The enemy is more deceptive than we realize. One serious but subtle deception that always leads to lukewarm Christianity is the allowing of pagan beliefs to inform us in any way about the spiritual realm. Our source of truth is scripture, not paganism. To take and then teach anything from demonic systems founded upon lies is not spiritual intel, it's mixture. Exposing the enemy doesn't mean teaching his lies as the truth, just because pagans teach and believe something doesn't mean it should hold any weight or authority or be implemented along with biblical doctrine. Actually, the Christians who are compromising are the ones who adopt the beliefs of demonic systems. Satanists and those given to witchcraft are deceived into thinking they have more power than they actually do. Yet we revere their assertions as truth. Stop allowing paganism to dictate what you believe. Instead, let the Holy Spirit guide you according to the scripture. The scripture tells us everything we need to know about our enemy and the spiritual realm.


Hi friends welcome back to my channel and welcome if you are new here. It is Friday So, you know what that means? It is not only weigh-in day, but it is WW workshop day It's dark and I'm outside of my workshop. It is 6 26 a.m. My workshop opens at 6 30 and I'll be heading in for another amazing topic and Away in but before I go in I want to discuss my week a little bit with you guys So let's talk about my week the good the bad all the things So my week actually was really really good. I am so happy I made it to Jazzercise Monday Wednesday and yesterday, but I am sore. I Literally worked so hard yesterday at Jazzercise that I am incredibly sore today And now I'm kind of kicking myself for going on a Thursday and hoping that it doesn't negatively affect my weigh-in because Whoo my muscles are sore, but I'm happy that I made it to Jazzercise at least three times And in fact today I am going after my client signs for his home I'm going to be heading to a class at 9 20 this morning and that'll get me four days this week So yay, that's awesome. I'm thrilled and excited to have went for four days My food this week was really really good I was a little bit hungry or and I think that that's not only because of the working out but also because Guess what what always happens to me before weigh-in you guessed it? My friends it is that time that time that I hate every single month So not only coupled with the working out and being extra hungry due to that I did go over my points a couple of days But I had lots of fit points from working out so and I'm talking like three or four points over And maybe a hundred to 120 calories over what I normally would eat on a given day So not enough to affect the scale I wouldn't think and I was legitimately hungry So when I'm legitimately hungry that I'm going to feed my body and what I chose was not a bad choice So I'm happy with that so I am nervous a little bit about the fact that it is my favorite time of the month I'm also nervous a little bit about the fact that I am so incredibly sore But I'm still hoping with all the hard work that I put in this week to still see a loss on the scale So I'm gonna head into my workshop weigh-in and I'll be back to share both what we talked about and this week's weigh-in Welcome back. I am out of my workshop. What a great workshop once again WW hits the nail on the head every single week what we talked about this week is learning about smart points smart points 101 we talked about WW not being a diet, but a lifestyle something that is sustainable and in order to be successful on my WW learning the smart points values of things and how smart points works is Essential so we talked a little bit about what our smart points What do they consist of and as we know they are calories saturated fat sugar and protein and my Leader talked a lot about why those four pieces can prize a smart point which I thought was super interesting So calories in versus calories out is how you lose weight. You have to have a deficit in order to lose weight No matter what else you do you will not lose weight unless you have a calorie deficit So that's why calories are a component of a smart points value and then as far as saturated fat and sugar go Those are a component because those two things lead to diabetes and heart issues So they wanted to make sure that they were comprising a smart point as well And lastly protein keeps you satisfied and full. So that's why you'll see that saturated fat and Sugar increase the smart points value where protein lowers it So I thought that was just a really good reminder or if you're new to WW a Reason why smart points are what smart points are and why everything has a smart points value and then we talked a little bit about Calories versus smart points and how having a smart point is so much easier than having to track calories You just enter a smart point one number versus trying to figure out the calories of things So it's a little bit more sustainable than calorie or macro counting. So super Interesting there are also three tips that WW gives you to kind of learn smart points So number one is pre tracking and it's funny that this was part of the topic because I have been doing a lot of pre Tracking lately. I will put my food together for the day Especially if I'm going to be out and about or even when I worked a regular job in an office I always pre-tracked because then I know exactly where I am come the end of the day for dinner dessert Snacks that type of thing. So pre-tracking is definitely a really good thing, especially if you are planning an indulgence So let's say that on Saturday You're attending a friend's birthday party and you are gonna have a piece of cake because I would be having a piece of cake So you want to know that that's going to cost you 18 smart points Let's say so you want to pre-track that for Friday or Saturday or whenever your birthday party is so that that day you can fill the gaps with zero-point foods And you also know at the beginning of the week or mid-week how many weeklies you have left So pre-tracking is great. It's great when you have an adult indulgence coming up But it's also great just to do on a daily basis Like I said, I will pre-track my breakfast lunch in snacks to know what I have left for dinner and dessert And that way if I get hungry later in the day, which happens a lot when I go to jazzer size I'm really hungry in the afternoon I know exactly how many points are left after my breakfast my lunch and the snacks that I've tracked that I can maybe have that Additional snack if that's what I need to satiate me. So pre-tracking is great I think it helps you stay on track even more and it kind of takes out the excuse of well I'd forgot to track because you've already pre-tracked your foods And I did mention in a couple of weeks ago in a weigh-in video that I'm really good about tracking up until Afternoon or dinner. So by pre-tracking it really helps me have that piece out of the equation And I can just carry on with my day because my food is already pre-tracked So pre-tracking is a definite good thing to think about if you struggle with tracking or if you struggle with Working those indulgences and those favorite foods into your daily eating number two is be mindful of your portion size this is Huge because a lot of us me included are where we are weight-wise because we have terrible portion control So I think weighing and measuring everything is so incredibly important on WW I talk about this in my 20 tips to lose weight. I will link that video down below for you guys I talk a lot about weighing and measuring because that's how you keep your portion sizes and check There's also little tips and tricks that WW has as far as like using your hand like your fist for a portion of protein your thumb for a tablespoon your pinky For a teaspoon things that you can do to keep your portions in check And another thing on the topic of portions is if you go into your WW app You can adjust the portion size of things which then adjust the smart point. So for example Let's say that for lunch. You want to have a serving of pretzels, but you don't want to spend three points on pretzels You want to spend two points on pretzels go ahead and scan or track your pretzels And then adjust the number of pieces or the serving size and it will adjust the smart points And you can see exactly how many of those pretzels you can have to stay within two smart points So the app is absolutely amazing You can adjust portion sizes and adjust a just number of pieces ounces grams all through the app to adjust the portion size to fit Into your day, but make sure whatever portion size you choose is going to satisfy you So you don't end up making poor decisions down the road eat a little bit more take the points if you need it to Feel satisfied and number three is make savvy swaps you guys this I am the queen of savvy swaps I do this all the time So let's say that you are craving spaghetti and you are not going to be happy until you have some spaghetti Instead of a high-point noodle that's going to cost you five or six smart points for two ounces Swap that for a better option for example fiber gourmet pasta. You guys know I'm obsessed with fiber gourmet You can have two ounces for three smart points.  