Saturday, August 14, 2010

BELIZE ROTARIANS KEY IN PROGRAM SUCCESS

The teacher development summer program is done for this year and the success and positive impact has surpassed the expectations of the program coordinators. Many wonderful things have happened and the positive impact to Belize and Canadian teachers have been extensive and effective. This could not have happened without the success of Belize Rotarians. Examples include the generosity of Belize City Club member Junior Espat (see left) who hosted the full team of four educators assigned to Belize City in his home for week two. Thank you Junior for such hospitality. Below ,Corozal Rotarian Earl Johnson was the first to arrive at the Belize City pick up spot to welcome the members his club was hosting.

I want to take this opportunity to recognize once again the generous support of Rotarians in getting the Belize Literacy Program underway and this summer providing overwhelming support and assistance in so many ways. In Belize, Rotarians went the extra mile to better understand the depth and impact of the program
and these Rotarians are to be saluted for:

PLANNING FOR HOSTING,

MEETING and WELCOMING THE EDUCATOR TEAM FROM CANADA,

TRANSPORTATION SUPPPORT,

ORGANIZATION OF CELEBRATION CEREMONIES AND HONORING OUR GROUP,

SERVING AS AMBASSADORS FOR ROTARY AND BELIZE BY SHOWING CANADIAN VISTORS BELIZE TOURIST SPOTS, HISTORICAL AND OTHER SITES OF INTEREST,

VISITING TEACHING SITES, RECEIVING THREE LARGE SHIPMENTS OF DONATED SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT,

AND ENSURING THAT THEY WERE EQUITABLY DISTRIBUTED TO THE SEVEN TEACHING SITES IN TIME FOR PROGRAM OPENING,

MAKING OUR CANADIAN TEAM MEMBERS FEEL WELCOME AND GIVING THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN BELIZE ROTARY CLUB LOCAL MEETINGS and much much more............

Truly, the Belize Rotary Clubs have gone the extra mile to support the summer teaching professional development program. This is so evident from the enthusiastic response I have received from our Canadian participants who express thanks for all the support they have received. Special thanks to Rotary Club Presidents for getting the word out about the program and encouraging local Rotary involvement. The San Ignacio Rotary Club, as the initiator for the project, did a fine job in organization of the invovlement of other Belize Rotary Clubs. Special thanks to San Ignacio President Bill Butchers, Aki and Sheree Fukai , Chris and Eve Aird and Andre Lopez who all provided daily contributions in assisting with all components of the program and called on the many other San Ignacio Rotarians to assist in dealing with any emergent challenges or need in sites across Belize (see picture below of many of the San Ignacio Rotarians who attended the Opening Ceremonies)
.

For Jennifer Lawley, Donna Barrett and me as organizers--- we were thankful daily for Rotary support and you all helped to make our work easier and mosre valuable. The Four Way Test was active in Belize throughout our visit and program implementation in Belize City, Corozal, Orange Walk, Belmopan, San Ignacio, Dangriga and Punta Gorda. I look forward to continuued partnership discussions and initatives between our Alberta Rotary Clubs and the Belize Rotary Clubs.

God Bless you all!
Lynne Paradis - Lead Facilitator and Trainer 2010 Project a nd Rotarian from Red Deer Rotary Club. Alberta.














Thursday, August 12, 2010

Wonderful Week Two Workshops


I spent this week travelling around six sites,Belize.City,Belmopan,San Ignacio,Dangriga,Orange Walk and Corozal, to see for myself how the workshops were going during week two of our training.I can tell you that I was so very impressed and excited to see the wonderful things that were happening in the primary and secondary teacher workshops.

Our teams had done such a great job in week one training the Belize teachers to
be Learning Coaches and I saw the most impressive teams of them conducting their own workshops to over 1500 of their colleagues.They were so very confident and so well prepared and did an incredible job.
Our training team was also doing an amazing job conducting the sessions to over 500 secondary teachers on such topics as Cooperative Learning,Differentiated Instruction,Technology Integration,Instructional Strategies that Work for Excellence,Strategies that Encourage Positive Student Behavior and Homework. I was really impressed with the engagement of these teachers.This is a first for our team and all indications were that the secondary teachers want more of our training.
I heard from many teachers that this was "so worthwhile", "these presentations were so necessary"and "I especially liked and got so much from the discussion forums"

Thank you to my driver for the week,Mr Fraser
who took me around Belize this week.We spent some 8-10 hou
rs each day in the car but it was very definitely well worth it as I saw so many wonderful things that our teams had created.
Thank you all for really making a difference for this beautiful country of Belize.
Jenn

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Week Two and more good news....

