“A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” - Brad Henry

This year we had a staggered start to our Summer Enrichment Program. We are excited to function at full force this week and look forward to seeing awesome growth in our students this summer! Don't forget to check out this space for Summer Learning Tips!

Whether you call it ‘The Summer Slide’ or ‘Summer Brain Drain,’ we know that when our children take 2 months off school, we risk some learning loss. Spending just 15 minutes daily and being intentional about highlighting the learning around them can reduce the likelihood of learning loss tremendously!

As you plan what your summer learning will look like, don’t forget to include math! It’s not uncommon to have more learning loss in math than it is in literacy. We certainly hear about bedtime reading routines more often than bedtime math routines!

The summertime is a great time to improve math skill, confidence, and success. These three concepts are strongly linked. As a child begins to improve their skill in math, they start to feel more confident. This increased confidence will bring more success, and the success then drives the desire to learn more skill and gain more confidence and so on. It is a beautiful cycle to see.
Math curriculums can move quickly during the academic year, and reviewing concepts already learned or getting a sneak peek at concepts to come allow your children to enter the new math year with greater confidence and ease.
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Here are my top 5 tips to remember about Summer Math Learning.

1. Math is everywhere. Look for opportunities to highlight math in your environment. Numbers are everywhere. Point them out and look for opportunities to find patterns, such as even number on one side of the street and odd on the other. Cooking provides a great opportunity to gain a deeper and real life understanding of topics such as capacity and fractions.
2. Play games. Puzzles, blocks, and board games all have their part to play in math learning. Whether counting, strategizing, categorizing, or following patterns, games provide a fun way for children to expand their special knowledge, their computation skills, their reasoning skills, and more. Ex. Monopoly, Yahtzee, Battleship, Dominoes etc.
3. Understand and Use Money. Understanding and using money is an essential skill. Deciding what to purchase on a menu with a specific budget or making decisions in the grocery store based on cost per quantity are two activities that make math come alive.
4. Develop an Awareness of Numbers. Look for things to count and to estimate. This is especially important with your little ones. Try discussing how many steps you think it is from your house to your car. Check your estimation by counting the number of steps.
5. Research. It’s important to remember that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. A quick google search of ‘summer math fun,’ or ‘summer math activities,’ will provide you with tons of activities, everyday math ideas, virtual resources and printable. You can also refine your search by including your child’s grade level.

In conclusion, it’s helpful to think of the time you spend on math as ‘priming the math brain.’ Math is easier when the brain is ready for it. Look for opportunities throughout the summer to increase math readiness, regardless of age or grade level.
 

​Exams and tests are done, and our children are just about ready to pack away their supplies until next year. Or… in the case of many of us, the supplies have been so ‘well used,’ that we are beginning to think of our ‘back to school budget!’

Summer is a great time for our children to relax, but it is also a time where we can have learning loss, escalated behavioral challenges and other things most parents would like to avoid. Stepping into summer with intention can help create stability, lower learning loss and of course, ensure you have fun!

What do you want the summer holidays to look like for your children? This goes beyond camp registrations, or flight bookings, and gets to a deeper level of what do you want your child to accomplish daily.

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some summer learning tips, but for today, I thought I’d get you going on my top 5 Summer Tips.

1. Play! Your children have been longing for time to play and relax. Structured activities are great, but also remember to allow your children unstructured play time to explore.
2. Read. Whether you are reading to them, or they are at the stage that they are reading independently, make reading part of your daily routine.
3. Visit. Whether visiting family members, a new beach, or other countries, look for opportunities to explore and create new experiences.
4. Talk. Look for opportunities to have conversation. Whether your child is a toddler or a teenager, conversation expands vocabulary and expands the mind.
5. Create. There are lot of mediums that your children can use to create. Paper and crayons are an easily accessible one, but don’t forget about blocks, logo, playdough, paint, glue, scissors, and trash to treasure items like shoe boxes, egg cartons and fancy packaging. The summer is a great time to allow them to get lost in their creations.

Stay tuned for more!