The link for that is down below in the description box So that's an example of a savvy swap You could also do zoodles But if you're really wanting pasta and not going as far as swapping out for vegetable pasta Fiber gourmet is a great option. So make those savvy swaps instead of regular butter use light butter Instead of regular sugar use a sugar alternative Make those swaps so that you can better include your favorite foods and those dishes that you're absolutely dying to have into your day So I absolutely love the topic right up my alley as far as getting to know your smart points And I think it's great for those of you that are new to WW or some of us old-timers who just need a refresher on The things that matter portion size swapping our favorite foods and really paying attention to the smart points value So way to go WW on this week's topic. So let's move right into my way in. All right Let's talk way in so as I mentioned before I went into my workshop. I had a great week I kicked booty with my exercise had a good week with food The only bad parts of this week were that I was sore from my workout yesterday So I've been thinking about that and I'll get into that a little bit later as well as the wonderful time of the month So when I got on this scale today, I lost point four pounds. Was I happy with that? Absolutely positively not Do I feel that that shows a true? Sense of my work. I put in this week. No but this is a prime example you guys of what I was talking about in my 20 tips to lose weight video is that sometimes our bodies have a mind of their own and we can do Everything right and not see that show up on the scale and this is a prime example of that for me for this week So I was a bit disappointed and then I snapped myself back into reality and knew that you know what? I did everything that I could have done to be successful this week on the scale and having a point four loss is still a Success so I am hoping that I see it kick in next week And maybe have a little bit bigger loss on the scale, but it motivates me to have a great week this week So I'm excited. I'm happy that I had a loss my January or my 2020 is off to a great start. So Yay for that and as far as working out go. So like I mentioned I worked out yesterday, which made me really sore today And I was thinking about that maybe working out the day before weigh-in isn't the brightest decision Because your body does retain a lot of water when your muscles are sore and I am sore every time I do Jazz or size it is such an intense work out that I think I'm gonna switch things up a little bit And I think I'm gonna do a Monday Tuesday Wednesday Friday Workout and skip Thursdays just to help with that number on the scale a little bit help with the soreness and the water retention Now there may be days that I do or weeks that I have to work out on Thursday because of my schedule But my goal is to do Monday Tuesday Wednesday Friday and at very least get in three days So again, I never know with my schedule if that's going to work week to week But my goal is three or more times a week going to Jazz or size So I think skipping out my workout on Thursday Or maybe if anything when the weather gets a little bit nicer going for a walk instead of going to Jazz or size so that I'm a little less sore when I weigh in on Friday, but You know what you guys in my mind and in my heart. I know I did everything right this last week So is that a true reflection of the work? I put in no, but I still have a loss and I'm really proud of myself for what I've done so far in the month of January I have lost every week since the new year and that is huge for me So I am super thankful for that. So this next week Part for the course. I'm gonna do exactly what I did last week. I'm going to track honestly. I'm gonna work out I'm gonna drink a lot of water I drink a lot of water this last week as well And I'm gonna do everything right and I know that my work will show on the scale next week So that was my way in for this week. I want to hear how was your guys's week? How are you doing as far as your goals for the new year? Did you gain? Did you lose? Was it what you expected? How was your week? I definitely want to hear that and I also want to hear What are your thoughts on learning your smart points? Is it something that you needed a refresher on as a seasoned weight watcher or are you new to weight watchers? And it's nice to hear exactly what comprises a smart point and some tricks and tips that you can do to make your smart points Maybe stretch a little bit further. So thank you guys so much for watching. If you're new welcome welcome I'm excited to have you here on my channel I'd love it if you would take a moment and subscribe and of course hit that little bell So you're notified when I upload a new video. I do upload pretty much daily So you don't want to miss a single video. I'd love it if you give this video a thumbs up It really helps my channel and of course leave those comments down below I want to hear about your week your goals what you think about kind of re-learning or learning the smart points way So thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you all next time


Sangha swadham, Sangha dhadvam, Sangha swadham, Sangha dhadvam, Sangha manasi janatham, Deva bhagang yathapurbe dhyapasate, Sangha nana upasate, Sangha nana upasate, Meditative asana, Padma asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Bajra asana, one, two, three, four, Siddhasana, one, two, three, five, six, Go Mukhasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Bajra asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Swastika asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Swastika asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Virasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Relaying asana, Savasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Relaying asana, Savasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Makarasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Seven, eight, Kalsare asana, standing, Tadasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Palambya asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Satushika asana, one, two, three, Garura asana, one, two, three, Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Sankata asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Siting asana, Singasana, one, three, five, Paratikunasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Pawan Muktasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, Uttitapadasana, one, two, three, Front bending, standing, Badahasthasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, Kailan asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Front bending, sitting asana, Janusirasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Seven, eight, Pasimuttanasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Sasangasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Ardha Kurmasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Front bending, lying posture, Sayana Pasimuttasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Seven, eight, Back bending asana, standing, Ardha Sandrasana, one, two, three, four, Purna Sakrasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Sitting asana, Sandrasana, one, two, three, four, Ustrasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Lying, Ardha Sakrasana, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Dhanurasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Bhojanga asana, one, two, three, Salava asana, one, three, Navya asana, one, three, four, Side bending asana, Deeper asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, Eight, nine, Side Tikuna asana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Balancing asana, Parbat asana, one, two, three, Baka asana, one, two, three, four, five, Six, seven, Mayurasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Bhiksasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Mobben asana, Birbhadasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, Katisakrasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Madrasana, one, two, three, four, five, six, Surya Namaskar, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, eleven,


