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| The Show-me-WOW! BLOG archive BLOG archive...SEPTEMBER 2007 TO JANUARY 2008 Here I write jottings of everyday living, each with an educational peppering.
30th January 2008 It seems fitting to finish this very full Blog Page 1 in the place where it started..at Mahaut Primary School, where, from the cliff immediately above the school, Hurricane Dean dislodged a huge boulder, which crashed down with mud and torrential rain, bursting through the classroom wall and destroying all the teaching and learning resources and the children's work.. 
Mahaut Primary School, September 2007 Back in September 2007, the children said they were "angry and sad" when they recalled the tragedy, but were cheered with the small basket of supplies I was able to deliver to them, and, to show this, we went outside and flapped our hands by our faces and shouted, "Fantastic!", for the camera. 
Yesterday was the first time I had been back and the children, on lunch break, ran over chorusing "Good Day" as I went to the car boot. They were already saying "You're the lady who taught us.." but they stopped as, by now, they could see the pencils and books and construction paper I was lifting out..."Fantastic!" they all shouted. A trail of children followed as my hiusband Q and I carried the box of supplies into the school. The room that had looked so forlorn back in September is repaired and repainted and now one of the most attractive classrooms on the island of Dominica. There are fresh charts, a table with workcards for group work and a Book Corner with a blanket to stretch out on and get lost in the pages of a book. (The teacher had been on one of my courses!) Congratulations to all who made this transformation possible and thanks again to all those everyday, overseas people who sent school supplies, for their part in all this. Next week I shall take another photo and I shall ask the children, who, last September admitted they felt "angry and sad", how it feels now. WOW!
25th January 2008 Letter to Canada..... 
. from Dominica.....  Dear Hazel, I have happy memories of you coming to find me here in Dominica with plain notepaper with your firm's old heading on it. It was about to be trashed, so you rescued it for us. One recent Saturday, I helped a teacher brighten up his classroom area. The school is one room divided into 4 classroom areas by dreary old chalkboards. I covered his boards with bright sheets of construction paper. The children had been drafting and editing their Christmas holiday writing and were best copy publishing on your note paper, the work then to be piled on the teacher's desk. Yesterday, when I visited, I suggested we display the work on the construction papered chalkboards. As we were displaying her work, I congratulated the first child, asking when she last had her work displayed. "Never!" she said. I asked her how old she was "Ten" was her smiling reply. The second child was younger and I admired her work too. She smiled. She wrote she had visited friends at Christmas, "but did not have eny presents this yere". I asked when she last had her work put on the wall. "Never ever!" she said, still smiling proudly. I didn't ask that question again, as I guess I would have had the same reply from all the others in the class! Here in Dominica, the children must supply their own exercise books, which are an assortment of shapes and conditions. There is rarely spare paper to do best writing on for display, so sadly teachers cannot often consider including such an important educational practice. You see, Hazel, how wonderful your gift was for so many Dominican children. We are all so glad you saved that old headed paper from your firm's trash bin! With huge thanks from us all. xxx
24th January 2008  ........Oxford versus Cambridge!..........
On Monday and Tuesday of this week I attended a Secondary Teachers of English Conference at our island's best hotel. It was to promote the use of the new "Our English" textbook, which was introduced into Dominican Secondary Schools last September. The publishers also wanted feed back, so any adjustments to the text book could be made before reprinting. The facilitators were anxious that Dominicans did not think they had been extravagant with the meagre education funds that are always carefully stretched as far as they will go on this island. At the end of the two days, the teachers were given promotion materials, books and book markers, charts and the usual book promotiongoodies and the facilitators, in the closing remarks, conscientiously reminded everyone that the conference was funded by Cambridge University Press, who would be sending even more books. "And will they send us some Oxford Dictionaries?" a teacher asked. "I think not!" said the facilitator. We all chuckled and giggled at length about this..after all, it was the end of an inspiring but also very concentrated two days.
23rd January 2008 Kangaroo Island  I have just had an email from a dear friend, who is reading the Show-me-Wow! website from Kangaroo Island, Australia. She asks if her island might be added to my visitors' countries list, as they often feel that they are forgotten by mainland Australia. (And by the way, she even has her own blow up kangaroo to emphasise her point!) Kangaroo Island....what a wonderful name for an island...and what a wonderful title for children to write a story about too! Now there's an idea! And what about if you read the children's stories with an Australian, (or should I say kangaroo) accent? Now there's a challenge! "Hello Darlings!"
21st January 2008. Slow down, you move too fast! 
"You're walking like European!" complains my husband when we are out shopping up and down the narrow and poorly lit supermarket aisles here in Dominica. "You need to slow down Chris" says our European doctor friend who has recently moved here. "You mustn't rush around in the tropics, our bodies aren't made for it!" I ponder and remember teachers in England forever on their feet, demonstrating a teaching point on the chalk board or moving round the room checking children's work.They rarely sit at their desks during the school day. Next, I remember teachers in Dominica seemingly spending the majority of their day sitting at their desks. Reluctantly I might have to admit these two men are right in declaring it is not natural to rush around in the tropics. Then my mind wanders to a school playground during morning break. I close my eyes and the children are shouting and laughing and running and chasing...if I don't open my eyes I might get knocked over in all the furore. And where am I? I have no idea! Playgrounds in both England and Dominica are exactly the same in dashing about...so how does the men's theory fit there, I wonder, as I smile? Maybe these two men are not quite so exact in what they say! So must dash! So much to do!
