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CORAL HARBOUR
Lisom TamEveleigh spent two weeks conducting workshops with teachers of St. Vincent and the surrounding islands, in the Caribbean

Lisom TamEveleigh of Coral Harbour during a workshop in St. Vincent and the Grenadines this past summer. - photo courtesy of Lisom TamEveleigh

TamEveleigh was one of two Project Overseas candidates from Nunavut when she received the news she had been selected as part of a fivemember team to travel to the Grenadines.

The Canadian Teachers Federation selects and places the project candidates. TamEveleigh by teachers from Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the NWT to make her team.

Project Overseas is a joint endeavour of the Canadian Teachers' Federation, its participating member organizations and many of its overseas partner organizations.

Although its primary focus is teacher professional development, the main goal is improved teaching and learning for students around the world.

More than 1,900 Canadian teachers have been involved with Project Overseas since it began in 1962.

This year, Project Overseas had volunteers on 52 teams sharing their knowledge around the world.

TamEveleigh said, as a team member she had to choose which workshop she wanted to teach from among computers, special education, earlychildhood reading, math and principal training.

She said members then had to set up a teaching schedule and agree with their cofacilitator on when the sessions should take place.

"We were paired with a cofacilitator from St. Vincent and we taught the workshops together," said Tam-Eveleigh.

"I was paired with Shirley Lewis, who is the math consultant from their Ministry of Education.

"The workshops included math manipulatives, math year plans and unit plans, math vocabulary, math and art, fractions and fraction tables and strategies to deal with multiplication."

TamEveleigh's visit marked the first time there was a computer lab in St. Vincent.

The teachers were given four lab sessions for work with spreadsheets, word processing, exploring Internet websites and math rubrics.

Tam-Eveleigh said every student from kindergarten to Grade 6 was given a laptop this past year to do their work, and to conduct

research on the Internet.

"The teachers have classes with up to 50 students and they have math exams in Grade 2, Grade 4 and Grade 6.

"They held opening and closing ceremonies for the workshops, and had a Canada Day during our stay, and I got to teach the students jigging to the Red River Jig.

"I enjoyed the weather and the fresh fruits available everyday, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to participate in teacher training in another country.

"But now that I'm back in Nunavut, I'm thankful for all the resources and tools we have to work with."

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