good morning from thomasville north carolina what a bill indeed this is where thomas is from i'm guessing so we've made two deliveries today already the time is 11 a.m so we're doing good we're on our way to charlotte north carolina right now to make another delivery hopefully that will go just as smoothly as these past two i thought the first delivery was going to take me all morning oh they got it off in like an hour and a half it's awesome we've got four more stops on this load we'll see like i said depending on how smooth the rest of this day goes and you just sweat like crazy down here too right they got such crazy humidity down here i'm not complaining but man does it make you sweat i could drink like three gallons of water it'd still be dehydrated so we're headed down to charleston south carolina now for our delivery tomorrow morning we have two smaller deliveries tomorrow and then we head over to atlanta georgia area for our next load which is going up to ontario whole south carolina i saw a palm tree before it was that a car dealership it was a Ford dealership and you know what made me kind of like Ford a little more than driver chevy i shouldn't say always never say always still love chevy more but the Ford dealership had the palm tree that's a bonus in my books i'm sure the chevy dealerships have them too around here the trees are so different from up in manitoba like they're still trees right they some stuff but they're different kinds like these these spruces or whatever these are on the right here are those evergreens like what we don't have any of those up north that's like a southern tree and everything is so big because they have such a long growing season down here i'm so glad i got that last delivery off my truck that was close i got there just as they were about to close up and i convinced them to uh accept my delivery yet by asking really nicely and offering to do all the work myself so i unloaded the truck myself while they cleaned up and got ready to close that was nice so now i can go all the way down here south carolina and the two more easy drops tomorrow all these drops are on palettes whereas the rest of the drops that i have had are like handbomb like on the floor big heavy boxes palettes for some reason these customers are apparently special they get palettes i'm sure it's because they pay a little more shekels i'm pretty sure that's that's why they uh get the easy freight all they got to do is just roll it off instead of carry it off one at a time but hey a few extra pennies gets you a long way gets you palettes so we'll get those two off and then i already told you right we're going to uh atlanta georgia for tomorrow night where we'll uh drop this empty and pick up a loaded trailer head up to keswick ontario where we went last time that's the place where uh i just got to sit in my truck while they unload the trailer so at least i can look forward to a good nap while i'm being unloaded that's fantastic i like that entrance let's say auto entrance i thought that said atm and there's palm trees at this pilot we're staying quiet karen this is important we're staying at a pilot with palm trees tonight oh it's gonna be a good night i wish we could have a few days off have a party with the palm trees palm trees there's a bunch of them diesel you want to pee on a palm tree tonight you can have your very own palm tree that might be our young man one kilometer turn left on sparrow road look at that look at that palm trees palm trees diesel i don't know if i'm gonna let you pee on those palm trees those are sacred those are sacred trees okay trucker path said that there was some parking spots available here yet don't disappoint me trucker path oh there is one right there right there okay but i gotta go turn around it's right here beside this freight liner with his uh his lights on there spot right in there i'm gonna turn around i'm gonna take it i'm gonna take it or somebody else does is there any more here this could probably be made into a parking spot right here oh there's more at the back here oh all right trucker path sounds good to me i'm gonna park back here then all are in the tanker notice how neither of them have a reefer reefers i know some of you haul reefers if i have a choice i won't park beside you for night if i don't have a choice well i'll deal with it very dizzy stay down let's back up all of i need a haircut so bad i've literally been too busy for a haircut it's true all right let's tell the world that we're here well i'm telling the world here i gotta tell the lord gods over here that i am finished for the night one second here bear with me one second one second one more second one more second five more seconds three more seconds no we are stopping boom officially done actually we're not officially done you know what means we're officially done pulling the trailer brakes that's the red one usually like a lot of people if you just park temporarily you just pull the yellow one just that locks the truck brakes right but for night i lock all the brakes because i'm paranoid of the truck rolling away while i'm sleeping it's never happened yet so far every time i've gone to bed i've woken up in the exact same spot but just in case i lock everything up and uh i guess i should put a hat on oh this hat isn't too offensive is it secret service it's a secret so that's that i'm gonna go back there i'm gonna get a good sleep i think i'll be here for almost 8 30 here now i'm still an hour away i'll be here about 12 hours and they're expecting me around 11 o'clock tomorrow morning but i'm gonna go there a little earlier see if they can unload me because it's on palace it'll take five minutes to unload me so i'll show up there earlier and see if they can get me unloaded then i can run back up to wilmington north carolina unload there clean up my trailer sweep it out drag it on over to atlanta drop it grab a loaded one and bust it up to ontario keswick ontario that's north of toronto around a little what is that east of berry ontario in that region there should be fun diesel everyone wants to see more of you more of me man hi guys uh put me on the spot again it was a good day had a good nap uh morning nap afternoon nap went for a run for a little bit it was fine just thinking about it makes my ears go up it was a run did we go for a walk well now we have to go for another one oh boy are you sure are you sure you want to go for a walk i don't know you're not convincing man oh no and it is just cold enough here that my truck won't idle so that means it's going to be a hot night hot and i'm a true canadian through and through i cannot sleep when i'm warm i have to be sleeping in an ice box like a little igloo for me to get a good comfortable sleep brit is the same way as me my wife for those of you who don't know uh when we're at home we have our bedroom we sleep in a smaller bedroom with a its own air conditioner in the window with the door closed with the air conditioner blasting on high all night we wake up as popsicles and it's wonderful that's how we both get the best sleep i sleep great in winter time i don't sleep as good in summertime it's too hot