Day 1 of TCW and Old Chania Town
We began our workshop this morning and have already, in just 3.5 hours learned so many wonderful techniques to ignite the creativity spark in our students. We were given a homework assignment, yes you read that correctly, we will have homework each night of the workshop!
The first of two things for HW today was to interview our partner from an exercise we did during our time together this morning, then be prepared to BE that person as you tell everyone about "yourself" tomorrow. I was teamed up with Caitlin. She is a 6th grade teacher in a private Catholic school in Seattle, Washington. She and I enjoyed lunch together in a cafe on the harbor while we interviewed one another. It should be exciting and interesting to see how this unfolds tomorrow morning.
The second assignment was to photograph 7 doors from around our hotel. Our workshop leader, Dr. Kirpal Singh was not 100% clear on why he asked us to do this assignment. We have a feeling it will be something along the lines of a scavenger hunt.
Dr. Singh is from Singapore and has a wife and three children. He was very interesting to listen to today and brought many interesting tidbits to today's learning.
After the workshop ended, Doreen, Caitlin, and I went to the local Starbucks--haha yes, Starbucks, to meet with Manolis. Manolis is the cousin of a high school friend who I connected with before I came. It turns out, her younger sister is living in Rethymno, about an hour from Chania. We plan to travel there on Friday. Anyway, Anna Maria so graciously connected us with her cousin, a high school teacher here in Crete. He was more than happy to meet with us over a coffee and share stories of teaching along with similarities and differences between the two countries. I was surprised to hear that many things are similar, from the classroom sizes to the length and timing of the school year. Currently, the school year has ended and students are on summer break here, however the teachers remain in the classrooms for the mornings working for about two weeks. Manolis offered to have us come visit his school and meet a few teachers on Friday. We are very excited for that!
We walked around the Old Venetian Harbor and explored the Old Chania Town for the rest of the afternoon and evening. There are many touristy shoppes and cafes that try their hardest to stand out to have you come into their establishments. However, we've met another workshop participant who is staying at an airbnb. The owner of the home has left them a list of the best places to eat and the more local shoppes. It has been so nice exploring. Believe it or not, almost every place we have gone, whether it be a shop or cafe or just really on the street--there have been English speakers.
At 5pm, Doreen met with her partner, Susan. Susan has her own advertising business and lives in Durham, North Carolina. They interviewed one another while sitting in a cafe. There are so many, it will be impossible to sample the food from each in the short time that we are here.
One thing about Chania is that there are stray cats and dogs EVERYWHERE!!! It's actually quite sad to me that they just roam around, however many shoppes have food and water outside for them.
We returned to our hotel absolutely exhausted and decided to have a quick bite to eat for dinner in our hotel restaurant. We sat outside by the pool, it was beautiful.
Here are a few photos from today:
After the workshop ended, Doreen, Caitlin, and I went to the local Starbucks--haha yes, Starbucks, to meet with Manolis. Manolis is the cousin of a high school friend who I connected with before I came. It turns out, her younger sister is living in Rethymno, about an hour from Chania. We plan to travel there on Friday. Anyway, Anna Maria so graciously connected us with her cousin, a high school teacher here in Crete. He was more than happy to meet with us over a coffee and share stories of teaching along with similarities and differences between the two countries. I was surprised to hear that many things are similar, from the classroom sizes to the length and timing of the school year. Currently, the school year has ended and students are on summer break here, however the teachers remain in the classrooms for the mornings working for about two weeks. Manolis offered to have us come visit his school and meet a few teachers on Friday. We are very excited for that!
We walked around the Old Venetian Harbor and explored the Old Chania Town for the rest of the afternoon and evening. There are many touristy shoppes and cafes that try their hardest to stand out to have you come into their establishments. However, we've met another workshop participant who is staying at an airbnb. The owner of the home has left them a list of the best places to eat and the more local shoppes. It has been so nice exploring. Believe it or not, almost every place we have gone, whether it be a shop or cafe or just really on the street--there have been English speakers.
At 5pm, Doreen met with her partner, Susan. Susan has her own advertising business and lives in Durham, North Carolina. They interviewed one another while sitting in a cafe. There are so many, it will be impossible to sample the food from each in the short time that we are here.
One thing about Chania is that there are stray cats and dogs EVERYWHERE!!! It's actually quite sad to me that they just roam around, however many shoppes have food and water outside for them.
We returned to our hotel absolutely exhausted and decided to have a quick bite to eat for dinner in our hotel restaurant. We sat outside by the pool, it was beautiful.
Here are a few photos from today:
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