20th January 2008 To nag or not to nag? Today I am a teacher trainer of few words! I do not like to nag! Concise Oxford Dictionary . "Nag: verb, to find fault, to scold persistenty, to annoy by nagging, to gnaw to irritate" ..... Nagging does not work anywhere, including in the classroom! I am seeing a lot of it these days. There are much better ways to improve classroom behaviour and to save teacher energy and teacher wear and tear and to create a better learning atmosphere for everyone! Click here for Show-me-Wow page on Classroom Management
16th January 2008 A Tale of Two Reading Classes 
I often work with children who have all the tools to read well, but their reading is jerky and stumbling, because the teacher does not provide good quality silent reading opportunities. Take two adjacent classes each having a silent reading lesson. In one, the children have any old book of any reading level and sit in rows on hard seats. The teacher orders, "Get out your books and read!" and chats with a colleague or goes round the classsroom loudly reprimanding pupils who are not reading and disturbing those who are. At the teacher's whim, the class is sharply told, "Put your books away!" and any child who is lost in the pages in enthusiasm to find out what happens next, is publicly reprimanded for not packing up! Next door, the same lesson. Children have appropriate level reading books and an inviting Book Corner to quietly and independently go to without asking. They conscientiously choose their best place to be for silent reading.The teacher gives a gentle introduction, setting a soft working atmosphere and acts as role model reading silently at the same time. The atmosphere floats on the magic of stepping into the pages of a book. There is a gentle finish with a soft, "When you are ready, close your book and quietly put it away so you do not disturb others". Sounds lovely doesn't it? It is easy to guess which class will have the most skilled and enthusiastic readers! And what a dreadful, wasted opportunity the first teacher allowed! T.S.Eliot wrote of "Music heard so deeply, that it is not heard at all--- but you are the music while the music lasts" I describe good quality silent reading as, "Reading read so deeply that nothing is heard at all--- but you are in the story while the story lasts." Good quality silent readers get lost, as they step out of their classroom and into the pages of their book. (And they often have a stretch and a yawn when they come back!) 15th January 2008 Little donkey 
A family in the our neighbouring English village had a young son who was born with only one eye. This lovely lttle boy adored animals and dearly wanted a donkey. But everytime a donkey was advertised for sale, the family went to buy it, only to find that, on their arrival at each seller's home, the donkey had just been sold. However, their last advertisement response was different. As they drove through this seller's fields, they could see a donkey. They knocked on the door hopefully, but only to be told the same tale, "Sorry the donkey we advertised is sold!" They were so disappointed. "But you have a donkey over there!" they remarked. "Oh your lad won't want that other one...that donkey only has one eye!" I don't need to tell you the rest! Too often we are like the seller and think we know what children want, when really we don't!  Click here for page on Special Educational Needs
14th January 2008 The English Language Lesson. I had an email from an American couple saying they would be going to their Dollar Store and asking what I particularly needed for schools. "There are two things that do not arrive in the stationery parcels that would be particularly useful," I wrote back. "One is knicker elastic to sew down charts and through which we can slot cards with childrens' names on. The other is inch wide, white tape for ties on school aprons" After their shopping exhibiton I had their follow up email. "What is knicker elastic? Are knickers what Americans call pants?" "No knickers are what the English call pants....American pants are English trousers!" "And what is white cotton tape?" "White cotton tape is a few grades up from English bandage.... only Americans might call English bandage something else as English plasters are American bandaids! "Knickers!" I thought, which can also be a mild swear word in English. Maybe it would be better to forget knicker elastic and white cotton tape and ask for drawing pins. Oops, I just remembered. English drawing pins are American thumb tacks!" (I did not mention the English name for American erasers, which always causes an American teenage giggle!) "We are two nations divided by the same common language!" Fun though isn't it? It certainly gives us many a chuckle! "I like your pants Chris!" said a young American man. "I hope you can't see them!" I replied.
13th January 2008 
Jumping cow? When I was very small, I was never at ease with nursery stories that were not true to life. Animals wearing clothes and doing human things did not appeal to me as much as stories of human beings doing human things. And as for nursery rhymes, their truth too often puzzled me. Take, Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle Well I could just about imagine a cat sleeping by a violin, but I didn't want to imagine a cat playing one! The cow jumped over the moon. Now this certainly did not ring true! The little dog laughed, to see such fun Well, I could imagine a dog shaking and rolling with excitement. That could seem like laughing, so that line was just about believable. And the dish ran away with the spoon. No way, only perhaps if carried by an escaping burglar in his swag bag! But, back again to the validity of that cow that jumped over the moon, I read, this week, about the unusual tornadoes over many parts of America. In one, it is reported that a cow was lifted right off the ground and carried though the air, to finally land three quarters of a mile away! Not exactly an over the moon flight, but never the less quite a phenomenom. Perhaps I should become more open minded about the "truth" in nursery rhymes in future, that is, once I have locked away my dishes and spoons! 
"See!", said the cow, smiling complacently, "I can jump high after all!"
11th January 2008  We see a rainbow almost every day here in Dominica, often see several a day. From our veranda we have a wide panoramic view of the rain forested mountains and the blue Caribbean Sea and we note where each rainbow ends and wonder who could find the pot of gold! Dominica is full of wonderful colours, yet even more are slowly and graduallly appearing in schools, from 1).....the class that did poems on a theme of "Orange", where the children collected every orange article they could find to arrange round their poetry writing display, to 2).....the 365 pupil school in Massacre, where, on the last session of my eight week course, the course teachers begged free paint and re vamped one dreary classroom, only for the other teachers in the school to be immediately so inspired, they came in teams during last Easter holiday to revamp all the other classrooms and brighten them with rainbow colours to 3),..... the dull school I was invited to at the eleventh hour last Friday. With only a few days to go until the start of term, a teacher emailed for help. "I'll be there in 20 minutes!" I said, and then loaded the car with gifts sent in from overseas by kind donors. The teacher and I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning clearing out cupboards, putting large sheets of construction paper over dreary old room-dividing chalkboards and bright fabric cloths over two old tables, where we displayed, face forwards, colourful story books. Visiting the classroom an hour into the first day of term, the children and the teacher looked as if they really had found a pot of gold amongst all these new, bright and cheerful rainbow colours. And to the donors who have sent paper and books, scissors and glue, thumb tacks and sticky tape, fabrics and merit stickers, string and clothes peg..oh and paint brushes, we would love to "Sing a rainbow!" 