I absolutely love working with small groups. It gives us an opportunity to dive deep into discussions on the topic area. Earlier this week we met with 3 team members from the Turks Head Brewery, and we discussed Customer Service.  We focused on the following:

• Who We Are and What We Do
  
• Establishing Your Attitude
  
• Understanding the Customer's Needs and Situation
  
• Dealing with Recovering Difficult Customers
  

We look forward to working with them again very soon!

Last week I finished off the week with the Health Professionals Authority. They reminded me of important it is to get in alignment when problem solving. Often when problems occur, it is tempting to jump right into solving them. It's important to take the time to know and understand the challenges and its intricacies and assure all team members are on the same page. This same page doesn't just include what the problem is, but what the solutions will look like. This is alignment. 

On Friday, June 23 we were happy to support Mrs. Melisha Williams on her grand opening of Oasis ABA Consultancy. Oasis ABA consultancy will provide specialized therapy services for children and young adults with learning and behavioral challenges. It will also provide parent training and support for many families in the islands. Congratulations Mrs. Williams on this enormous achievement. We wish you all the success with your future endeavors.

Connect with Oasis ABA Consultancy at 649 343 5534   or oasisabatci@gmail.com

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Executive Leadership teams is quickly becoming one of our most requested workshops for management teams. DEI is a topic that can no longer be ignored. Diversity is a fact in our society, and if it is not managed, it can great a great deal of complexities. Complexities challenge our ability to have an inclusive environment, which effects how employees feel, there sense of belonging within an organization and as a result, there productivity.

Yesterday, we continued with the Royal Turks and Caicos Police force as we make our way through DEI training with their management teams.

On Friday I had the pleasure of spending the day with the Invest Turks and Caicos team. Our Collective Success for Teams, is a great way for staff to spend a day together to define or recommit to their collective success.

Successful teams are like a rowing team. Each member of a rowing team has the responsibility of ensuring they are ready physically and mentally for the task. When they then climb into their boat, the focus is put on their goal. To achieve this goal, they need to be in sync. Without unity, they don't have a chance! It's the unity that powers the strength and speed.

Just like in rowing, with our professional teams, each individual has to know and do their part to add to the team dynamic to chart the pathway to success. Congrats to Invest TCI on a productive and fun day!

As a trainer, I have the pleasure of working with teams in many different fields. When I train educators, it feels like "going home."

Yesterday, I jumped on the Ferry and headed over to spend the morning in North Caicos with the teachers at Adelaide Oemler Primary. Often teacher training sessions are not done as the school year is about to close out, but Alignment for Educators is an important one, regardless of the time of year. Alignment for Educators focuses on guiding participants to have clarity on their intentions and aligning their mindsets and actions to achieve these intentions. 

On Thursday I had the pleasure of working with the Health Professions Authority. Often, when teams are small, we question whether it's still necessary to conduct team building exercises. My answer...YES! Regardless of how bit of small, it's there are a host of benefits to being intentional about the team dynamic that you build.

HPA participated in Building Our Team Dynamic. This workshop reminds us that it is not enough to put a group of individuals together in the same department and call them a team. A team dynamic is built through an intentional effort by all members of the team.

This week we finished up a 12-session program with a group of eager employees at Grace Bay Club We had so much fun working with them and were constantly amazed by their enthusiasm, effort and gratitude!

Our overall aim over the 12 sessions was to provide these employees with the instruction and support needed to improve their language skills in a way that will positively impact their performance in the workplace. We focused on empowering each employee to become more competent in their understanding, reading, listening, speaking and writing of the English language.

Program Objectives are as follows:

• Improve listening and spoken vocabulary.
• Improve oral comprehension skills.
• Improve spoken grammar skills.
• Improve conversational English.
• Answer questions appropriately.
• Ask clarifying questions.
• Complete everyday reading and writing tasks.

​Congratulations Grace Bay Club!

Yesterday we finished up with our second group of participants from the TCI Sports. Commission. 'Thrive' is a small group coaching program that was created to provide organizations with the opportunity to support their staff in improving the essential soft skills needed to be a success in the business environment.

I had just as much fun with this group as I did with the first, as we dove deep into the idea of mindset and the level of professionalism required to 'thrive' in diverse fast paced workspaces. 

'Thrive' is a small program that I created a few months ago geared towards providing junior employees with the opportunity to improve the essential soft skills needed to be a success in the business environment.

