In July 2015 I was approached by Julie Lindsay who I had the privilege of meeting at the ISTE Conference in Atlanta, USA, in 2014. She asked me whether she could include my Travelling Rhinos Project in the book on global education and collaboration that she was busy writing at the time. I agreed, and following guidelines provided by Julie, I submitted my story.
This book, titled ‘The Global Educator‘, was officially launched on 19 July 2016 and I am very proud to have my project featured in it (Case Study 3.8), alongside projects from a number of other global educators from all around the world. It is truly an honour!
Congratulations to Julie for a truly informative, well-presented book. Well done!
For more information about this book, please take a look HERE.
[Note: The Travelling Rhinos Project is on hold for a while as I work out the best way to take it forward, but I am more than willing to engage with you if you are interested in participating. Email travellingrhino@gmail.com for more information.]
Failure. It’s an ugly word. No-one wants to fail and no-one enjoys failure. As parents we do not want to see our children fail either. It is not something you would wish on your worst enemy and so parents are tempted to bail their children out before failure occurs or to cushion their landings so that the pain associated with failure is not as excruciating as it could be, or to remove them from situations so that repeat occurrences cannot take place. It is in our nature as parents to want to defend and protect our children – it’s our duty to do so. At what cost though? Are there lessons in failure that we rob our children of when we don’t allow them to experience it and when we don’t teach them to get back up and face their challenges head on so that they develop perseverance skills and determination? Do we allow our children to develop true grit?
At this past weekend’s SA JKA Karate Championships in Johannesburg, it became clear to me that karate builds grit. It’s a tough sport that requires fitness, agility and perseverance. There are many teaching moments. From the time of team selection when the child commits to Saturday SA training sessions, to dealing with tough (but caring) Senseis and Sempais, to the moment that child steps onto the floor in the competition, true grit is being instilled in that child. But it doesn’t end there. The competition itself requires a child to dig deep. It’s a brave step, especially for the very little ones, to leave the safety of mom in the stands, to walk down onto a floor that is far way from mom’s caring arms, to sit there and wait their turn and then to perform to the best of their ability as they fall back on the teachings of their Senseis and do their intricate katas. That is a skill on its own. And those that lose, that fail in their own eyes, they have to dig deepest of all. They have to accept that they haven’t achieved what they were hoping for, have worked for. They have to dig deep not to lay blame at anyone else’s door – the opponents or the referees. That’s the easy way out. They have to face their own shortcomings and dig deep to stand tall and say to themselves – “I WILL come back next year!” That is true grit.
Then in the kumite, especially for the older students, those who participate in the free fighting, where contact is possible and most likely inevitable, they have to dig deep again when receiving a punch to head or nose. It takes true grit to face the pain and work through it. It takes even more grit to turn and face your opponent again, when all you want to do is run and hide and deal with your pain. It takes true grit to go through round after round, knowing that the chances of another knock are high and it takes even more grit to realise and accept that you have done your best when you win a Bronze medal, not the Gold one you had been hoping for. It takes grit to to accept that your loss is actually a win, when you have been competing amongst an elite group of youngsters and you have taken your knocks, when you have fallen but risen again. It takes grit to realise that you have achieved what many others haven’t. And that grit means that you WILL be back next year to try again.
So, what can we as parents learn from this? What is grit? The dictionary definition of grit is this: “courage and resolve; strength of character”. By bailing our children out (and believe me, I am just as guilty, I often am tempted to bail my children out) we teach them that it is okay not to see things through to the end, or that if the going is too tough, then it’s okay not to try again. We teach them that failure is bad and we rob them of these teaching moments.
I wonder sometimes whether in today’s social media-connected world a parent’s need to protect their children from failure at all costs isn’t more about what other people will think? As hard as it is for a parent to witness their child experiencing failure, it is one of the best lessons that you can afford your child. By allowing your child to fall and then rise up again you instil true grit, determination and perseverance. You build character. That doesn’t mean that you leave your children to fail, but that you are next to them to help them to deal with failure, to give them coping mechanisms to help them stand tall again, to stand by them through thick and thin as they navigate through childhood, and by giving them opportunities to develop true grit, such as with karate.
This is the best gift you can give your child.
Jun 18
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I find Krissy Venosdale so inspirational, and it seems I am not the only one. You will see a number of these posters up on the walls of my IT centre! I am so grateful for the honour of having met her in person at ISTE in Atlanta in 2014, and also for the fact […]
This post has got nothing to do with technology, but it has everything to do with the children we work with every day.
This past weekend my son participated in the Japanese Karate Association’s SA Championships in Johannesburg, as a member of the Western Province team. He has a purple belt, and he achieved a bronze medal in his age group for Kata, and a silver medal for his Kumite. He was hoping for a Gold medal (he has already promised his Sensei, Debbie Evans, that he will be back for double Gold next year), but he has learnt that as he gets older and progresses to higher belts, the competition gets tougher and more challenging. As his parents, his Dad and I could not be prouder. It was an intense weekend of karate, with excellent results for the WP team and our dojo, Blaauwberg JKA Karate, in particular.