i'm a canadian i melt in the heat i'm like a snowman you too diesel you don't like the heat either i know but it is what it is so thanks for joining me i hope you join me tomorrow i can't believe there's palm trees here a whole bunch of them look look more palm trees you want to know how much i love palm trees all of you new viewers who don't know me that well yet how much do i love palm trees what do palm trees represent to me they represent to me good weather sunshine beaches vacation fun times not working holidays that's what palm trees mean to me and to remind myself how much i want to go on holiday and save up i can ow i can never forget it's not finished yet but brit and i got matching tattoos like this on our honeymoon she got it on her leg the big ones represents me because i'm taller in her she's really short so she represents the short one so instead of getting each other's names tattooed on each other we did palm trees to represent each other that's my uh wedding tattoo or uh it was a honeymoon honeymoon tattoo i want to finish it off yet and i want to get diesel on on there somewhere yet too it's gonna be great there's palm trees here diesel real ones not even the fake ones like they have up in canada real ones i'm so excited man i'm bursting with excitement and i can tell i know you won't even blink oh maybe once i'm not going to let you mark them man those are sacred trees only i can mark those ones


you can get that lodging expenses but not meals while away from home to receive medical care provided by a physician in a hospital or a medical care facility related to a hospital provided there was no significant element of personal pleasure recreation or vacation in the travel so obviously you have these travel costs that if you needed that if it qualifies you had to go somewhere in order to get specialized care for medicine and so on but it happened to be next to Disney World so you went in there and and and and now so you got to think is it personal or is it business and obviously whenever those two things in this case not business but possibly deductible is it medically related or non-medically personally related and if it's non-medically personal related then you have to separate that out in some way shape or form you would think because that part wouldn't be deductible but you could probably get some doctor to tell you that it was a medical necessity to go to Disney World or whatever and so on as long as you had your mask on thought you'd be okay with it so anyway don't deduct more than $50 a night for each person who meets the requirements of publication 502 under lodging so ambulance service another travel cost to get medical care if you use your own car you can include what you spent for gas and oil to go to and from the place you receive and care receive the care or you can use the 22 cent a mile now remember that when we use these mileage rates that the rates are not all the same depending on what you did right so there might be a different mileage rate that you're going to be calculating for medical driving versus a schedule c type of business if you had the business use of your car in that situation or for charitable expenses for example so add parking and tolls to the amount you claim under either method cost of breast pumps and supplies that assist lactation so personal protective equipment such as masks hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes obviously I think they added all that because the the COVID thing was a big win the administration came out and said we are allowing a deductibility of your hand wipes the problem is solved vote for reelect us based on our that track record of doing that that's going to save that's going to save million that's anyway for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of coronavirus all right limit on long-term care premiums you can include so


I thank you for welcoming me into your homes and I pray that you and your families are doing well. As you are aware, the world is currently confronting the coronavirus pandemic. St. Lucia has, over the past couple months, embarked upon its own efforts to mitigate the spread of this deadly virus. Part of the response effort to stem the transmission of coronavirus on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Wellness included the initial closing of all educational institutions' schools from Monday 16th March 2020 until 13th April 2020. The dynamism of the current environment and the unpredictability that ensues means that while we at the Ministry of Education have made every effort to plan based on scientific and medical forecasts no one really knows for sure how this pandemic will unfold here in St. Lucia and the implications therefrom. Notwithstanding, after several consultations with stakeholders, please permit me to share with you and allow you some insight into the thought process of the team at the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development. Corporate partnerships and stakeholder consultations since the initial outbreak of the coronavirus and in the last weeks in particular have seen several of our team members participate fully in those meetings some of which were convened by the Prime Minister or lead government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Ministry of Economic Development, NEMAC, and private and public sector engagements championed by the Prime Minister and other lead government agencies. The Ministry has itself convened all participated in meetings with friendly governments, development partners, regional financial or lending agencies and corporate entities including the Taiwanese Embassy, the Cuban Embassy, the Indian High Commission through St. Lucia's Consulate in New York, the Canadian High Commission, the Caribbean Development Bank, CDB, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS, Commission, United Nations International Children's Fund, UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, Digisil and Flow. The Ministry has also initiated dialogue with media houses, radio and television, which are critical partners in our anticipated hybrid approach for instruction, integrating technology and digital media with more traditional modes of instruction. Further and very importantly, we have also engaged with key stakeholders including the St. Lucia Teachers Union, the National Principles Association, district education officers, some parent teachers' associations and youth representatives. These deliberations have informed much of what is being proposed for education beyond the Easter break. The proposed intervention for the third term starts with acknowledging that school is likely to remain closed during that period contingent upon the advice of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Therefore, the third term will be a learning from home term. We can all agree that these are challenging times and the way we deliver to or serve our students in the education sector of necessity will change. Already, I have seen remarkable demonstrations of creativity and innovation by our educators. The proposed interventions will require us to be even more flexible and nimble as we seek to ensure that our nation's children are not disadvantaged and that instruction is provided in a manner that ensures no child is left behind. It means too that parents would need to play an even more active role in ensuring that students are committed to their own learning. On the instruction front, what is being proposed by the Ministry assumes a multi-faceted approach or blended learning or teaching modality using a mix of media including television, radio and online platforms, activity sheets and student textbooks. Interventions will be differentiated based on grade levels and forms. In the coming days, the Ministry will advise on the protocol for collection of activity sheets and textbooks which would have remained at some schools. The preliminary findings of a recently conducted technological and e-skills audit suggest and please note we are continuing with follow-up research on that score that many of our educators and students do not have access to a technological device nor do they have internet connectivity at home. While the Ministry is proposing