Photo a day - January

I have signed up for an interesting photo-a-day project for 2013 through the Fat Mum Slim website. For each day of the year, participants take a photo of a certain topic and share with each other through the closed facebook group FMS photo a day.

In this way an interesting dialogue has begun between people from all over the world - enjoying, sharing, commenting and inspiring each other. It has been a lot of fun to think about the image for each day, and Xavier in particular has enjoyed helping with the challenge. He likes to be a day ahead and remind me what photo I need to take the following day.

I decided to share the photos at the end of each month through the year on my blog. The caption under each photo is the topic of the day. Which is your favourite?



January 1st - Today
All our belongings in storage

 January 2nd - New

Four new passports

January 3rd - Heart

Xavier found this heart in a display at Chiang Mai airport

January 4th - View from here
 Wat Doi Sutep - Chiang Mai

 January 5th - Movement
Washing the elephants at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai

January 6th - Mine
Delicious roasted veg salad at Wat Suan Dok

 January 7th - Street
Late afternoon on Ratchadamnoen Street, Chiang Mai

January 8th - starts with T
Thai cooking class at Sammy's Organic Cooking School

January 9th - Paper
A shop in Chiang Mai selling newspapers, magazines and paper lanterns.

January 10th - One O'Clock
At one o'clock we were on board flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani

January 1th - Water
A perfect topic, our first day at Koh Samui - beach or pool??!!

 January 12th - Surprise
A simple chocolate milk drink was a real surprise for Remy.

January 13th - Circle
 Many circles for Buddha's hair.

January 14th - Yellow
A new yellow scarf to take to Bhutan.

January 15th - An ordinary Moment
Grocery Shopping.

January 16th - Two Things
Xavier and Jarin in their matching t-shirts

January 17th - Ready
Bangkok traffic ready to go!

January 18th - Shadow
Tropical shadows in Lumphini Park

January 19th - Delicious
Banana and Mango Sticky Rice

January 20th - Something I saw
Modern art meets shopping centre at Siam Center, Bangkok.

January 21st - What You Do
Even on holiday I am still cutting out pictures to make school resources!

January 22nd - Corner
This beautiful Bhutanese building at the Paro Airport has an interesting roof line with sharp corners.

 January 23rd - Electric
The most important electical device for us in Thimphu.

January 24th - Stripes
The zebra-crossing sign with a man wearing a gho.

January 25th - Landscape
Looking up to Chagri Monastery.

January 26th - Together
Our BCF 2013 teachers at the Guru Rinpoche rock painting.

January 27th - Sun
An old couple sitting in sun-bathed ClockTower Square, Thimphu, feeding pigeons.

January 28th - Through
Looking through the prayer flags on an old bridge.

 January 29th - Grow

Plants growing in the winter at Jigme Losel LSS in Thimphu.

 

January 30th - Down

Looking down from a traditional Bhutanese home, down through the Thimphu Valley.

 

January 31st - Yourself

BCF teacher Johnathan took this photo of me on the bridge near the Thimphu fruit market.

 

 



The challenge I set for myself for the next month is to try not to have prayer flags in every photo (as picturesque as they are).

Nge gi la lobey in

Nge gi la lobey in - My work is to teach. We started Dzongkha lessons today so I had to use this for the title of today's blog. I want to share some photos of the school we visited yesterday - Jigme Losel Lower Secondary School in Thimphu. Madam Deki and Madam Tara, the two teachers who have been preparing us for teaching in Bhutan invited us to see their award winning school.

Fortunately for us when we arrived the principal was also there to show us around and share her educational vision. It is winter time, so the students are still on holidays for another couple of weeks, and because it is winter the flourishing flower and vegetable gardens we had seen photos of had mostly died off. Nevertheless the school was inviting, colourful and brimming with personality. It is definitely a school that students love to come to everyday, and a place of learning above and beyond the national curriculum.

The school has won awards for its 'feeding program' which provides lunch to 37 needy students. Parents who are able come to the school to cook up large pots of nourishing food for these kids to eat. When the principal won an international award for this program, she took her 30 teaching staff to Bangkok to visit high performing schools there  (including a GNH school) to inspire her staff. During our orientation Madam Tara and Madam Deki both used collaborative learning techniques they'd seen in Bangkok to give us some new ideas for ways to motivate and engage our Bhutanese students.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

In Bhutan, caring for the environment is just one aspect of being a green school.

Inspirational quotes painted by students were 'planted' throughout the gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside each classroom were colourful displays of student work.

 

Some displays had colour photos of the activities that students have been doing.

 

Bob, Remy, Xavier and Sarah check out the displays.

Important messages are prominently displayed on buildings.

We saw many examples of how students use recycled materials for art work and making things around the school.

 A papier mache necklace looks like traditional coral and tiger eye necklaces.

Even in winter, some flowers were blooming: most plants are in reused containers.

The inpirational school Principal enjoyed showing us around her school.

An inspirational quote hanging in the assembly area.

Bob and Xavier in the assembly area.

Visiting this school is a really great example of how being a volunteer teacher here in Bhutan is definitely a two-way learning experience. We have many ideas to share from schools in our home countries, but there is much to learn from inspiring teachers and schools here too. Kadinche-la Jigme Losel LSS!