 "Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and....."
9th January 2008 
Like father, like son! Maurice was a good plumber, but very slow to complete each task as he liked to talk, so much so that when we recognised the reasons for his tardiness, we arranged for Maurice to come to work on our building projects, when we were sure no other workman would be there. But Maurice was also the father of one of my pupils and so, having gone home and changed into collar and tie, he came, with his wife, to the School Parent's Evening, ready to hear about their six year old son's progress. "He is doing quite well, but his progress is hampered by the fact that whenever he is working near another child, he cannot stop talking! Obviously if he could control this problem, then he would get more done and so make more progress!" Maurice was amazed and determined to do something about this. "Thank you for what you are doing to help", he said. "I shall have a word with him about this and explain to him that his chatting is not getting the work done. I can't understand why he does not know this already at his age! I said nothing, but I detected a knowing smile in the eyes of Maurice's wife!
8th January 2008. 
A Sticky Problem! Today's B.B.C.News includes the headline "MEXICAN BOY GLUES HAND TO BED TO AVOID GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!" I think his teachers need to read the Show-me-wow! website so that school starts to be fun for him, don't you? (And thank goodness this would ever happen in Dominica...often,our glue here does not stick!)
7th January 2008 
Back to school. At the start of school holidays, and when very young, my son Adam used to say that if he were "an important grown up person", he would make a law forbidding shops to put "Back to School" notices in their windows, along with school uniforms and dictionaries and school bags and stationary, anything they could display round this Adam-detested "Back to school" sign. In Dominica, the shop fronts do not lend themselves to such displays, as they are not made up of vast expanses of glass that would smash in a hurricane or magnify the heat that beats down and reflects off the concrete buildings and roads. However, the children probably have a similar feeling to the one Adam had, but it comes from a different source. Here in the Caribbean, the holidays mean extra freedom for school children, who go unacompanied to the beach and swim, or who wander off to gather grapefruit or to play in the warm sunshine. Here it seems they do not need to be so strictly supervised as in other countries. But their "back to school" often means a return to days that contrast so harshly to their holiday freedom, as term time often means sitting in desks facing the chalkboard and continually writing and listening whatever their age!. I must remember to ask Adam which he would prefer!
3rd January 2008 Leaping into Leap Year 
Oh the four times table! My primary school teacher had all the tables hand written on cards and hanging under the chalk ledge of the chalk board. My visual memory allows me to still see all eleven of them. And when it was time to revise the four times table, the teacher would smother the chalkboard with lists of year dates. We had to divide each year date by four and write, "This is a Leap Year" or "This is not a Leap Year!" Well the builders have returned today. They lost a lot of work in December when the island ran out of cement, so they said they would be working right up to Christmas and then be back very soon after to catch up. But their return did not happen as they said it would and, when we asked the foreman why, he explained that they were all " Too giddy!" (We call it something else in England!) But they arrived this morning looking cheerful and eager to give a "Happy New Year" handshake and eager to earn some money. "There will be more work this year!" said the foreman encouragingly. The guys looked pleased, wondering what was in store in 2008. "It's a Leap Year so you'll have an extra day's work!" he chuckled and teased. One of the younger builders turned seriously to another. "Yes you'll have to come to work on that day," he advised, "Or if you don't some woman will propose to you!" The speaker laughed, but the listener looked as if he would prefer the four times table to a Leap Year marriage proposal!
2nd January 2008 
When walking through the village, I met a boy from the local primary school, who was out playing and enjoying his school holiday. I had last seen him before Christmas when I'd asked him when term finished. "Only 6 more days!" he said with a huge smile. So, this time, I said, "Happy New Year!" He smiled shyly. "When does the new school term start?" I asked. He thought for a moment and said, "I don't know!" I instantly remembered how precisely he knew when last term ended, yet did not know when next term starts! Funny that...but then it does bring back memories doesn't it?
1st January 2008 Excuses, excuses! My Dad was never absolutely comfortable about the secondary school I went to, and when he was telling me off and asking me to explain my behaviour, he would listen and say, "All that school teaches you is how to make up excuses!" From then, I tried not to make up excuses, but I have heard a few howlers in 2007. Q tried to change some new sandals that were too tight. "You should have them that size!" said the shop assistant who did not want to change them, "You should not wear shoes that fit, or your feet will spread. A size smaller is better for you feet!" (And to think, no one had ever told my husband this before!) And talking about how little you can get out of the bank's A.T.M., a neighbour said, "You have to be glad that the bank don't want you to have too much. They are looking after your money because when you get older, you will need more than you need now!" And, at the Post Office, we asked why mail from Britiain could take as long as 5 weeks to get here. "Well the Royal Mail has been privatised and has been taken over by foreigners who don't know where anywhere is!" It's all as amazing as the boy at school who could have written a book on "Excuses to give when you have not done your homework!" He was the talk of the staffroom when he came up with one excuse after another.."It went in the washing machine" "The dog chewed it!" "Dad thought it was rubbish and used it to light the fire!" But the one that finally outraged teachers was when he tried the "I left it on the Orient Express this weekend!" He was in big trouble then...that was until his mother wrote and sent the tickets to prove that was where he was the previous weekend! 
January 1st and all those resolutions made! I'm sure that in a few weeks time, there will be lots of people making the exuse, "I never really wanted to be thinner anyway!" I wonder, will I be one of them, even though I try so hard not to make excuses?