the use of digital platforms for reaching our students as one of the modes of instruction, we recognize the following. One, that the Ministry needs to facilitate the training of teachers in the use of online teaching tools and techniques for engaging students in a virtual space. Two, that the Ministry needs to equip teachers with the requisite technological tools. Three, that the Ministry must seek to enhance connectivity of teachers and students through collaboration with benevolent corporate partners such as the telecommunications companies and NTRC. Four, that the Ministry must make some provision for students who are not technologically proficient, do not have access to technological tools nor have connectivity at home. And five, that there must be some support for parents and students who may encounter difficulty. I wish to reiterate that we are aware of the challenges faced by our teachers as it relates to navigating the online environment. Many have indicated that they own no devices, neither do they have adequate internet access that allows for the streaming of online classes. The Ministry is currently collating information that will continue to inform our discussions with corporate partners and organizations with a view to implementing the interventions proposed above. Teachers are therefore encouraged to complete the questionnaire being circulated as it is through this medium we will gather accurate data to inform our decision making. We also note that other stakeholders may have difficulty accessing online instruction, hence the intention to provide support as far as is feasible. It is being proposed then that the third term commence on 20th April 2020. The week beginning 13th April will afford administrators and teachers time to meet virtually to plan each school's operational intervention and to undergo training, upskilling and retooling in the use of digital and media technologies. Though admittedly several training sessions have been conducted in the use of various platforms, it is necessary that more targeted sessions on the use of the platforms be convened. The intention is to improve the effectiveness of digital instruction. It is clear that we are moving towards leveraging information communication technologies for education. Although the foundation had already been set and various initiatives were being undertaken to steer our education system in that direction, this pandemic has really forced us to expedite the digital or e-initiatives that were being considered or were already in train. In my address to Parliament on March 10th 2020, I highlighted the ministry's multiple efforts to strengthen the e-education ecosystem. Then I underscored the importance of making the education system and I quote one which is more relevant, more inclusive, more equitable and one which embraces and leverages new methods for instruction and learning. End of quote. To this end, the government is expected to approve 3.8 million dollars towards computerization of schools in the 2020-2021 appropriation bill. This will enhance the e-readiness of our schools and will ensure that the schools are adequately equipped to facilitate the recent pronouncement by CXC that assessment will only be facilitated through the e-testing modality this year. The launch of our Learn Book or e-book initiative earlier in March thankfully has to some extent began to address the technological gaps in the education system and better facilitate digital instruction and learning. Devices have been distributed to the participating pilot schools. Given the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the opportunity to expand our e-education offerings, the ministry is considering an expansion of the pilot group and or the use of the additional devices expected on Island next week for use as testing devices for the CXCE exams later this year. If of course they prove compliant or compatible with CXC's assessment platform. Permit me please to mention some of the steps undertaken to minimize the disruption to instruction and to simultaneously thank the benefactors named. UNICEF has agreed to procure 75 tablets to be donated to economically challenged households. UNICEF has also committed to meeting some of the costs associated with training our teachers in the use of the various online platforms. The OECS commission donated equipment that will facilitate the setting up of five streaming rooms at different locations around the island. These rooms will allow the ministry to record and stream content to our students across the island and also to sister OECS territories. A special appeal is being made to our teachers to please volunteer and capitalize on this opportunity to share your knowledge and skill in a virtual space as we seek to continue to provide instruction at this time. DIGISL donated 500 MiFi devices, 25 of which were given to the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Principals and teachers are currently being engaged to identify vulnerable students who could benefit tremendously from these devices. DIGISL has committed to training at least 20 primary school teachers over a four-day period in the use of Microsoft Teams. FLOW has granted free access by all our students to FLOW study. The CAMDU is continuing to train teachers and principals in the use of Google Classroom which is already installed and in use in secondary schools across the island. The OECS and other partner agencies are continuing to assist with the training in the use of NotesMaster and Moodle. The above mentioned interventions complement the eBooks project funded by the Government of St. Lucia, the SPOT Classrooms project sponsored by the Taiwanese Government, the Profituro project funded by the OAS, training facilitated by the Commonwealth of Learning, all of which are geared towards transitioning to and strengthening our eLearning capacity and were well advanced before the onset of COVID-19. I wish to emphasize that in this third term, no new concepts will be introduced. The time will be spent consolidating topics which were introduced during the first and second terms. The Common Entrance Examination is currently being revised to ensure that it is aligned with the areas of curriculum taught during grade five and first term of grade six. Parents will not have to contend with teaching their children new topics, but rather are encouraged to augment the learning experience by engaging in fun activities at home that will reinforce concepts taught previously. Parents of students at the secondary school level are to ensure that their child or ward creates a Gmail account as the modality being suggested for secondary instruction is one which is heavily reliant on the use of Google Classrooms and the Google Suites. It is a fact that our vulnerable students are extremely disadvantaged in this environment. They are not only challenged by the lack of devices and access, but also they are currently missing out on the meals they would have otherwise gotten while in the physical school setting. To this end, the Department of Education has partnered with other agencies to ensure that this segment of our school population receives some form of nutritional support while at home. As it pertains to the examination schedule, I know that there has been much anxiety as it relates to continuity of education services, especially after the Easter vacation break. This is especially evident in teachers assigned to the parents or students scheduled to sit competency tests or end of school exams such as CXCCSEC and CAPE. As most of you are aware, a press statement was released recently informing of the actions related to the local and regional exams. The content of that statement still holds and any further changes will be guided by pronouncements from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. Just to reiterate, one, the minimum standard tests done at grades 2 and 4 have been cancelled. The common entrance examination has been restructured and postponed, pending the all-clear from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The Caribbean Examinations Council, CXC, has indicated that all testing this year will be via digital mode, that is, the e-testing mode. Hence, the Ministry