Thursday, 26 March 2015
Special Guest Blogger -- Krista Gordon
I’ll begin with a BIG thank-you to Paul and Gayle for hosting not one, not two, but five houseguests over the Ontario March Break! Not only did Paul and Gayle welcome all of us into their Trini home, they also made sure we captured as many Trinidad experiences as we could in our short time visiting this beautiful country. From hashing, doubles, bake and shark, caves, swamps, hiking, KFC and even some liming, we jammed as much as possible into the trip!
A reoccurring theme of this adventure was that “life begins on the edge of your comfort zone!” Being the incredible teachers that they are, Paul and Gayle provided ample opportunities for all of us travellers to venture into unfamiliar territory at some point along the trip. Whether it was jumping off high rocks into deep cave pools, starting out in a mob of runners crossing a creek in a hash, completing a six-hour trek down a river in the rainforest or driving the roads of Trinidad, we all got a chance to experience an adventure outside of our comfort zones!!
Highlights of the week included catching waves at Maracas Beach, trying bake and shark, swimming in the caves, watching a four-eyed fish in the Caroni Swamp, seeing the biodiversity of the hills and forests, operating a car on the right side of the vehicle (windshield wipers do not work so great for indicating a turn!), driving the narrow, winding roads of Trinidad, and meeting new friends to share fun conversation and laughter with over dinner at Paul and Gayle’s apartment!
Thanks again Paul and Gayle for sharing your Trini experiences with us, and hosting us for an amazing adventure in Trinidad!
Sunday, 22 March 2015
BAT-tastic
Growing up in a century farm house meant that usually every year we'd have a "bat incident". A bat would somehow enter the kitchen, we'd all scream and run around frantically, and then a badminton racket would appear much to the demise of the harmless bat. Combine those scarring memories and the fact that in French bats are called chauve-souris (bald mouse), I was pretty excited about a hike to the Tamana bat caves, housing the second largest colony of bats in the world.
Ok, to be honest, I WAS excited to trek out to the caves. Bats are such fascinating creatures, and our hike yesterday proved it.
The caves are located in the central region of Trinidad, about a 2 hour drive from our place, given stop and go traffic, narrow windy roads, with pot-holes the size of small craters. With Emile (our guide) and 12 hikers,we eventually reached the trailhead at 4:30 pm. A short uphill climb brought us to the cave exit, which at 5 pm was quiet and unassuming. Emile agreed to a quick climb down into the cave, which was nothing like we'd ever experienced before. The cave entrance was large, and what we considered to be bat filled. Well, how wrong were we.
Emile pointed to a small hole, and when I say small, I mean small, and said, "Ok, that's where we crawl through to get into the cave." Pardon? Paul led the way, slithering through this very tight tunnel passage. When he called out to Emile, "Are you sure about this?", confidence was not high on the meter. Somehow all 12 of us mustered the confidence to crawl through the tunnel, landing in a smelly, dark, humid and bat infested cavern. IT WAS SUPER COOL!
The Tamana caves are home to 1.5 million bats consisting of 12 different species. After exploring one of the small caverns, we re-surfaced to the cave exit. As it was dusk, the bats were exiting for their nightly feeding ritual. We stood directly in the path of thousands of bats, and let me tell you it was surreal. It didn't even look real. Bats flew directly at us, and then in the last millisecond, they'd swoop up, left or right to avoid us. The pictures don't do it justice, but if you ever get the chance to do something like this, do it. You'll gain a new appreciation for bats.
There are morepictures in the gallery!
Ok, to be honest, I WAS excited to trek out to the caves. Bats are such fascinating creatures, and our hike yesterday proved it.
The caves are located in the central region of Trinidad, about a 2 hour drive from our place, given stop and go traffic, narrow windy roads, with pot-holes the size of small craters. With Emile (our guide) and 12 hikers,we eventually reached the trailhead at 4:30 pm. A short uphill climb brought us to the cave exit, which at 5 pm was quiet and unassuming. Emile agreed to a quick climb down into the cave, which was nothing like we'd ever experienced before. The cave entrance was large, and what we considered to be bat filled. Well, how wrong were we.
Emile pointed to a small hole, and when I say small, I mean small, and said, "Ok, that's where we crawl through to get into the cave." Pardon? Paul led the way, slithering through this very tight tunnel passage. When he called out to Emile, "Are you sure about this?", confidence was not high on the meter. Somehow all 12 of us mustered the confidence to crawl through the tunnel, landing in a smelly, dark, humid and bat infested cavern. IT WAS SUPER COOL!
