Full Friday

Did not roll out of bed until about 7am this morning, which felt great! After a Nice short breakfast I decided to go snap a few more photos off the coast. The clouds are never the same in the morning, the lighting is always different, and the mood of the photo changes. (I don't suppose you can tell that I have figured out a few things when it comes to photography over my years. haha) I decided I liked these shots the best in black and white. Nice silhouettes of the coconut trees int eh foreground.

We had a full schedule for today starting with a meeting with a few ladies from the DOE (Dept of Ed) that work in the Teacher Quality department - Ruth, Jocelyn, and Tui. They were very kind ladies and initiated fun and informative conversation. All three of them have worked in the school systems here throughout their careers prior to their DOE work serving as teachers and administrators.Tui was actually here the day we flew in to help greet and welcome us. To finish our day, they taught us a little song.

~Savalivali means go for a walk.

Tautalatala means too much talk.

Alofa ia te 'oe means I love you.

Take it easy, fai fai lemu.~

After a little break, we had our third language class with our teachers, Lieberts and Conklin. Lieberts' father is Dutch and his mother Samoan. Conklin is from the states. They both find lives in the region as missionaries through the LDS church, but they are doing a fine job with our language lessons. We just need some basics to give us a foundation.

Next was lunch before our full afternoon of teacher business. We had a couple hour session on "multiple intelligences" as outlined by Howard Gardner. Gardner once said "It's not how smart you are; it's how you are smart." He outlined nine different intelligences - verbal/linguistic, mathematical/logical, musical/rhythmic, visual/spacial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential. A good teacher finds ways to incorporate all of these various types of learning into their lessons throughout the school week. We all self assessed in terms of these 9 multiple intelligences using a questionarre one can find online rather easily. 

We were split into groups yesterday to come up with a 20 minute group lesson on anything to teach to our class utilizing the 5-step lesson planning process we learned. All 6 of our groups did a great job of incorporating these different intelligences. My group decided to share a lesson on how to use a lavalava, which is the rectangular piece of fabric. I purchased one the other day - a red one. We had fun with it, and all groups had some fun activities. Oddly enough, we had three lessons on some paper folding techniques.

Finally, after our full day of sessions, I was part of the cooking team for dinner tonight. We had decided on "brinner" (breakfast-dinner). I was really excited for the fruit salad we put together in addition to scrambling eggs and frying pancakes. Several others were very excited to see a fruit salad finally in addition to the breakfast favorites including bacon and sausage. I enjoyed my two pancakes, scrambled eggs, and scoop of fruit :-)

After some clean up, I did a little workout by myself. Felt good to blow off some calories and sweat it up before I showered and sat down on my computer. I had been doing a little bit, but finally made myself go for a chunk of time again. I love to quote the movie Legally Blonde here. Those who know what I am referring to shall enjoy, and I hope there is a smile on their faces. "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy..."

Manuia le aso! (Have a nice day)