very productive day of compiling and organizing materials at the house, but I suppose that I'll continue to just "go with the flow" with this project for now. Ahh, Fiji time -- a beautiful blessing and an awful curse!
Lastly, I'd like to share that I was also was surprised when making baked oatmeal for the team at breakfast yesterday morning. I was the only person in the house awake and the cooks didn't know how to make it, so I looked up a recipe and offered to do it (I mean, why not?!). As I was pouring the ingredients into a bowl, I felt something on my leg. I turned around, only to find a cat biting me. Yes, I was bitten... by a house cat. Fortunately, I was quick enough to shake it off of my leg which then made it scramble away. And fortunately, it was a very tender bite and I was not injured in any way whatsoever... But you can only imagine how surprised I was at this early morning fiasco!
In case you were wondering, the cat's name is Biscuit. I'm not sure which is more hilarious: the fact that I was bitten by a cat in general or the fact that I was bitten by a Biscuit. You can decide.
... And that's why I hate cats.
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