The Tamana caves are home to 1.5 million bats consisting of 12 different species. After exploring one of the small caverns, we re-surfaced to the cave exit. As it was dusk, the bats were exiting for their nightly feeding ritual. We stood directly in the path of thousands of bats, and let me tell you it was surreal. It didn't even look real. Bats flew directly at us, and then in the last millisecond, they'd swoop up, left or right to avoid us. The pictures don't do it justice, but if you ever get the chance to do something like this, do it. You'll gain a new appreciation for bats.
There are morepictures in the gallery!
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Adventures in Teaching Math (Part 2)
I told you that there would probably be more stories from math class. This won't be the last.
For the last little while we've been studying Trigonometry. Honestly, the students are doing very well with the idea of angles and side lengths. We took extra time to make sure that everyone understood the big idea that Sine, Cosine and Tangent were RATIOS and they were able to make connections with our work on proportions (affectionately known as the "P-word") from the first unit. We did a quiz and it seemed that most of them were getting it.
As it turns out, "application" of these concepts was going to be a challenge. After making clinometers out of protractors and drinking straws, we went for a walk to look at ways we could use our trigonometry knowledge. We identified the peak of the roof of the school and I asked them measure the angle and distance. Upon returning to class, we did not have time to complete the problem so I put it off until the next day.
At the beginning of the next class I decided that we'd start the day where we had left off so I put this problem on the board:
Puzzled looks and some anxious comments followed: "I hate word problems", "You never taught us this", "What's a clinometer"...
I quickly surmised that our trip outside on the previous day was not as "sticky" as I had thought. I needed to ease the tension and provide some sort of success -- quickly -- so I said, "Why don't you try to draw a picture?...Imagine the scene and try to sketch it."
Two girls immediately pulled out their coloured markers and started making a full page drawing of Darla -- eye lashes, coiffed hair, nails, the works. Ooops. I didn't expect that!
I don't think I reacted very well when I saw that NO ONE DREW A TRIANGLE!!! Dammit, we'd been studying triangles for two weeks, and I didn't see this coming at all. I am sure I sounded slightly exasperated when I said, "Can somebody please draw a triangle?"
It is amazing the number of ways we learn what our students need and how we respond. We've been setting up ladders, measuring flag poles, ramps, drawing pictures and solving problems for a week.
Yet, on Friday, one of the students who'd missed 3 days drew the picture below. The edventure continues....
For the last little while we've been studying Trigonometry. Honestly, the students are doing very well with the idea of angles and side lengths. We took extra time to make sure that everyone understood the big idea that Sine, Cosine and Tangent were RATIOS and they were able to make connections with our work on proportions (affectionately known as the "P-word") from the first unit. We did a quiz and it seemed that most of them were getting it.
As it turns out, "application" of these concepts was going to be a challenge. After making clinometers out of protractors and drinking straws, we went for a walk to look at ways we could use our trigonometry knowledge. We identified the peak of the roof of the school and I asked them measure the angle and distance. Upon returning to class, we did not have time to complete the problem so I put it off until the next day.
At the beginning of the next class I decided that we'd start the day where we had left off so I put this problem on the board:
| Darla is standing 15 m from the base of a building and using a clinometer she measures the angle of elevation to be 37°. If her eyes are 1.65 m above ground level, find the height of the building. |
Puzzled looks and some anxious comments followed: "I hate word problems", "You never taught us this", "What's a clinometer"...
I quickly surmised that our trip outside on the previous day was not as "sticky" as I had thought. I needed to ease the tension and provide some sort of success -- quickly -- so I said, "Why don't you try to draw a picture?...Imagine the scene and try to sketch it."
Two girls immediately pulled out their coloured markers and started making a full page drawing of Darla -- eye lashes, coiffed hair, nails, the works. Ooops. I didn't expect that!
I don't think I reacted very well when I saw that NO ONE DREW A TRIANGLE!!! Dammit, we'd been studying triangles for two weeks, and I didn't see this coming at all. I am sure I sounded slightly exasperated when I said, "Can somebody please draw a triangle?"
It is amazing the number of ways we learn what our students need and how we respond. We've been setting up ladders, measuring flag poles, ramps, drawing pictures and solving problems for a week.
Yet, on Friday, one of the students who'd missed 3 days drew the picture below. The edventure continues....
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Guest Blog: Heather Patterson
Hello from Trinidad, everyone!