31st December 2007 and 1st January 2008 
Today, thoughts are focussed on New Year's Eve as Christmas festivities retreat into memories. The tapes that boom from the Dominica supermarkets are put away for another year..those tapes of well known carols that here, are put to a Caribbean beat, and the slow, traditional song that so often makes me smile as I drool in the heat and hear "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas". "What is snow and frost like Miss?" ask Dominican school children. When you are here, it is easy to forget what cold feels like! Many of the teachers here in Dominica met my son Adam during one of his two Dominican visits in 2007. He later made the educational and zany you tube on Nurnberg Castle, which is near where he lives and acts and sings. On Christmas Eve, he made another you tube about Nurnberg Christmas Market called "Christmas Angels and Bratwurst" and the Adam, who drooled in his shorts and T shirt taking a teachers' drama course here in Dominica, is there in Nurnberg looking frozen in layers of clothes and a thick scarf, heading stall by stall towards the one selling hot punch! 
From Adam in freezing Germany, and from me here in always warm, often very hot Dominica, may we both wish A Happy New Year to you wherever you are and whatever climate you are in. (And my husband Q says it too!) Thank you for what you have done for show-me-wow during 2007, whether it has been by reading the web pages for teaching ideas, or sending e mails asking for help, or packing and sending school supplies for those children who ask "What is snow and frost like Miss?" Have a great 2008 everyone.
29th December 2007 "Smile please!" 
Oh dear, it's the gloomy season here in Dominica, at least for some people. The girl on the check out was sitting looking as if she had toothache and her work station was so cluttered, I wondered if she was taking any customers so I asked. She grunted and gave a slight nod, looked at my one purchase and unenthusiatically punched the cost into her till. It's not that I prefer the robotic chants of the check out girls in England "Would you like help with packing your bag today Madam?", " Any cash back today Sir?" Even when Q and I had just arrived from France and queued at neighbouring tills each clutching a tub of paracetamol, (strictly one tub per purchaser, so we were trying to stock up with two) and each with a ten pound note from our dusty little bank bag of sterling (in France we use euros) the girls were like robots. As it happened, we arrived at the two check outs at precisely the same time and the ladies said, in absolute robotic unison, "I am so sorry, this ten pound note is not longer legal tender, but can be exchanged in any post office or bank!" They obviously thought they were hearing an echo, then looked at each other, saw the funny side of the situation and we all four giggled. But Dominica customer service training is sparce and the shop assistants have not yet realised that it's actually the customers who pay their wages! Back in England, my little mother and I had rushed to shelter in a shop doorway during a sudden torrential downpour. The shopkeeper came straight to us and told us off for blocking his doorway. My timid mother said, "Oh I am so sorry!" I was amazed that she had spoken and even more amazed that she obviously planned to say more. She continued with, "It must be terrible to be as miserable as you are!" Good old Mum! Mmmm, teaching literacy is my passion and so it's high on my agenda as far as life skill requirements are concerned, but I have to wonder if politeness and genuine good manners should not top the bill, if you'll kindly, Sir or Madam, please excuse the pun!
28th December 2007 
The under resourced secondary schools in Dominica gave me my first culture shock when I arrive. They have many untrained teachers and universal education for children was introduced not long ago. Teachers complain to me that they are not experienced enough at coping with children of lower ability. But to my mind, what exaserbates these difficulties, is the firmly entrenched tradition of subject teachers moving from one room to another to meet their students there. These teachers can carry minimum resources and arrive in a dreary and ill kempt room following the previous teacher, who is probably gathering a pile of resources for a completely different subject ready to struggle on to another uninviting room. Learning needs visual input as well as auditory, no matter what the age of those being taught, surely all educationalists know this! Learning cannot be accelerated if the teacher uses only a voice and a chalk board. Teachers need their own subject based room, where they can safely store their own collection of subject based resources that accelerate learning. The teacher needs to make the walls work to accelerate learning, so the children have charts to refer to, and subject based books and graded work sheets. The teacher needs easy access whilst teaching, to resources for the whole range of abilities in the class. A chalk board whole-class exercise is appropriate to too small a percentage of the children doing it. The rest are not being catered for in a teaching and learning efficient way. I feel passionately about this...and sorry, the subject is not very festive, BUT yesterday I had a 'phone call from a secondary school teacher with maybe a kindred spirit, who wants to know more and whose spouse has a similar job! Two senior manager teachers whom I am hoping might start thinking of having a New Year resolution that says... "Subject based classrooms, let's resolve to try it for at least a few subjects in 2008!" Oh the thought of secondary schools with subject based classrooms that are more conducive to efficient learning, subject based classrooms that teachers and children take a pride in and show respect for. Surely that would be a huge jump forward for the secondary aged students of this little island and for the teachers too! I am so pleased I got that 'phone call..... and now have my fingers crossed for the resolutions teachers might have for their secondary schools in 2008!
25th December 2007 
The best Christmas present Anoki was 5 years old, French speaking from a neighbouring French island, and trying his best to do his lessons in his new English speaking school. Seeing his teacher having difficulty explaining a new teaching point to him, I took him out of the classroom to try to explain in another way. He was delighted when, at last, he grasped the new concept. He thought, for a moment, to work out his English words and then said, "Thank you...I want to give you a present!" Seeing him struggling I said, "Do you know what my favourite present would be Anoki? Shall I tell you what I really like to have as a present? It's a smile. I love to be given a smile!" "Oh!" he said, looking disappointed. He took time to work out his words again. "But I wanted to give you some diamonds!" "That is kind, but I would much rather have a smile!" He thought for a moment yet again...and then, realising he needed to say no more, gave me a smile. I watched him walk down the veranda towards his classroom and, as he reached the door, he turned and waved....and smiled. And I smiled back of course. I hope that millions and millions of smiles are given as gifts this Christmas. 