However, yesterday, at the conclusion of the tournament, it struck me that Karate was certainly not all that this weekend had been about. It was about so much more.
It was about seeing a profoundly disabled wheelchair-bound member of the Western Province team, a member of our dojo, participate and win a Gold medal; experiencing the moment as all our children, young and old stood, and shouted his name and cheered him on; witnessing the incredible love of his brother as he embraced him and kissed him on his forehead, celebrating his medal and so much more – celebrating life! It was the shedding of tears of happiness and the sobering thoughts of how we take life for granted.
Ryan proudly showing off his medal. Photo credit: Shane McConnachie (brother).
It was about the interaction between older, more experienced karateka (teenagers) with the young and inexperienced newbies (some as young as six), holding their hands as they led them down into the stadium for their events. It was about the whispered words of encouragement on the floor and the looks of guidance as the little ones sought reassurance. Their patience seemed infinite. It was about folded hands and prayers said at the beginning of each round, not for the win, but to be the best that they could be. These were poignant moments.
It was about the loud shouts of encouragement from the stands down to the team mates participating below; the loud applause when a team-mate won a round; the ecstatic cheers for a win and rounds of congratulations when a team member returned to the stands with medals; the words of encouragement and sympathy, embraces and hugs when the results weren’t as favourable.
It was about the selfless behaviour of a much-loved and respected team member, himself only sixteen years old, who stood between two floors, toggling between encouraging and coaching a team-mate who was engaged in a particularly difficult kumite final, and participating in his own competition on the adjacent floor.
It was about that same young man being knocked out of his own competition in a somewhat questionable manner, yet rising above it with an amazing attitude to encourage his team mates to persevere and push through as they qualified for the All African Cup in September.
It was about the anguish of a young girl who faced huge disappointment when she did not achieve the Gold medal she was hoping for, and truly deserved; the tears she shed and the strength of character she showed in going back down onto the floor, pulling herself together and showing steely determination as she qualified for the All African Cup. What a comeback!
It was about the patience shown for a keen, (over-) enthusiastic 12-year old who wanted to help, to be involved, to feel important; the tolerance for his exuberant nature and for including him as a member of the support team and for “creating” a job for him which kept him busy throughout the long 12-hour day. That boy was my son, and he almost enjoyed the second day more than his competition day because he felt important, he felt appreciated and he felt that he had made a valuable contribution to the team. This will stay with him for a long time.
So, while it was Karate that brought us all together, it was so much more than Karate that determined the success of the weekend. Life lessons were learnt, life skills were entrenched. These are skills children should be learning, should be exposed to. Sport offers this for our children and is the exact reason why children should participate in sport.
It is not about the medals, it is about life. See the bigger picture.
At the Regional Dinner, Meydan Hotel
Back: Phuti Ragophala, Kathryn Riva, Benedikta Nott, Karen Stadler, Lyneth Crighton
Front: Megan Rademeyer, Angela Schaerer, Sarietjie Musgrave
Monday, 23 February was the second and final day of the forum. Once again the Educator’s Track I was privileged to have been asked to participate in a panel discussion called Connecting Educators, Students, Classrooms with educators Sahar Chaer from Lebanon and Manu Mital from India and this was certainly a highlight for me. I was afforded the opportunity to present my Travelling Rhinos Project to the audience, as an example of how such a project can connected classrooms around the world in a meaningful way. What an honour, what an experience!
Presenting my project at the Dubai Forum.
What did I learn from the forum?
Our Grade 4 Pheasants class just finished a 30 min Skype chat with Mrs Beverly Ladd’s 2nd graders in Wilmington, NC, USA. Despite slight technical glitches on my side we still managed to have a strong, clear connection and it was fantastic! Mrs Ladd’s class is hosting a 24 hour around the world Skype marathon, and we participated in the 21st hour. It was nearly 3am in North Carolina!
Our students had prepared answers to questions that Mrs Ladd had shared with us when we signed up to take part. They were a little nervous, as this was their first Skype call, but after a run through of the questions and answers, we were ready for the call!
During the call we exchanged answers with Mrs Ladd’s students and also asked questions. We loved it when the students recited The Pledge of Allegiance and also when they sang America The Beautiful for us – so beautiful! We were proud to share information about our beautiful Table Mountain and one of our students showed them a photograph of it from her iPad. We also shared a little bit of information about our school and also about Cape Town – especially the wonderful things you can do in Cape Town, such as visiting Ratanga Junction and the Waterfront.
After the call Mrs Sinclair took time to go back to the Google map showing where all the participating classes were and then we looked at where Cape Town is in relation to Pine Valley Elementary. This led to a discussion on time differences and time zones – such a teaching moment! The possibilities are endless.
I take my hat off to Mrs Ladd and her students who have been Skyping for a full 24 hours! What an amazing learning opportunity to find out so much about the rest of the world in such a visual and meaningful way. Skype is an amazing connection tool for the classroom. We need to make use of it more and create more such teaching moments for our students. This is real life learning at its best.
