Week 6: Synoptic Charts a work of art

My classmates and I were quite grateful to welcome Mrs. Carol Subrath-Ali, the Senior Meteorologist at Trinidad and Tobago's Meteorologist Office in this week's class. Mrs. Subrath-Ali is an expert in the field of Meteorology due to the qualifications she possesses and years of experience she has gained at the Meteorological Office. Therefore, it was appropriate that she came to our class and assisted in helping us draw and interpret synoptic weather charts. 

I think it was a great idea to invite an expert in the field to engage us in the activities because of the first hand experience that person possesses. Therefore, in the event that I have to teach a particular topic where there are experts who is qualified and experienced, I will try to request them to my class to assist in delivering the lesson to make it more meaningful for my students, and to enhance the teaching/learning experience. In the same way that we needed assistance from Mrs. Subrath-Ali to help us use synoptic charts to forecast changes in weather with the movement of weather systems through the Caribbean region, whenever I am required to teach a particular topic for example, Natural Hazards and Natural Disasters, I may want to invite an expert from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management to share his/her experiences about the topic and brief the students about disaster preparedness. 

At the beginning of the class Mrs. Subrath-Ali did a review of the concepts that we . During the activity I felt a bit lost because I did not do any prior reading. However, if I had payed attention when she was . As I reflect back to that moment I've realized how important it is to pay attention and get some reading done before each class so I will not feel as lost and confused as I did at the beginning of this week's class. During the weeks that I will be out on my field teaching and even when I enter the teaching service, I think that it will be my responsibility to encourage my students to read in advance in order to enhance the teaching/learning experience. Additionally, I think that it will also be essential to stress on the importance of paying attention.

Apart for that, I was so proud of myself after plotting and analyzing the synoptic charts.

I appreciated the fact that Mrs. Subrath-Ali took the time to walk around to each individual in the class and gave assistance where necessary. This is a technique that I may want to adopt when teaching because I will want to ensure that each student gets the assistance and guidance that they need in order to effectively complete and learn something while engaging in the activity. Additionally, during this week's class, I was able to gain a better understanding of the way in which meteorologists interpret data collected from the radiosondes released on a daily basis. 

At the end of the class, Mrs. Subrath-Ali did not hesitate to give us her office number because she indicated that she is willing to work with us and assist in any way she possibly can in the near or distant future. This immediately gave me an idea when I have to teach the topic weather and climate at the CSEC level. In the event that I have to teach this topic I would love to organize a field trip for my students to the Meteorological Office for them to view the weather instruments in which they use  at the office and organize a brief lecture session with any of the qualified Meteorologist's at the office. 

Ultimately, this was a great class session and I was able to better understand and interpret synoptic weather charts. As a result I am now capable of delivering a lesson with confidence based on that topic in the future.