I have had the pleasure of working with two groups of employees from the TCI Sports Commission. The first group finished up last Thursday. We had such fun and learning as we dove deep into the idea of mindset and the level of professionalism required to 'thrive' in diverse fast paced workspaces. 

Last week, Mrs. Guilmise had the pleasure of joining a group of teachers from the Department of Education in Grand Turk to be trained on 'The Brain Power Classroom,' a program that focuses on building mindfulness, focus and emotional wellness in students. They spent time being trained by facilitators from New York, and then had the opportunity to try out the strategies and techniques that they learned with students at Ona Glinton Primary School and Eliza Simons Primary.

Learn and Lead looks forward to supporting schools as they embark on a journey to improve the daily wellness of their students. 

We are very excited to add a new coaching program to our repertoire. We are often asked whether we provide support for mature students returning to higher education and in need of writing support. This program, created and coached by Ms. Tatiana Handfield, is perfect for individuals entering higher education and wanting to improve their academic writing skills.  

Program Description: Crafting an essay can be a daunting task for even the most experienced writer. That's why we created a 6-part series for mature students that simplifies the process. Our series takes you step-by-step through the entire process, from brainstorming to proofreading and everything in between. Our comprehensive approach to essay writing is designed to help you develop your skills and become a better writer. With our series, you'll be able to craft well-written essays in no time!

Visit our Summer 2023 page for program description and registration!

As we are knocking on June’s door, many of our students are starting to prepare for their end of term exams. A common complaint that I get is that ‘my child doesn’t know how to study.’ If you are in this boat, not to worry, I have some tips the twill help.

Firstly, it’s important to remember that studying is a skill that can be taught. When our kids are not given instruction on how to study, they often just look over their pages endlessly with without a goal in mind. For studying success, we want them to have study strategies that can help them improve.
Start by looking at the subject areas that your child needs to study. In areas where there are example problems or papers that can be used, guide them through the practice questions that can be completed. Plan with them as to how many review questions they should get done within a certain period.

In subjects that require memorization of definitions and facts, it may be helpful to make some flash cards. Put the term on one side, and the definition or important facts on the other side. Teach your child how to go through the stack of terms and say the definition or facts orally before checking the answer on the back of the page.

When there is a lot of reading involved, suggest that they look at the headings of each section and turn the headings into questions. For examples, if the heading of a section is, “Natural Resources within the Turks and Caicos Islands,” guide them into turning this title into a study questions – “What are the natural resources found in the Turks and Caicos Islands?” Writing the questions, they make in a notebook or on flash cards provides a great way for them to review content.
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In addition to the three strategies provided above, here are some important tips to keep central when supporting your child through exam season.

1. Organize for Studying Success – Decide where studying is going to take place. Ensure that the space is free of distractions during study time and has all the tools needed.
2. Plan a Study Schedule – When there are several subjects that need to be reviewed it can become overwhelming and students may need support managing their time. Look at their exam timetable, discuss with them which subjects may need more of their time, and draft a schedule for which subjects they will study when and for how long. See this schedule as a starting point and adjust as necessary.
3. Set Study Goals – Help your child decide how much content they need to get through in each study session or if there are any concept they want to master. This will help them to focus on the task at hand.
4. Consider their Learning Style – We all have our learning preferences. If your child is a strong visual learning, provide them with a whiteboard and markers to make things visual as they study. If they have a strong musical style, allow them to listen to instrumental music as they study. Learning styles inventories can be found online to help your child determine their areas of strengthen.
5. Encourage Intervals – It’s easy to expect longer study periods the closer that students get to exams. Remember that the brain needs time to rest, and focus can increase after breaks. Encourage your child to study hard, and to enjoy their breaks. 

Today I had the pleasure of working with the Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force. The Acting Commissioner of Police and team members took a deep dive into the topic of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is an essential topic to explore for today's management teams. We focused on the following areas:

• Creating a Mindset for Inclusive Leadership
  
• DEI Terminology
  
• Stereotypes, Bias and Microaggressions
  
• Generational Gaps
  
• Creating a Culture of Inclusion.  

