End of Term and getting ready for Christmas

Sandya Singh and her beautiful children at Diwali

 

 

 

 

Diwali dinner with the Davis' and Kala Singh and her family...yummy

 

Litia Bale...one of the lovely people we work with at the college after graduation...tired lady!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Proud Principal Solomone and his wife graduating daughter...

 

 

 

Teachers and students celebrating at Prom...

 

 

Some serious fun was being had by all!!!

 

 

Christmas staff dinner with the Primary and College

 

 

Tima and Ernest Vitinavulagi and their matching Christmas outfits...cute!!!

 

 

Sweet family of Joyce and Jiare at the baptism of their 8 year old daughter Ester...

 

Proud member of 7 months Jiare baptizes daughter Ester...Lovely moment!

 

 

 

 

Suva seawall sunset...we are very blessed!

 

 

 

 



Making fish lolo!

This was me squeezing the milk out of grated coconut for fish lolo ( coconut fish). A labour intensive activity but well worth the effort!

 

Beginning the Third Term at LDS College and Primary School

After finishing a course on Classroom Assessment with some of these wonderful teachers at the LDS College...I wanted to treat them with lunch. I asked a few people to show me how to make a dish called lolo fish. It is basically coconut milk fish. This included getting 6 coconuts grated and then squeezing by hand the cream first and then the milk out of the shredded coconut. I got wahoo,  yummy fish steaks at the market and combined them with onion and garlic and ginger and a green  spinach-like vegie called bele. Served it all with casava which is a pototo-like vegie. It was delicious and I felt very proud of my accomplishment. They ate it all up!

The Primary School Implemented a New Positive Behaviour Support Model

We had been teaching a course in the Primary school on Special Education in the General Classroom. Part of one unit was about Positive Behaviour Support which is a program used widely in the US to help teachers focus on positive behaviour and rewards in the classroom. It has had great success in changing the enviroment of schools and increasing scholastic outcomes. The schools here decided they would like to implent this program but we wanted to have an LDS focus. We waited a few weeks and it turned out that the church had an Area meeting of all the church schools in the South Pacific and what did they teach but a model of positive behaviour support for LDS schools. It was fairly amazing to us and we felt the Lord's hand in this. It is all laid out for us with implementation strategies. Because we had been working on the concepts for several months the Primary School was able to move quickly and implement it the first day of term. The following pictures are of the 6 B's as they are called. Be Grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble and be prayerful. These are broken down into behavioural components for each area of the school ( ie. like library, classroom, bathrooms, cafeteria etc) They have had a wonderful week and the children are excited with this new positive focus and the rewards that come with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Three day break from school and first trip round the Island

This was our first stop on our round the island trip. LeRoy has a new totem buddy.

 

The Singatoka River area. We stopped here to visit some young missionaries. They live on top of a hill over looking the town and with a view of this Hindu Temple.



 

 

LeRoy had to have his picture taken with this sign...seriously!

 

 

We went on our trip with Elder and Sister Whiting...one of his goals was to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Denerau...it was pretty good!

 

 

These are our wonderful neighbours and fellow missionaries the Whitings...we are really blessed to live by such wonderful people.

 

 

These wondeful Bula Boy did fire dancing and were amazing entertainers.

 

 

This is one of a gazillion pictures I took of this sunset...this one won out.

 

 

This was our first view of Beachcomber Island. The water was truly this blue and so warm.

 

 

These wonderful south sea musicians were the first to greet us!

 

 

I couldn't wait to get out and snorkel. They took us out to the reef and allowed us to wander around. It was beautiful and we saw all kinds of beautiful fish and coral. Can't get enough of this!

 

 

This looked like an egret...not sure but he allowed me to get really close to take his pic.

 

 

Had to get a shot of this...they're everywhere...

 

 

 

These fruit bats are huge...they were nesting in this mango tree...mangos are ripe and yummy on this side of the island.

 

This is the north east side of the island and more like a rain forest. Fiji is a really diverse place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Story — 18 July 2012

Elevating Education for South Pacific Youth

Auckland, New Zealand —

The International Teacher Education Program (ITEP) was organized in 1997 to assist and encourage teachers working in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ school system to improve their teaching skills.
The primary goal of the program is to elevate the quality of education provided to students in the South Pacific.

A Latter-day Saint school teacher reads to some of her students.

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A Latter-day Saint school teacher reads to some of her students.© 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

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ITEP is unique as the faculty comprises retired educators, school administrators and university professors who volunteer as missionaries for an 18-23 month assignment.
Currently, there are 10 ITEP couples living on site and working with teachers at 15 Church schools located in Kiribati, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Their primary responsibility is to help teachers improve their skills by teaching university courses and helping them qualify for advanced degrees and teaching certificates.
The couples are supervised by Elder Steve Ronnenkamp and Sister Janis Ronnenkamp, based in the Pacific Area Office in Auckland, New Zealand. Elder Ronnenkamp, a retired school administrator from the USA, says, “The purpose of Church schools is to assist the youth to reach their earthly and eternal purposes and to help them progress spiritually, physically, emotionally, academically and socially.”
He continues, “We are grateful for the outstanding work our ITEP missionaries are accomplishing, in improving the teaching and learning in the Church schools.”
Education is a key goal for Church members in the South Pacific and worldwide. Elder James J. Hamula, Pacific Area President of the Church has said, “Our goal is that every youth [and] young adult in the Pacific Area finish high school and then pursue either vocational or tertiary schooling.”
He goes on to say, “The rising generation in the South Pacific need to be educated.”
ITEP is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and operates under the direction of the Pacific Area Seminaries and Institutes of Education in partnership with the Dean of the College of Human Development at Brigham Young University – Hawaii.

Style Guide Note: When reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please use the complete name of the Church in the first reference. For more information on the use of the name of the Church, go to our online style guide.

HI folks have been asking what it is we do here. There was an article in the Church News recently about the ITEP progam so I will try to post it. It is not very romantic really. We teach education courses to local teachers to help them upgrade their teaching credentials. We are teaching two courses at the moment. One is a Special Education course for teachers in the general classroom. It is to help teachers deal with children with special needs but basically to teach good teaching skills that if applied help all children to learn effectively. One element of the course focuses on Positive Behaviour Support. I am really enjoying researching this end of the course and trying to help the teachers implement these practices in their classrooms. It focuses on the good children do instead of the bad and has had some amazing success. The other course we are teaching is Classroom Assessment and Measurement. It helps teachers to develop better methods of testing in order to determine the areas where improvement is needed in teaching and what to focus on in order to help children be successful. That is more LeRoy forte and I just mostly observe. Anyway...hope I can download this article...

The Pearl at Pacific Harbour and the other face of Fiji

Today we went again to The Pearl. This time we swam in the ocean and in their pool. We were there for only the morning and then for lunch. It is a beautiful resort and the water was wonderful. A new couple arrived called the Tennis' and we are showing them the sights like we were shown around a month and a half ago...time flies!

Here we are at the President's residence with one of his guards...spiffy sulu!!!

This is the Primary School where we teach a course in Special Education. Wish I could show you pics of the beautiful children but that would violate privacy laws...

This is Elder and Sister Ronnenkamp our wonderful supervisors from Auckland...they are heading home soon and were honored for their service with these beautiful leis.

This is the view from the boardwalk along the ocean in Suva...a nice Sunday stroll...

Last Saturday in Pacific Beach

Today we went on a Senior's adventure to Pacific Harbour to a resort called 'The Pearl'...we had lunch there and walked on the beach and then it poured rain...I think I would have gone swimming but these people have been here for several months and thought it was too cold...ah well there will be other times.