has fast tracked the remaining phases of the Computerization of Schools Program to better facilitate the administering of e-tests by addressing hardware, software, training of teachers and training of invigilators. As it relates to CSEC and CAPE examinations, on reviewing the three options initially presented by CXC, the Government of St. Lucia agreed to proceed with the third option, which proposed examinations in September to October 2020, marking of SBAs between September and November 2020, and three publication of results in December 2020. The implications include the need to revise the start of and the schedule of the 2020-2021 school year, the need for universities to agree to the delayed start of the first-year students and the start of the academic year, and three, cancellation of the January CSEC examination. It was felt that this option would provide sufficient time for students to become academically and psychologically prepared to write the exam at the proposed later date. Of course, this is premised on pronouncements by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. In taking this position, the CSEC has proposed yet an alternate option, which seeks to have the examinations administered during the months of June and July. The Ministry of Education is at this time reviewing this option, mindful of the fact that the weeks and months ahead may be very unpredictable and we must be comfortable with the readiness of our students and teachers both academically and psychologically and our island's capacity to administer an all-electronic examination. The government's position on this alternate option, therefore, will be shared at a later date. In the meantime, we ask our students to maintain their study schedules and to use this time at home to consolidate their knowledge and enhance their preparation for the imminent exams. Now reflect on the adjustments made at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and our combined response efforts. The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, like most institutions of higher learning, has had to ramp up its online learning capabilities and outreach. One of the first things the college did was to conduct a survey of students to assess the level of access to broadband and Wi-Fi. What we found was that a small percentage of students were without access from home. Additionally, a large majority of students accessed data from other sources such as community Wi-Fi, Innovation and Career Readiness Centers or ICT Centers and from friends and neighbors. This issue was addressed in two ways. One, the college distributed Wi-Fi devices donated to the college by digital through the efforts of the Ministry of Education to students who were most in need of that intervention. Each device allows up to six users to access the internet at any one time. Out of the 25 devices received, ten were distributed in the south of the island and the remainder in other locations. The college also collaborated with the Ministry of Education and the telecoms providers to zero rate the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College domain so that students can access content without being billed for connectivity. Digital has zero rated the entire EDU.LC domain of which the college is a beneficiary and Flow has zero rated Sir Arthur Lewis Community College's specific IP addresses to allow Sir Arthur Lewis College students continued access. This has facilitated uninterrupted access to SALCC's e-learning portal. The college in an effort to assess its e-learning capacity also conducted a survey of the competencies and training needs of faculty. The data revealed that although the majority of faculty had some experience in online instruction many felt that they needed training in areas ranging from the use of learning management systems to content development and synchronous delivery modalities. The college's response to this was to design and host a training series to increase functional competencies of its faculty in online delivery. The training covers the following areas, introduction to online teaching and learning, using web conferencing tools, teaching with Moodle, LMS, formatting and adding content, teaching with Moodle, LMS, creating assignments and graded quizzes, teaching with Moodle, LMS, creating interactive content, teaching with Moodle, LMS, creating adaptive lessons, teaching with Moodle, LMS, using four and other collaborative tools. Eight, migrating from Google Classroom to Moodle, and nine, working with data in Moodle. The training is open to all practitioners in St. Lucia and the OECS. They are streamed on Facebook. Participation has been overwhelming. On average, the webinars have gotten 5,000 views with the last webinar peaking at 11,000 views. I wish to express my most profound thanks to those who have availed themselves of this learning and knowledge sharing opportunity. As a result of these efforts, the college reported that in the second week of the lockdown, 184 courses were created on its e-learning platform and 1,400 users were enrolled. By the end of the third week, there were 246 courses and 1,765 users. Presently at the SALCC, we have 1,900 users enrolled and 260 courses created and running. The breakdown of the data on online participation indicates one. More than 80% of our students are enrolled on the SALCC e-learning platform and are engaging with lectures and course material. Two, approximately 96% of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College faculty are using e-learning platforms to continue instruction. And three, approximately 84% of SALCC courses for semester two are now online. We at the ministry and the college are immensely proud of how the lectures have been engaging with students via the online platform. I would like to join with the college and to publicly recognize the heroic response of the staff and to applaud the tremendous spirit of peer-to-peer collaboration that the crisis has fostered. Many staff members have volunteered to assist with the online platform outside of their required areas of work. For example, one of the lecturers from the mathematics faculty developed an online training manual for staff. Additionally, the college is in the process of upgrading its storage on the platform this week, and we will soon be experiencing enhanced capacity. I must again express my gratitude to the board of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, management and staff for demonstrating their commitment, intellectual dexterity and nimbleness in responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. I am confident that together we can address any lingering challenges as we endeavor to uphold our unwavering commitment to the educational advancement of our young people. There is no better time to demonstrate this than now, and this can prove the best gift to our young people in this the month of April designated as Youth Month. I know that much of what SALCC has achieved over the last few weeks is in part due to the Herculean effort of dedicated members of our SALCC family, and I am obliged to say a huge thank you to the principal, Dr. Keith Ness, Royston Emmanuel and the rest of the team. Thank you. While the National Skills Development Center NSDC had long embraced the value of blended learning, in the wake of COVID-19, the NSDC has moved more earnestly to using online platforms, WhatsApp and mobile phones for instruction in some of its courses. These include early childhood education and electrical installation. The center will also be using Zoom for the Sage Greening project work plans and the Live Skills Employability Skills sessions, which are scheduled to begin in a week's time. Participants can also expect to receive the lessons via email. The NSDC continues with its pre-registration and registration slash orientation for the Sky Project, which is being done in collaboration with other partners such as NELU. This process is now being done online and persons can visit the NSDC website for details. Mindful of the need to create local content and to record stream classes, as we endeavor to minimize interruption in the delivery of NSDC programs, simulations for other classes are currently being developed by the