I was delighted to interview many of the Belize secondary teachers at the Belize City site yesterday and all of them I spoke to were really enjoying the sessions and expressed that they felt they could positively use the teaching ideas in the classrooms. They expressed that the presenters were outstanding and that they were looking forward to the next two days of sessions. Jenn and I both visited many of the Belize Learning Coaches in action and were so happy to see what a positive impact you made on them. They were pumped to teach their colleagues and were doing a fine job in collaborating on sessions with their fellow Learning Coaches. Well done!
BLOG is looking more exciting every day. I look forward to future entries.
Donna left for Edmonton on Friday and I am leaving today. Jenn, Donna and I are very happy with how the summer program went and we have been in many debriefing meetings with Ministry personnel and Rotarians. So far, everyone feels the program surpassed our expectations. You have all done an outstanding job and Rotarians worldwide should applaud you for your dedication to improving education in Belize. Enjoy the rest of week two. Lynne Paradis

SITE VISITS WEEK TWO - IMPRESSIVE

Jennifer and I have continued to visit sites, problem solve and affirm and celebrate the many excellent things happening. We spent Monday at the Belize City site and it was delightful to see the Belize Learning Coaches confidently leading their sessions. I interviewed several of the Learning Coaches and they all had very positive comments to make about the effectiveness of the training our Canadian teachers did during week one. They are expressed that they were really looking forward to leading their own sessions and following up with sharing their information when they return to their home schools. Sessions were packed. Altough final numbers are not fully determined it looks like there are more teachers than we originally anticipated at most sights in BOTH primary and secondary teacher PD sessions.

I also interviewed some secondary teachers and sat in on a discussion forum and parts of DI and Co Operative Learning. I was thrilled to hear from a few secondary teachers how valuable they thought the sessions were to their teacher professional growth.

Lynne

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Your program leaders have been very busy.. updates NOW!

To all particpants or those interested in the amazing .....
From Lynne Paradis, Lead Facilitator and Trainer and mentor of our D 5370 team.....

This is my first entry to the BLOG (my apology) as I have in the last five days been all across Belize and visited all 7 sites for our program. Often Internet has been not available but this weekend as Jennifer and I are resting in Placencia we are catching up on what participants have been writing and here is an update from your organizing group of me, Jennifer Lawley and Donna Barrett. A few informed observations are worthy of note:

1. In every site our Canadian group is doing AMAZING work. I have been hugged and kissed so many times (not so much by the Canadians) but by the Belizean participants who are expressing gratitude for the quality of educators we brought, the enthusiasm of the team, the generosity of the Rotarians in unloading shipments of materials that are being used in the workshops and for the leadership provided in the program. I want to applaud every site team for how they are working as a collaborative group and optimizing the skills of their members by adjusting schedules so that the Belize educators benefit from the BEST of the collective skills of our team members.

2. Team leaders at each site: You have been so creative, flexible and affirming to your team members and the Belizeans you come in contact with. You have taken charge of your sites and are providing essential leadership to each site which has made it a significant improvement over other years of the program because you take charge of problem solving on site in a calm and encouraging manner. Clearly, putting trained administrators in as team leaders in each site has streamlined alot of work in solving emergent problems delicately and effectively. I am a bit reluctant to say this but Jenn and I have not had one phone call from anyone in the program for two days so you are doing a terrific job of problem solving on site. This makes things much easier and less confusing for the Ministry of Education managers and Rotarians as well as for Jennifer and I. By having ONE key contact at each site our work is being done more efficiently. I am so appreciative ---- and hope you want to consider continuuing in whatever form of future programming emerges. YOU HAVE BEEN OUTSTANDING LEADERS! Your teacher counterparts at each site are singing your praises and express relief that they know they have a local leader on site. As program leaders, Jenn and I welcome your calls and appreciate that you look for the best ways to solve challenges.

3. Learning Coach Coaches -- It has been exhilarating to see you in action. I have been an observer, a lecturer, a participant in intriging science experiments (thanks Greg), a witness to vibrant and exciting group discussions on effective teaching strategies (thanks Stan and Sandra), and an observer of valulable small group discussions (Belmopan, San Ignacio, Orange Walk and Corozal). Your are providing strong modelling for your Belize Learning Coaches to do a confident job next week when hundreds of Belize primary teachers arrive for four days of PD led by the protegees you trained.

4. Rotary support - I have attended Rotary meetings in Punta Gorda (with our site team members), San Ignacio (with the team members) and Jenn has attended Stann Creek Rotary with the Dangriga team and our team leaders and/or teacher learning coach leaderrs have attended meetings in Orange Walk, Corazol, and Belize City. That is all sites covered ---WOW what a show of support for the Belize Rotary Clubs and our Canadian Clubs even though we know it made it difficult for you to be on your sites teaching on time == but know that your leaders REALLY appreciate that you have made it a priority to have a presence and to communicate the good things that are happening to local Belize Rotary Clubs.

I hope all of you are enjoying the weekend and resting and relaxing to gear up for week two when hundreds of primary teachers will be learning about effective teaching from you trained Belize Learning Coaches and their trained Ministry of Education Mentors while you continue to educate the secondary teachers in Belize on topics of professional development that they have identified as high interest areas. REST AND RELAX. Keep patting yourself and your colleagues on the back for volunteer work that is quality work, very needed in Belize and very encouraging in making a difference for Belize children.

Love you all...

Lynne Paradis

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Leading the Way Through Learning!

The 'Belize Literacy Program' is a major education initiative lead by Rotary District 5370 and participating Clubs. The program will influence the education of some 60,000 Belizean students in the subjects of Mathematics, Science and Language Arts by July of 2011. The program is directed at students in grades four through eight, critical years in the education process.

The Program has two distinct goals:

1. To increase the current pass rate on grade eight PSE tests by 25% by June 30 of 2011
2. To increase student retention rates, through grade eight, by 10% by June 30, 2011

Accomplishment of these goals will significantly improve the literacy rate in Belize and position it more competitively in world markets. The objectives will require a multi faceted approach involving key components of a leading educational system. The strategies being used in this prototype model will be shared with the Rotary world. This will assist others wishing to engage in similar programs of similar scope.