22nd December 2007 
Christmas shopping Today, the shops in Roseau, our biggest town here in Dominica, are not especially busy. Food prices have increased steadily over the last months, farmers are waiting for the banana crop to recover from Hurricane Dean and builders are out of work, as there has been no cement on the island! They say that the town will be busier on Christmas Eve, as people traditionally congregate there, not necessarily to shop, but to meet up and chat. It is all so different from the shopping centres of wealthier countries, where: The folks go crazy 'mongst the crowds Of Christmas rush o'er vales and hills And weighed down with their festive bags And deafened by the shopping tills Along the path, 'neath Christmas trees They puff and pant with trembling knees! Continuous are the lights that shine And twinkle down their High Street way They stretch in never ending line And watch the shoppers spend their pay. Ten thousand pounds spent at a glance I wonder, would I like the chance? For I, when on my deckchair lie In vacant and in pensive mood Just cut and stick my home made cards, Or pick anthireums from the wood. I think of Christmas shopping.....Ban it! (Or am I from another planet?) By Chris Lawrence, with sincere apologies to William Wordsworth, who wrote a better poem about daffodils!
21st December 2007 
Proud as a peacock You may know the story of Flat Stanley, the boy who was run over by a steam roller. I think his Mum rolled him up, tucked him under her arm and carried him home! I can't imagine what Stanley's mother's face looked like, but I can remember the proud-as-a-peacock face of a young boy, who was walking out of primary school at the end of the Friday session, with a roll of paper tucked under his arm. The teacher explained that each Monday, the class draws round one of the pupils and colours in the hair and face and clothes. The life size drawing is then pinned on the classroom door so that, during the week, any pupil or teacher can write a compliment about that child around the edge of the paper and sign it. "I like Jo because he is kind" ...Marie "Jo helped me choose a reading book" .......Rashad "Jo helped me when I fell over".....Amyra "Jo did some beautiful writing for me"...Mrs. Lawrence At the end of Friday, everyone reads all the compliments and discusses how much better it is to compliment classmates than to complain about them. Then the child of the week rolls up the paper and takes it home to read to the family and keep. The classroom door is now clear, ready for the next child's turn on Monday. Each week someone has a turn to feel proud as a peacock, because of the compliments they have received. Wouldn't it be wonderful if more schools did this?
20th December History in their shoes This week, some kind visitors from Belgium not only struggled here with a case of stationery for schools, but included a pile of history magazines. I have been enjoying reading them before the January term starts when I will deliver them to schools. I once worked with a new-to-the-school history teacher, who was very young and quite charmingly baby faced. There were titters round the staff room, as teachers worried about his classroom management skills. Most felt he hadn't a chance of controlling a teenage class, let alone holding their attention for long enough to teach them anything. And as for his pupils' exam results...well! But they were wrong! This young history teacher's parents had fostered many children whilst he had been growing up and he had learnt a trick or two about building relationships. Also he could tell wonderful stories, rich descriptions and credible character studies and we know, don't we, that everyone, no matter what age, loves a story. He was able to put the story into history. "Imagine what King so and so would feel like when this happened!" he would say to his class, "Put yourself in his shoes!" His classes across both age and ability ranges were enthralled. He had their admiration and respect, so much so that they responded to his classroom management in the spirit in which he ran it. Take the days someone turned up to the lesson without a pen. He had established his rule right from the start. He had spare pens, but would not risk losing them, so, anyone could borrow a pen, in exchange for a shoe! There was no need to discuss it and no need to interupt the lesson about it. Once a pupil realised he needed to borrow a pen, he would simply go to the spare pen pot, shruck off his shoe and walk back to his seat, one shoe off and one shoe on, but carrying his temporary writing tool. This wonderful teacher didn't need to moan or nag. He just had systems that his pupils not only knew, but also respectfully accepted and smiled about. No wonder there were sighs from the boys and tears from the girls when this teacher left for a promotion at another school. He may not have gone with a leaving present of a pair of shoes, but he certainly left with every pen he had ever loaned!
18th December 2007 
La Creme de la Creme. I was in such awe of one elegant and so typically English lady colleague, who had a string of top qualifications from top universities and who was never ruffled and always immaculately and expensively dressed. She was a gifted linguist and taught the older, more gifted pupils in the school, usually French. She was La creme de la creme and her pupils followed the same style. But one year her timetable included one less academic group and, a few weeks into term, she came to me for help and advice. She was looking, I have to say, amazingly, slightly ruffled! Not as much as an every day teacher, but yes, for her, slightly ruffled! "Chris, I have told that girl 8 times and she still doesn't understand!" she said, exasperatedly. "With respect!" I said humbly, "Have you told her eight different ways?" This learned lady looked, thought and smiled. She had got the point. Teaching is all about communicating. It is not about repeating the same thing over and over again trying to hammer it in. Teachers have to go on searching for the line of communication for each particular child..and then, when they have found it, (even if they have had to try eight different ways), they have, at last, communicated successfully. Then they have truly taught. Mmm... La creme de la creme....perfect!
17th December 2007 
And so to sew. Last week, we had a first visit to the home of some new friends, a facinating building and we enjoyed being shown round. In one room was a small, waist height, floor-standing cupboard I recognised at once. My mother had a near identical one when I was at primary school. You hinged back the lid and upturned a sewing machine. I watched fascinated everytime she used it, although this was not often. Mainly the cupboard was used to house a cardboard box, so over-flowing with fabric scraps, you had to shut the door quickly before they tumbled out! From the age of 10, I was allowed to amuse myself using up these scraps to sew things, marbles bags, cushion covers, kitchen curtains, dolls' bedding, anything I could think of. I developed creativity, concentration, shape and texture awareness, cutting and measuring, hand-eye co-ordination, (and foot too as it was a treadle machine!)....and, I learnt how to sew. Last weekend I was almost upturned myself, with my head deep in a tall cardboard box, and pushing a thick threaded needle, back and forth as I was sewing a seam up the side of the box. (Thankfully people who know me are rarely amazed at what I am getting up to!) I was sorting out a junk box to go in a classroom Art and Craft corner. The box I had was covered in advertisements and so I took it apart, planning to put it together again inside out. Then the clean side would be on the outside, so the box could be labelled, "Things for junk modelling" and the children could decorate it with wax crayon drawings. But sticking things together here in Dominican schools is a problem. Glue is expensive and not always sticky! See through sticky tape seems to have deteriorated by the time it gets to the shop shelves and few teachers have a reel anyway. I do ask friends overseas to send wallpaper paste, as, with that, I can make a big bowl full and decant it into jars for various teachers. It is cheaper to supply paper glue that way, but, once mixed, even this has a short shelf life. So what about my cardboard box? I looked at it challenged, thought, got out the needle and thread, and standing and looking at the prospective task ahead, I said..."And so to sew!" as I put my head into the bottom of the box and started the upward running seam. What a shame no one took a photo! It could have been called "The things she does for education"!