IT department and the public relations officer. NSDC has distinguished itself as an education institution that provides a holistic learning experience. Convincing to the importance of psychosocial well-being, the NSDC therefore is continuing to provide virtual support to students and staff during this crucial and potentially unsettling time. I wish to express my deepest thanks to Mrs. Selma Senprey and her team for ensuring that our NSDC students are served during this very uncertain period as we combat COVID-19 here in St. Lucia. Notwithstanding the hurdles we've had to overcome in the recent weeks, NELU continues to work with various stakeholders as evidenced by its collaboration with the NSDC to ensure that the highly successful adults and skills development projects continue. NELU continues to embrace diverse technologies to sustain the learning that has started and to build capacity among the facilitators. Admittedly, we've had to heighten our efforts to ensure that facilitators are au courant with the various digital platforms for learning and teaching and we continue with urgency in our capacity-building efforts in that regard. Many persons are asking what has the ministry's response been to our students who are overseas? We can assure you that students who are on scholarships funded by the government of St. Lucia either through the equip or otherwise have been contacted and can be accounted for. Some students opted to come back home and this was facilitated in partnership with other government agencies while others decided to remain in their country of study. The department has also facilitated the provision of psychosocial interventions for those students expressing need for that service. Psychosocial support for teachers, students and parents remain critical, especially given the emotional and psychological toll that this pandemic has had on our citizens, especially our students. There has been a whirlwind of dramatic changes that must pique the curiosity of our young inquiring minds and who knows what quiet fears or anxieties they harbor. The chief education officer is continuing to engage the head of the school counseling unit to frame a suite of interventions that can address the emotional issues that may arise while our students are at home. The ministry has also identified and will continue to share with stakeholders family activities that have instructional or loading value as well. Families are encouraged to use zero-rated websites, free loading resources, free audiobooks, free pass papers, free activities all recommended by the ministry and these can be found on the ministry's website and Facebook pages and will form part of the homework pack collected by parents whose children do not have access to social media. I wish on behalf of my peers at the Ministry of Education to express our thanks to all the agencies and organizations locally, regionally and internationally, friendly governments and development partners which have reached out to us to support our mandate in education. We cannot thank you enough. A special debt of gratitude is owed to our local telecommunications providers, DigiSell and Flow who said yes on that first telephone call that I placed to the country managers weeks ago. Your commitment to working with us in the provision of training, devices and zero-rating the content on your various learning hubs to allow for free access to our students and teachers is very commendable. I also wish to thank those who have expressed a willingness to assist and are still working out the details such as the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, NTRC and the Global Partnership for Education through the OECS Commission. While many of us have found at the plethora of unsavory video clips of misbehavior and non-compliance with the various COVID-related protocols that have gone viral, I wish to balance that imagery with our experience in the education sector. At every level in the sector, our stakeholders have quadrupled their efforts to ensure that our children's learning experience remains positive, stimulating and exciting and that our teachers are motivated to continue to shape the minds and character of our nation's children. We are very much aware of some of the new challenges that COVID-19 has brought to the fore and these we will continue to address by employing the usual consultative approach ensuring that stakeholders' concerns inform the decision-making process at the ministerial level. I beg your continuing indulgence, patience, understanding and cooperation as together we endeavor to employ our innovative and creative capacities to do what is best for our nation's children. May God bless you, may God bless our children, may God bless our beautiful island, St. Lucia. Thank you.


You know, most people get into software development because you can create these incredible experiences from almost nothing. The story normally goes, you have this great idea, and you can almost visualize your end user clicking through the experience. And then you get to your desk and you start coding. And all these roadblocks start appearing. Infrastructure, networking, security, policies. And with each one, that hope and excitement slowly fades. At Expedia Group, we're passionate about creating a world-class developer experience. And me and my teams do that by trying to focus on reducing the time from imagination to production so as close to zero as possible. Over the last few years, we've been on that journey and we have a long way to go, but we've also made tremendous progress. And today I'd like to talk to you about that. Now, unlike some of the other talks where we'd focus on technical details and some of the harder challenges that we've solved, today I want to talk to you about what I think is the hardest challenge in an enterprise re-platforming. And that's the people and the culture. I have to admit, it's a little bit nerve-wracking coming to a large conference like this, especially a tech conference and talking about people. It's not often we focus time on that. But in two decades of building and scaling large enterprise developer platforms, I've come to realize that the people challenges are sometimes far harder than the technical challenges. So it doesn't matter if you're on a two-person team or a 2,000-person team. Today, I'm going to show you the playbook for how you can achieve great success and avoid failure in your platform journey. And if there's one thing that I want you to take away from listening to this talk today, it's that it is possible to move incredibly fast and bring everyone along on the journey. At Expedia Group, we have over 5,000 developers running over 200 travel sites in over 70 countries. Our vision is to power global travel for everyone everywhere. And as you can imagine, that means shipping a lot of software and delivering a lot of innovation. Around 2019, we were at the tail end of the DevOps Cultural Revolution. Open Source and Cloud were running an all-you-can-eat buffet on tools, and we had a number of independent teams operating in silos. That created some interesting opportunities in the developer experience. Whenever we looked at a capability that we were providing, there were between three and five competing tools. That created over 100 permutations of build, deploy, and runtime environments. And our developer survey noted that teams were growing frustrated with the amount of time it took to onboard to new projects or just get people started at the company. Added to that, you have the cost of infrastructure, maintenance, licensing, and just keeping all these things running.  So we took on this great challenge. Get to one tool for one job. And so was born the concept that the Expedia Group common developer platform. I've been building and scaling these kind of platforms for many years. And the re-platforming playbook is always the same.  