Bonjour!

Today, our Canadian team was invited to the local radio station. Denise, the program director, as well as all four Canadian teachers did an hour long interview where we discussed the project, public education and the content of our sessions. It was a great opportunity to discuss the project and to inform the people of Montserrat of the collaboration between the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and the Montserrat Union of Teachers.

After our interview, we went to Jack Boy Hill which is an observation point that overlooks the Soufrière Hills volcano. However, because of the low cloud ceiling, we were unable to see the volcano. The second picture below is where the airport was located prior to 1997 eruption. The land next to where the airport was located has actually expanded due the lava flowing in the ocean.

Denise, Audris and our driver, Elvis, joined us on this trip. Denise and Elvis were both here in 1997 and shared many memories from the eruptions. Both Elvis and Denise along with their families had to relocate to a different part of the island. Some extremely powerful stories were shared.

After the visit, we headed to a local coffee house that contains many pictures and artifacts of Montserrat through the years. The owner of the coffee house gave us a visit of the coffee house and shared historical facts with our team.

At the end of the evening, the planning team met for a meal prepared by the Canadian teachers!

À plus tard!

Greetings from Montserrat!

Today, I woke up with Uganda on my mind. Two years ago to the day, we began our planning in Kampala preparing for our sessions. I am so grateful to all of my Canadian team members and Ugandan team for making this an unforgettable journey.

In Montserrat, we continued our collaborative planning. We spent the morning together as a planning team firming up scheduling details, learning more about the Montserrat education system and ensuring that we are in agreement on common terminology that we will be using during our sessions.

In the afternoon, we broke out into our session groups to continue our collaborative planning with our Montserrat Union of Teachers co-tutors. I left the planning session feeling comfortable and excited to begin leading my session on Monday.

Today feels like the end of the first leg of our project as we met in Ottawa exactly one week ago. The planning phase that began last February is now over and we are now ready to greet our participants. I truly can’t wait!

Over the weekend, my team and I will spend some time exploring some of sites on the island as well as ensuring that all the necessary preparations are completed.

I look forward to showing you more of the treasures of Montserrat over the weekend. Bonne fin de semaine!

Today, my fellow CTF colleagues and I went to a local school where we continued preparing our sessions with our co-tutors from Montserrat.

The planning team finalized scheduling details and further developed our program. Our co-tutors are local education experts and assist us in determining how best to meet the needs of our participants. This served as our first opportunity to get to know our co-tutors in person and ensure that we are ready to begin our program delivery on Monday.

Tomorrow is our final preparation day with our co-tutors. A full day of finalizing course materials. Teacher participants have been offered to take courses in the areas of Assessment, Literacy, Numeracy and Instructional Technology. My co-tutor and I will offer the course on Instructional Technology. Participants that have signed up for this course will spend all of next week with my colleague and I. Participants will then take a second course during the following week. A variety of other sessions on Classroom Management, Gender sensitisation, Unionism as well as a Cultural Exchange will also be offered.

I am looking forward to our final planning day.

Je vous redonne des nouvelles demain. Aurevoir!

Greetings from Montserrat!

Montserrat is a beautiful British overseas territory that lies between Antigua and Guadeloupe. It is located southeast of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Parts of Montserrat were decimated by volcanic eruptions in 1997. The capital of Montserrat, Plymouth, now sits under ash and all of the services have been moved on the northern part of the island. Prior to small eruptions in 1995, the volcano had been dormant for over 300 years. The population of Montserrat stood at about 11,000 before the volcanic activity. Since, only about half of the population has elected to return. The other Montserratians have elected to remain in the United Kingdom or on neighbouring islands.

After today’s arrival (July 10th), we immediately began our visits. We had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the project at the Education Ministry Headquarters.

Following this conversation, we headed to the Look Out Primary School where our team got to meet with several of the teachers that will be attending our sessions as well as with tutors who will help facilitate these sessions. As school is in session until this Friday, we got to engage with students during our visit.

All while enjoying the incredible views visible from anywhere on the island…

Tomorrow and Friday, my team members and I will be working with our co-tutors. We begin sessions with participants on Monday. Lots of excitement ahead! À demain!

From July 5th-July 9th, all 59 Canadian teachers that are participating in Project Overseas met in Ottawa to continue their team building and attend training sessions offered by CTF. While teams have been meeting via video conference since February, most participants had yet to meet their team members in person.

After a few days of sessions and team building, our team embarks on a journey that brought us from Ottawa to Toronto, Toronto to Bridgetown, Barbados, Barbados to Antigua and finally Antigua to Montserrat!

Our team at 3:30 am in Ottawa (ready and excited!)

Our journey took us through 4 different airports and the final flight was quite memorable. A 6 passenger plane for a 20 minute flight from Antigua to Montserrat! Tired but so excited!

Spectacular views from inside the plane:

After a near 30 hour traveling adventure, my team and I are finally here and ready to begin our work with the Montserrat Union of Teachers (MUT).

Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

From July 5th-July 26th, I will be participating in the Canadian Teachers’ Federation’s (CTF) Project Overseas assignments. I will join 58 other Canadian teachers who will be heading to various African and Caribbean countries.

My team and I are departing Ottawa on July 9th with Montserrat as our destination. Montserrat is a small British island in the Caribbean. You can find out more about Montserrat here: http://www.visitmontserrat.com/discover/

I wish to thank the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) for making this project possible. To my fellow teacher colleagues in Alberta, I encourage you to be on the lookout for the Project Overseas application which will be available on the ATA website in the fall. My international teaching experiences in Kenya, Spain, Uganda and now Montserrat have forever helped shape me professionally and personally.

As I get ready to embark on this incredible journey, here are pictures from two of my other international teaching experiences:

Kenya 2015

Uganda 2017