The Moira contingent of visitors arrived to visit Gayle and Paul this week (mission: Make sure they're coming back!). We were warmly greeted (in more ways than one) after our overnight flight by Gayle and Paul at 6:00 am. We drove (yes, us Trini newbies drove!) back to the apartment and caught a few zzzs, then headed out to the beach. Getting to the beach involves a long winding drive up the mountains, with some gorgeous views. We played a little in the waves, then went back to the apartment and headed out again for a hash. I'm sure you know what a hash is by now, but just in case you're a new follower, it is essentially a pile of people running through the bush looking for a trail. But it's lots of fun, with lots of great people, and it was a good end to Day 1. And then we went to bed -- at 8:00 pm.
Gayle and Paul then headed back to the airport to pick up Jane, Dave and Grace (I'm sure you'll hear from them in a few days). We slept through their return, and didn't get up until 8 the next morning. Elephants could have walked through our room, and we would have missed it. Sunday, we started early again, and got up to go visit some caves, and even got to go swimming in the caves. Incredible! Next on the agenda was a swamp tour. I was a little doubtful, as Paul pointed out the dump we could see from the highway, and explained about its proximity to the swamp, but this turned out to be a very cool tour. We saw the national bird, the red ibis, coming back by the hundreds after a day out of eating.
Monday saw us out on a hike through the forest with our new friends and Gayle-Paul squatters. We played in a waterfall, and floated on our backs looking up at the forest canopy. Beautiful!
This country is pretty amazing, whether you're in forest, in the water or visiting a swamp. One of the benefits of visiting Gayle and Paul later in their year in Trinidad is that they've had time to vet out the tourist attractions that simply aren't worth it, and do find the hidden gems. One of those was the hummingbird house, Yerette. Upon arrival, we could see hundreds of hummingbirds, all zipping around, feasting on nectar and generally hanging out. As I stood taking pictures, it sounded like bees near my head as the hummingbirds were so close, and I could hear their wings moving. What an amazing site. And since we promised to spread the word... Did you know that hummingbirds are pollinators, just like bees? Those little guys are not just cute, amazing little birds, but they are essential to our ecosystem.
Probably the best part of the whole trip, however, was the chance to catch up with Gayle and Paul. They are doing great here, making friends everywhere, and staying very busy. You're not going to rest if you go on vacation chez Miller-Pickard. A visit to their school proved to us that they are right at home there, and are learning lots to bring home with them. Yes, yes, we checked it all out and it meets with the high standards that we expect for these two.
And now, we head off to Tobago!
The Moira contingent of visitors arrived to visit Gayle and Paul this week (mission: Make sure they're coming back!). We were warmly greeted (in more ways than one) after our overnight flight by Gayle and Paul at 6:00 am. We drove (yes, us Trini newbies drove!) back to the apartment and caught a few zzzs, then headed out to the beach. Getting to the beach involves a long winding drive up the mountains, with some gorgeous views. We played a little in the waves, then went back to the apartment and headed out again for a hash. I'm sure you know what a hash is by now, but just in case you're a new follower, it is essentially a pile of people running through the bush looking for a trail. But it's lots of fun, with lots of great people, and it was a good end to Day 1. And then we went to bed -- at 8:00 pm.
Gayle and Paul then headed back to the airport to pick up Jane, Dave and Grace (I'm sure you'll hear from them in a few days). We slept through their return, and didn't get up until 8 the next morning. Elephants could have walked through our room, and we would have missed it. Sunday, we started early again, and got up to go visit some caves, and even got to go swimming in the caves. Incredible! Next on the agenda was a swamp tour. I was a little doubtful, as Paul pointed out the dump we could see from the highway, and explained about its proximity to the swamp, but this turned out to be a very cool tour. We saw the national bird, the red ibis, coming back by the hundreds after a day out of eating.
This country is pretty amazing, whether you're in forest, in the water or visiting a swamp. One of the benefits of visiting Gayle and Paul later in their year in Trinidad is that they've had time to vet out the tourist attractions that simply aren't worth it, and do find the hidden gems. One of those was the hummingbird house, Yerette. Upon arrival, we could see hundreds of hummingbirds, all zipping around, feasting on nectar and generally hanging out. As I stood taking pictures, it sounded like bees near my head as the hummingbirds were so close, and I could hear their wings moving. What an amazing site. And since we promised to spread the word... Did you know that hummingbirds are pollinators, just like bees? Those little guys are not just cute, amazing little birds, but they are essential to our ecosystem.
Probably the best part of the whole trip, however, was the chance to catch up with Gayle and Paul. They are doing great here, making friends everywhere, and staying very busy. You're not going to rest if you go on vacation chez Miller-Pickard. A visit to their school proved to us that they are right at home there, and are learning lots to bring home with them. Yes, yes, we checked it all out and it meets with the high standards that we expect for these two.
And now, we head off to Tobago!
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