Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Teacher Workshops Part II

I'm sitting in the Ft. Lauderdale airport, very thankful for the free internet they provide.  The eight hour stop-over may not be so bad after all!
I want to go back in time just slightly, back to the week of Teacher workshops, I really didn't do the week justice with the short entry I made.  The week was amazing, everyone involved was challenged and enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship.  The Haitian Teachers eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Canadian teachers, as they had already had the privilege of working together the summer before.   Despite a much changed Port-au-Prince,  the Canadian teachers were quickly put at ease as they saw familiar faces and smiles and received familiar hugs.  Friendships begun 12 months ago were deepened and many more memories were accumulated.   Ruth, Al and Keith (the Canadian teachers) came with some great resources and some even greater ideas to share with the teachers.  Al challenged the teachers to make Math fun and shared a variety of ways to do so.  The last day of the workshops he encouraged them to demonstrate what they had learned and the result was encouraging to us all.  Ruth, came with boxes of fun art treats and the teachers showed off their creative sides with paintings, shapes made with clay and beautiful decorations for their classrooms.  Keith made us sweat, literally.  He had us running, jumping, and having a lot of fun.  It was really neat to see the teachers getting involved in the games and showing their oh so competitive sides.  My favourite moment from the entire week was when the teachers finally understood how to play kickball (aka soccer baseball) and the team in outfield stopped trying to get a homerun:) 
The last day was filled with laughter, a goodbye solo, tearful thank you speeches and lots of words of blessing and love.  It truly is amazing that after only two short weeks together a very strong bond was established between the teachers.
Friday we were quite the subdued group as we reminised about the good times we had and we looked at all the pictures that were taken over the week.
The few short days after the team left were a whirlwind of activity as I tried to tie up loose ends before heading out myself.  And now... I'm really looking forward to a rest, and time with family and friends.

2 comments:

Carrie said...

Hi Kim.... i admit i just got caught up a bit on your blog.... have thought about you lots though... you are just amazing... wow... i think you are doing such a wonderful job... anyways... i read that you are back here...very fun... if you are ever bored or in the area... i'd LOVE it if you popped by... LOVE IT :)
Anyways... i hope you have a wonderful, restful time!

love Carrie

Anonymous said...

Kim - Just because you are not in Haiti does not mean that you can slack on the blog. I'm sure that you can do updates on things that happened before.

I expect an update or two over the next few weeks....and I will keep checking!

-G- you know who this is!