It was an absolute pleasure working with this team, and I look forward to continuing this work with The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

Last night it was a pleasure to join the Rotary Club of Providenciales  to discuss Mental Wellness for Mental Health Awareness Month. In our time together we look at mental health, stress management and work-life integration. 

Rotarians and their guests were encouraged to spend the time learning about mental health, gaining strategies for stress prevention and stress management, and evaluate their work life balance. Our closing activity encouraged them participants to evaluate where they are in 8 domains of their life and make a plan for where they would like to be in order to achieve their own 'work-life' balance. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with the Executive Management Team of the Financial Services Department. This was the final session in a series of team building sessions undertaken by the FSC. Soft Skills training is essential to the success of today's workplace. Participants enjoyed working together to explore understanding paradigms and managing team development, emotion intelligence, interpersonal skills, and creating synergy.

All the best to team FSC! It has been a pleasure working with you!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health refers to our feelings, our emotions our thinking and our moods. As parents it’s important to understand that mental health is not simply the absence of a mental disorder, but that it is a state of well-being. A healthy parent-child relationship has a great impact on a child’s mental health, so firstly, always look for opportunities to develop and maintain a strong relationship with your child and presence in their lives. You are likely their most consistent role model.

According to the CDC, “Being mentally healthy during childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems. Mentally healthy children have a positive quality of life and can function well at home, in school, and in their communities.”

Children, all over the world, have been through a lot in the last few years. Many of them have had to cope with great change, great loss, and had to make many shifts. With this, many emotions have come, and it’s important that we give our children a safe space to feel these emotions and to work through them.

A mentally healthy child doesn’t mean that they will always be happy. With the increase is social media, it’s important to highlight to our children you can’t tell what someone feels like by what they share online. Children gain the mistaken belief that if they aren’t always feeling positive emotions, that something is wrong with them. Take the opportunity to explain to them that just like physical health, we all have mental health. Feeling angry, stressed and down is part of life, just like it’s normal to feel happy, confident, excited, and care-free. Good mental health is about experiencing both types of feelings.

Here are my top 5 tips to help navigate mental health with your children.

1. Encourage Connections – Look for ways to connect and provide a listening ear for your children. Leave out the shame, pressure, and judgement, and focus on being present.
2. Provide Opportunity for Physical Activity – Encourage being active. Whether it is playing organized sports, basketball in the driveway, going for a walk, or having a dance party in the kitchen, look for ways to exercise daily.
3. Practice Mindfulness – Guide them in becoming aware in the present moment. This can be simply slowing down for a moment of awareness in nature, of gratitude, or taking a breath. Look for ways to help them focus on the present moment, rather than the past, or potential future.
4. Always be Learning – Although our children are always learning in school, look for ways to expand their learning at home. Whether it’s with you in the kitchen, or a video on YouTube, we live in a time that allows for continuous access to information.
5. Build Resilience – Resilience is the bounce back skill. The thing about resilience, is that it’s not something we build in in difficult times, but rather we draw on. Therefore, look for ways to help your child build their resilience daily, so when they need it, it’s there for them to draw on it.
6. Break the Stigma – Our culture sometimes creates an environment of shame around the topic of mental health. Be intentional about emphasizing that we all have mental health just like we have physical health. 

For Age specific recommendations on supporting Mental Health and Welbing of your children, visit UNICEF parents.

inOn Friday I met with the management team of Invest Turks and Caicos to explore 'The Emotional Intelligent Leader.' Today's leaders must have an understanding of how their emotions and actions affect the people around them. A leader's success is strongly linked to the way they relate and work with others. Emotionally intelligent leaders take the time to work on their self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. 

In addition to your EQ strengthening the way you coach your team members, manage stress, deliver feedback and collaborate with others, it also facilities you meeting your team members where they are and helping them reach their potential. These key elements are all essential for the collective success within an organization. 

Yesterday I spent some time at Fortis TCI speaking about Stress Management and Work Life Balance in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month. We spoke about stressors, practical ways for monitoring and managing stress, and preventative measures. When it came to work life balance, we discussed whether this was possible. The consensus seemed to be that we had to first define what balance looks like for us. Participants completed a short activity that helped them highlight their priorities in this season in their life and what balance could look like for them.