16th December 2007 
The teacher learns! I am constantly trying to improve my computer skills and hope you enjoy the clipart drawings I have added today to my Blog jottings below.Perhaps we should remember this when we consider books for children. Too much text is boring..pictures help to bring text alive! Everyone knows this, but we too often forget. Even exam papers should have pictures. And when listening to young readers, it is good practice to let them have a good look at the pictures in their books first. It is not cheating! It teaches them to take contextual clues and it helps them to acquire a better visual memory of the story. Too many teachers turn to the next page of the reading book and quickly cover the picture up. This is bad practice! Hearing a child read is encouraging him to improve his reading, not testing him on how many words he can sight read. So enjoy the pictures!
15th December 2007. 
The little drummer boy.... pa rumpa pum pum I knew the 9 year old boy who came to me for the reading test. He was the school drummer and he played his drum with passion and enthusiasm at every school opportunity. Everyone enjoyed watching him and I told him how much I enjoyed his playing. His reading score was fine and I asked him what his weakest area was in school. "My spelling!" he said gently shrugging his shoulders and giving a small smile. "Why is that?" I asked. "I don't know!" he confessed looking as if he wished he did. "But you are a drummer!" I said "You are full of rhythm! You can use this to be a better speller!" He looked interested. We looked for a word he could not spell and practiced putting a rhythm to it. He made one up instantly and smiled with surprise. "That's all you do!" I said. "If you have a word you are finding difficult to remember how to spell, or if your teacher gives you a list of words to learn for a test, sit down at your drum and give each one a different rhythm...and drum the words and practice them and enjoy them...and then when you have a test, or when you need to write the word, the rhythm will come back into your head and your brain will whisper the letters in the right order!" "Wow!" he said. Next day he told me he had tried it..."And drumming spellings really works for me Miss!" he said. "That's because you are a little drummer boy!" I said. "Well done!" 13th December 2007 
The Internet pre Chrismas break! Yesterday, I went to a primary school to do a teacher training session on how to best use the Show-me-WOW! website. This school has its own computer room, though, like all school computer rooms in Dominica, the computers don't always work. Sadly, there seems to be a great shortage of technicians to keep up with repairs and many donated computers are not in use as much as they should be. But at this school, 11 computers were set up, all showing the bright blue screens of the Show-me-Wow Home Page. The tired, but smiling, end-of-term teachers came at 1.30p.m.straight after finishing their teaching day, which started at 8a.m. "Who is this Chris Lawrence?" they said, peering at my photo on the screen and teasingly smiling at me! This is a friendly school and I planned a brief introduction to the Show-me-Wow! site and then let the 14 teachers explore it. They are all at different computing stages, from highly proficient to just gingerly learning mouse control. I intended to ask them for feed back and ideas. So there we were, just about to start to explore the site when the Internet went down for the afternoon!! I was so European... sad and cross ("Weak word!" my English teacher used to red scribble in my exercise books!) But the teachers smiled and took it all in their stride. "Not to worry!" they said, "We can do it another time!...After all..this is Dominica!" So we sat back and chatted and gradually, one by one departed. No rushing away for a bus or frantically using this unexpected free time to squeeze in yet another stressful pre-Christmas task. The Internet had taken a pre Christmas break, so we did too...after all, "this is Dominica!"
12th December 2007 I believe in angels.......... When I was born, the midwife told my mother, "You have a beautiful daughter, but she will never be able to wear pink!" My mother wondered why, then saw my bright red hair...quite a shock as both my parents had brown hair! So I didn't wear pink or many other colours because of my bright red hair. I was usually dressed in white. I can remember now, when I, then aged four, had fallen over in some mud, when out on a walk with my uncle. It was not easy to keep clean-looking when you are dressed in white and I blamed my bright red hair for all this muddy trouble! I was fed up with white! When I was 10, my primary school head master announced we would act a Nativity Play in church. I really hoped I would be Mary, but when he announced the cast list, he called my name and then said "The Angel Gabriel...what other part could we give someone with such lovely bright red hair?" But I didn't want to be a white clad angel! I smiled in acceptance, but still remember my disappointment. However, my Mum made me an angel's dress in thick white fabric for the December cold English church, and my Dad bent a wire coathanger into shape and covered it with tinsel for my halo. It wasn't so bad to be an angel in the end! Some children in school are very well behaved and, it is often said,"They are little angels!" But children at the other end of the classroom behaviour spectrum certainly show they do not want to be little angels! Yet my heart often goes out to these more demanding pupils, because I sincerely believe that the reason most of them behave in a non-angelic way, is because the work they are given does not inspire them and so their results are poor. They crave attention so much, they are prepared to get it by being reprimanded rather than not get it at all. If they had activities more suited to their ability, more suited to their active personalities, they would gain the attention they seek through the compliments given for their new found school success. (If they are also given a classroom job to do and praised and complimented for doing it well, then even better.) I believe that those pupils who show they don't want to be angels, with the right teacher approach, can turn out to accept that it is not so bad to be an angel in the end! 