If you're operating in a large company or a small company, or you're running a small platform or a large platform, you have to do the same five things. Form an amazing team, pick your tools, find your allies, win over your detractors, and execute like crazy. There's just one problem. Everything is simple in enterprise re-platforming, but the simplest thing is difficult. Now, most people focus on these two areas. And if you're lucky, this will get you pretty far. If you just focus on picking tools, that's what we call analysis paralysis. And if you just focus on executing, that's what we like to call the Leroy Jenkins approach. And it's not going to get you very far. Where the most successful teams spend most of their time is in these three areas. Forming the team, finding the allies, and winning over detractors. And if you want to move at an incredible pace with broad buy-in, this is where you need to focus your time, too. So let's talk about forming the team. The first thing you're going to need is engineers, including the development managers and project managers that come with them. The best thing for you to do in a large company is find the engineers that come from within. The temptation can be to use external resources, but if you use too many of them, you risk alienating your internal partners. At EG, we were fortunate enough to find a number of people with experience with real-world operations running our largest travel sites. And the next group of people we added were product management. It's not often that you get this level of support for an internal platform. We're used to having product management support for external products. But as Jasmine pointed out, even if you don't have someone in the product management role, it's important to make sure that someone on the team is bringing the discipline of understanding your customer's needs and methodically cataloging them to your team. Finally, we added executive support and executive sponsorship. This might sound like a bit of project management bingo, but it's often overlooked. If you get this right, you're building a foundational platform that's high leverage and it's going to drive tremendous value to the company. And that's the kind of thing that executives like and will support and will fund. Let's talk about tool selection. Ah, tool selection. There's a great article from a Twitter engineer called Let 1,000 Flowers Bloom and rip up 999 of them. And the quote in there says, everyone is happy for you to standardize as long as you pick the tool they're currently using. The best approach here is listening and spending a lot of time understanding what your developers are trying to do. Once you understand that, you can catalog all the tools that they're using. And if you know that, you can start evaluating them based on some shared criteria. An expedient group that was support, maintenance costs, migration costs, and how much we were spending on keeping things alive. Once we've made those decisions, we published them out in the open and we told everyone what was deprecated and what was a go-forward tool. And we began the migration. In many cases in tool selection, cloud-native tools gave us a huge advantage. If we just look at Kubernetes, there was a great ground swell within the company. There was a huge community internally and a huge community externally. Using that enabled us to eliminate some of our custom tools that we had put together for a runtime environment. And the CNCF encourages some integration between and collaboration between projects, which means that they played well together often. So we had a great team. We picked our tools. We were ready to go and we got asked to go faster. Any time you're asked to go faster, you have a choice to make. You can either create a mandate or you can create a movement. You can choose to be persuasive or you can choose to be political. An Expedia group, we lean hard into choosing a movement. And that means focusing on finding allies and winning over detractors. Let's talk about allies. I think on the surface of things, finding internal allies seems easy. And the good news is you probably have more than you think. One powerful thing about creating a movement is that you make it your team's mission in life to manufacture allies. Whereas if you rely on mandates, you manufacture detractors and resistance. At Expedia Group, we found our allies by listening intently and reflecting back the jobs that people were doing. You can learn a lot by doing shadowing sessions and listening tours or structured user discovery. And the great thing about allies is you have a lot of them externally, too. Partnering with organizations like the Cloud Native Computing Foundation gave us access to end user groups and partners and special interest groups where we were able to get other people brought into our vision as well and build support outside our company. Just listening is transformative. Any time you can ask the question, what's hard and how can I help? You win someone over. And any time you help someone do a job they're trying to do, you win a bit of their heart. Let's talk about detractors. Oh, detractors.  And to be honest, they can be exhausting. The hardest part is figuring out what is genuine and genuinely concerning versus what's just background noise. And your sole goal when you're dealing with detractors is to figure out, are you doing the wrong thing or are people just being difficult? And the best way to do that is by listening to your detractors, spending time reflecting, not getting defensive or solutioning, and thinking pragmatically is one of the most underrated skills. At Expedia Group, when we go and listen to some of our detractors, we turn the questions that they have into tickets and we investigate each one of them. And when you do that and you commit to that discipline, the people that have a hundred issues with your program end up having three that really matter. And you can take those three and use data and metrics to solve them. And when you do that, it builds trust. And trust turns a detractor into an ally. So we took this great approach. We built a movement. We created an amazing team. We picked some great tools. We found our allies. We won over some detractors. How did we really do? In 2021, we deprecated 149 developer tools. That's almost 12 every month. We freed up 100 developers worth of productivity and returned those to the product teams. And we saved roughly 20% in our license and maintenance costs for tooling spend. It was a huge win. I know what you're thinking. That's great. Mr. Duffy, I don't have time for your movement nonsense. I've got a migration to run. This will never scale. But I can tell you it does scale. And it does require a huge amount of effort. But having run platform transformations the wrong way, I can tell you that running a movement and investing in your allies and winning over your detractors requires far less effort than battling mounting resistance from your detractors in a mandate. In our project, we had to scale. Using our movement, we've mobilized over 500 teams and we're trying to land 10,000 application workloads in 600 clusters. And we're doing it by leading a culture of listening, leveraging the right tools, choosing pragmatically and focusing way more time on the people than we do on the tech. And now we're looking forward to the future, where we're looking to go even faster. And we're doing even more listening. Having a standard tool set and one tool for one job has allowed us to meaningfully map the user journey and put metrics against each stage of it. We've set goals, and we've set our standards for how we're improving it. And that standardization has brought line of sight to our vision for the developer experience. Where everyone is shipping on day one, we have less than 50-minute average lead time to change. And if you're stuck as a developer, we get you unstuck within two hours. And together, those goals are reducing the time from imagination to production to as close to zero as possible. I want to say thank you to everyone involved with this project at Expedia Group. I'm constantly humbled by the skills and the commitment to running a customer-focused migration in the Common Developer Toolkit. And I want to say thank you to you listening to the talk today. My hope is that some of you out there are downtrodden by constant resistance in battling some of those detractors. And you now feel empowered to go and have some conversations and discuss with your detractors how you can help them. Thank you very much. APPLAUSE