Leh/Ladakh District Schools

During Spring break this April, we did a two day workshop for 44 teachers from 21 schools in the Leh/Ladakh area.

Tsetan Angchuk with his mother at the family house in Nimoo. Thanks to Tsetan we got to begin this exchange. We look forward to many more meetings!

After arriving in Leh and meeting with Tsetan Angchuk, we spent more time fine tuning what we would present at the workshop.

It was too cold for Anna and Catherine and we went to buy mittens and hats to keep them warmer. Of course the shop was not warm. In the background Amari Taylor was helping a young guy find his way back to his guest house after he lost his group.

The road to Nimoo on the morning of the workshop after the evening snowfall.

We arrived in Nimoo to meet and greet 44 teachers from 21 different schools.

The 1st day workshops focused on brain research, how people learn best, and ways to plan to include a variety of activities in an interdisciplinary unit. Later we had teachers work in smaller groups to identify problems they encountered in their specific situations.

Richard and Catherine were working with elementary teachers while Anna and I worked with MS and HS teachers

Lunch was a short walk down the road in the “downtown” part of Nimoo. We ate at a local restaurant and talked with teachers and local police.

Afternoon on the first day Michael and Anna working with small groups to identify problems and select a unit or area the teachers would use to focus work in the final session of the second day.

White boards and charts were almost as high tech as we could get not counting the use of cameras.

The elementary teachers were taking notes at their session. You can see the collection of handouts they began to accumulate.

Day two we started off with mini lessons focused on the theme of exploring the Heart. Richard worked on a lesson that combined science and Math.

The beginning chart for the science and math lesson shows the starting point.

Teachers paired up and began a series of heart beat measuring activities.

The Middle School principal from TCV in Leh was one of the workshop participants.

Teachers were excited and a bit nervous about the partner work.

Here teachers pair up to use tape measures to get the height of their partners.

Tea break was a time to get back together and have some time to talk informally.

Teachers from the same school got together to pow wow about what had happened so far.

Catherine and Anna worked on a lesson that combined language acquisition and concrete poetry.

Anna took teachers on a step by step journey to writing their own poems.

Participants were focused on the ideas. On the far right in this photo, Tsetan Angchuk, the RRO (Regional Resource Officer) for the Leh/Ladakh district, also took notes.

The final sessions on day two had participants back in their small groups thinking about and working on planning ideas for a lesson that could incorporate some of the new ideas they encountered.

Here we go using that high tech approach again as we record ideas from the group.

We reconvened at the end of the day to gather ideas from the whole group.

At the closing, we gathered to exchange khata and AES gifts. Tsetan gives Michael a khata and a hug.

Michael adjusts the AES baseball cap to fit Tsetan.

Anna is given a khata at the closing ceremony.

Catherine is given a khata by the principal of the Nimoo school

Richard is given a khata and the AES banner is among the presents given in return.

Catherine, Richard, Tsetan, Michael, and Anna at the end of the closing.

This was the best of the whole group shot in the front of the volleyball pitch at Nimoo School.