Thank you for the compliment! Click here for Show-me-Wow! page on Classroom Management
10th December 2007 
If I ruled the world I receive e mails from lovely Show-me-WOW! site visitors from many parts of the world. Some are interested in learning about as many aspects of Dominica as they can, as they'd love to visit or even dream of living here. Others want to help our poorly resourced schools and describe the box they keep, where they collect items to send, or to deliver personally. (Last week, two such visitors came to my home to supper, to deliver new stationery, but also a bag of erasers the young lady had brought from her teenage collection. WOW!) Others write that they use Show-me-WOW ideas in their own classrooms or in staff training, and applaud the Show-me-WOW philosophy. From the affluence of schooling in first world countries, to the poverty in third world countries, I learn more about everyday people like you and me, living in many different places and in different learning conditions. I see some children in rich countries being in danger of being over indulged with materialism, of becoming self centred, disaffected and consequently unable to reach their full potential both now and in adult life. I see some children in poor countries in danger of lacking in food, in decent shelter, and in quality education, also becoming unable to reach their full potential both now and in their adult life. So if I ruled the world what would I do? I certainly would not pour money into every school, but I would definitely seek teachers who could and would understand how children learn. They would have to be creative, because a creative teacher can make lessons fun and easier to understand and can improvise with resources and equipment to make the classroom a stimulating environment making children feel special and education special too. These teachers would use less chalk and would involve children in more active learning. Schools would be places where there is a lot of smiling in congratulations of success...teachers would look for things to praise and never be always searching for ways to criticise, as if they were factory inspectors! Teachers would believe that children learn better, when they know the teacher likes them and makes them feel safe. Mmmm! If I ruled the world, I certainly could not do all this on my own! I would need all the people who visit the Show-me-WOW website to help, because from meeting you when you visit Dominica, to reading about you in your e-mails to me, I know we all share, no matter where we live in the world and in what circumstances, a kindred spirit in wanting as good an education for our world's children as we can possibly provide. Maybe that well know song should now become."If we ruled the world" the we being all of you Show-me-WOW visitors.... along with me too please! Cheers!
8th December 2007 The Nativity Scene Some school children will be practicing parts for the annual Nativity Play now. I have so many stories of the blips that I have experienced over many Nativity Play years, but one of my favourites is the blip that happened right at the beginning of the Christmas Story, where Joseph approached the third inn keeper and said the words he had already said to the two innkeepers before. "My wife is tired and is going to have a baby, Please do you have a room for us in your inn?". Now we all know that the innkeeper had no room, as Bethlehem was full and this innkeeper was supposed to tell Joseph this sad news, but, instead, this innkeeper said, "Yes I do have room!"..... and consequently stopped the play! The audience held their breath, no one knew what to do next and then, the amazed teacher in the wings whispered, shaking her head, "No you don't have any room. You remember you only have the stable!" The third inn keeper turned away from Joseph and Mary to peer at the teacher and took a moment to think. The hall was still silent and then, at last, the third inn keeper, looking at the teacher said, "Oh, all right then Miss! He then turned to Joseph, paused for a moment and said, "Sorry Joseph, but I only have the stable!" Everyone sat back, much relieved and the well known Nativity Play continued with no more blips. ********************** I made this Nativity Scene quickly from 1lb.brown paper bags and scraps of fabric held in place with string or ribbon or staples. The bags are stuffed at the top and secured with string under the chin and then the clothes are put on. The characters should stand up on the opened up bag end, but may need propping on a little pot. 
A stick with a wire tag hooked on the end makes the shepherds' crooks. 
The three kings, made out of small, brown paper bags and fabric scraps 
Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. The manger is three pieces of cardboard, one folded in half for the top and the other two each have a V shape cut out of them to form the two ends that support the top. 
The Nativity Scene
6th December 2007 
Dashing away with the smoothing iron x 65! We have new neighbours from Holland and they have built their house and just moved in. Their belongings arrived in a huge container and now they are unpacking. Everytime I pass their new house I am beckoned in to collect packaging to use in schools. The cardboard boxes are adapted to hang up on walls to pin up displays, (there is very little pin board here) the bubble wrap used similarly, but yesterday I was given two boxes of crunched up white newsprint. Children here have little if no paper to draw on and so last evening I ironed 65 crumpled sheets of newsprint. It doesn't look too bad, more like silk paper after my ironing. Anyway, how could we throw it away, when there is such a shortage? So there I was "dashing away with the smoothing iron" whilst my husband cooked supper. (I'll find any excuse not to cook!) I wonder what my kindly new neighbours will give me today from their unpacking. Whatever it is, I feel sure that between us, we will think of someway it can be used in the schools here and I want to thank them from the Dominican children who so love to draw, but who so often don't have the paper on which to do it!
5th December 2007 
Charles Dickens. What would he say? "Please Sir, May I have some more?" Poor Oliver Twist, shy and reserved, but, overcome by his hunger for food, plucked up courage to ask for more gruel! I think this part of Charles Dickens' story touches everyone's heart, and that, of course, was what this wonderful author aimed to do, in his effort to use his own special skills, to help others realise the situation of orphaned boys like Oliver in Victorian England. A large proportion of teachers in Dominica are not trained! Some arrive straight from being school pupils themselves, to often teach large classes in maybe an overcrowded room that is shared by three other classes! One such very young, untrained Dominican I met, could hardly write on the chalkboard, because the first row of desks dug into her thighs! She had the makings of an excellent teacher, but was criticised for her pupils' Maths results not being up to standard. How she worried and nearly gave up! But the officers at the Ministry of Education here in Dominica are trying to change this situation, so that all teachers are trained within the next few years.... a mammoth task. This teacher training takes place several afternoons a week, which does not effect the schools that operate from 8a.m to 1p.m. so much, but those which operate from 9a.m. to 3.30p.m. suffer a serious teacher shortage on a regular basis. I visited one such school yesterday. The children know me and always welcome me there. As I went into the Grade 1 classroom with no teacher, I received lots of smiles...and then, a small, timid boy approached me, looked up at me with huge brown eyes, holding up his hand in which he held a small piece of chalk. "Please Miss, will you teach us some more?" My own Dominican Oliver! What would Charles Dickens say I wonder?
4th December 2007 
Bob's fishy tale. When I visited a school on the outskirts of Roseau last week, I was delighted to be in the Grade 2 classroom of one of the teachers who had been on my 8, Thursday afternoons "Accelerating Literacy Skills Course" earlier this year. She told me her teaching had benefitted so much from the course and I could see evidence of this, not only in her own enthusiasm and general attitude, but also in the classroom itself: fresh charts that were currently in use, others stashed tidily away, childrens best work given great prominence on the walls, an interest table built after a walk along the shore listening to all the sounds there and a book corner with three little tuffets beautifully made from 3 recycled Cab,e and Wireless spools. She sighed with contentment and said, "And I want to get a fish in a bowl next, so the children have something living in here!" I came away thinking about her words and the poem I once wrote about Bob,an English goldfish I once knew.
Bob's Fishy Tale
"I never meant to say it, (but I think it’s now ok)
That living lonely in my bowl was boring every day.
Just think of going round and round, [in fact my bowl was square!]
And trying hard to look alert, when people came to stare.
There were a few bleak changes, the occasional scoury clean
But usually I swam around in water thick and green!
And then my great experience, the day my shelf came down,
I fell amongst the Christmas veg., the saddest fish in town.
I lay there slowly gasping, my wet scales drying out,
Between a large potato and a crinkled Brussel sprout!
Thank goodness someone noticed, I felt quite in the pink
So when he picked up lonely me, I gave a friendly wink.
Back swimming in my glassy bowl, soon gave me such a thrill
And yet, to be quite honest, my life was lonely still.
But now I’m in the village pond, this change has made me glad,
I’m looking for a girlfriend, as I’d like to be a dad.
So when you come to visit, make it an extra job
To stop off at the fishpond and look for me, I’m Bob.
And if you see some little ones there, swimming round with me
You’ll know my life’s less lonely with my fishy family!"
I hope the fish that goes to live in this lovely classroom near Roseau will end up being happy like Bob! 3rd December 2007 Greetings card pictures please. Exchanging Christmas cards and other greetings cards is not big in Dominica, so maybe Show-me-WOW! blog readers off the island can help. You see, the children here do class lessons from a chalk board or a text book, all working at the same exercise. The trouble with this is that the slow ones are out of their depth and lose confidence or get sad or angry or disruptive, the brighter ones are not stretched and so they become bored and angry or disruptive and the middle ones are...well, in the middle! They can do the work, but will sometimes copy the feelings that come from the frustrations of the others. (Remember when you were at school?) The children need differentiated work and the cheapest way we can supply this is by making work cards at levels geared to the different abilities in the class, so each child has tailor made cards. We use plain pieces of manilla card, and we can write appropriate questions, but we need pictures to illustrate them. I am asking blog readers for things that cost them nothing, but that would be treasures, if passed on to the children in Dominican schools. Please would you send us your old greetings cards and post cards? But before you rush, there are two points to consider: 1)Please, we cannot use lots of cards of snow scenes and holly and robins as they are not so appropriate here, but cards of everyday things like animals, birds, cars, dolls, flowers, houses, scenery, anything else would be so useful. 2) To save on weight, we do not need the backs of the cards, just the pictures, so it would help if you trim the cards before you post them. How sad it is to throw lovely pictures away, when they could be used to make work cards and to give such educational pleasure to lots of Dominican children in poorly resourced schools. Thank you for thinking about this idea. Maybe your friends and family could help collect too. Greetings! From little acorns mighty oak trees grow. And trees make paper to make books! 
This week I felt someone really showing me Wow! Andrew, from London, would call himself an ordinary chap doing an ordinary job. But Andrew's parents are from Dominica and his aunt was headteacher at a Dominican primary school before she retired. She sowed a seed in Andrew's head about her School needing reading books and so, every month, Andrew has, without fail, been sending three or four books to the School for their Library. Amazingly, he has done this for ten years! So, whilst in Dominica on holiday, the School decided to honour this "ordinary chap" and invited him to a special celebration. They held a service for him in their church, they danced and sang to him in their playground and they named their reading room after him, by unveiling a photo of him surrounded by hearts and by the books he has sent, all to show Andrew, as the sign says, "You are precious to us!" 
Andrew's small, but much valued monthly parcel, has grown to a collection of between 350 and 400 books! But this month, Andrew did not send a parcel. Instead, he delivered the books himself! We all had a lump in our throats as Andrew made his first ever personal delivery. To Andrew everyone wanted to say, "Thank you and Wow!" I think Andrew wanted to say Wow! too for his wonderful tribute. 
"When I was young I went with my two brothers, one older than me, one younger, to the library to borrow books. I read the ones I borrowed and then the ones my two brothers borrowed and I learnt to love reading. I want you to love reading too and that is why I send you the little book parcels every month." 30th November 2007. Music Maestro Please!
Last summer, Q and I were invited to a lunch party way out in the middle of the island. The invitation was for 1 o'clock, and being British, we set off in good time and duly drove through the gates of our two hostesses' garden at one precisely. But there were no other cars to be seen. Perhaps we were the only guests...a small party we supposed! We walked in past the barbecue and there was so much food! Surely we would not be expected to eat all that! Of course, we had forgotten, that a 1 o'clock lunch does not mean a 1 o'clock arrival in Dominica! A 1 o'clock lunch means an at least two or three o'clock arrival here. Being far too early, we offered to help, but generally chatted to our hostesses and Brian their helper.
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