Well done Mrs Ladd’s class, and thank you for the opportunity to participate.
Professional development and staff training in a school is always a sore point. Teachers, as we all know, are very busy people. When they are not busy in the classroom they are often coaching on the sports fields, involved in parent meetings or sitting in other school-related meetings, amongst other things. Their time is often not their own and to make time for any training or Professional Development is extremely difficult. There are only so many hours in a day, and to expect teachers to come in to school in the evenings when it is their family time, is a big ask.
I am very fortunate to work in a forward-thinking environment, where the importance of ongoing Professional Development and training is recognised. It is currently a point of discussion in our school and I sit on a small committee which will look at the various forms of Professional Development and how they can be implemented effectively at our school. It is also recognised that some people do not enjoy working in a large group where they feel intimidated and get left behind. Everyone works and learns at a different pace, some are early adopters and forge ahead while others need to be shown more than once to gain confidence. In my role as head of Digital Learning, I am faced with working with a wide spectrum of abilities and varying degrees of tech knowledge.
We work follow a 1:1 iPad programme in the classroom, but our IT Centre is a Windows lab running Office 2013. Our children are exposed to a multifaceted approach to ICT which is what they will experience in the real world. To prepare them for this they also have integrated IT lessons in the IT Centre for an hour a week, over and above their use of iPads in the classroom. Our teachers run their own IT lessons and they use Windows computers in their classrooms, so their Microsoft Skills need to be kept up to speed too. That is my job – to ensure that they receive the necessary training for effective teaching with the iPads and in the IT Centre. Training is perhaps not the correct word – ‘exposure’ to new and existing tools covers it more effectively.
A new addition to our PD programme is weekly Face Time sessions which run from 7:30am to 9:00am on Friday mornings. I meet with the teachers in one grade (and a one or two of the teachers involved in other learning areas such as Design Technology, Art, Drama etc.) and we look at different aspects of technology which they use in their teaching. Although Face Time was only implemented late last year, and I have only had one session this year, it is has turned out to be the best 90 minutes I have ever spent with these teachers!
I try to break the session into the following sections:
On Friday I worked with our Grade 6 teachers and the Design Technology teacher and our principal, Arthur Preston also joined us for the session (Aside: I am so grateful for his support in this area. Upper management support is really vital for the successful implementation of technology in a school environment). I did not stick exactly to my proposed agenda above, but we covered the following (It looks like a lot, but working with a small group allows me to be more hands-on and the pace is faster than it would be in a bigger group setting):
The teachers loved all the tools mentioned above and they were particularly impressed with Sway. They are very keen to try it out. They particularly liked that it:
A very bad photo I took while the teachers were learning about Sway. I was so engrossed in the session that this is the only photo I took!
I was so keen to share how Sway works, that I introduced it to my daughter who is in Grade 11. She immediately used it for a Design project that was due the next day. When she told her teacher that she had used a new and different presentation tool, the teacher was concerned that she did not have the software on her computer or that it would not be compatible with her computer. I believe she was pleasantly surprised with what she saw.
Take a look for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/KayleighSway
Here is the Sway I created while I was teaching myself how to use it: http://tinyurl.com/TravellingRhinos
Next Friday I will be working with our Grade 5 teachers and the following Friday it will be the turn of our Grade 4 teachers. I will share Sway with each of these groups and I feel confident that they will also be as keen to use it as the Grade 6 teachers were. In a three week rotation I get to spend quality time with all the teachers on our staff. They will also be given the chance to share some of their successes with the rest of us at each of these sessions. These small group PD sessions constitute only a fraction of what we hope to develop into a varied and dynamic PD programme over the next year. Professional development is key to staying abreast with all aspects of education – not only technology.
In November four Elkanah House teachers were selected as Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIEExpert15) for 2015. They were recognised by Microsoft for their excellence in their innovative use of technology to help students learn and achieve more. To qualify for the MIE Expert programme teachers from around the world had to submit at least one learning activity to Microsoft to show how they were using technology to enhance learning and teaching. More than eight hundred educators from over 100 countries world-wide were chosen for 2015, of which only sixteen were from South Africa and Lesotho. Of these sixteen, four were from Elkanah House.
The teachers submitted the following activities:
The four Elkanah teachers: Jacky, Karen, Linda & Simone.
Linda Foulkes (ICT and MOS Trainer at Elkanah House High School): Potential of OneNote and Office Integrated Apps in the Classroom. You can view her activity here: http://goo.gl/VDp6ba. (Sadly Linda has since left Elkanah, but you can follow her on her blog here:https://folklind.wordpress.com/ )
Jacky Louw (Design Technology Teacher at Elkanah House Senior Primary) and Simone Crous (Art Teacher at Elkanah House Senior Primary) entered a joint project: Lights, Animation, Action! You can see Jacky and Simone’s activity here: http://goo.gl/jbNKvu and http://goo.gl/oL0d1X.
Karen Stadler (Head of Digital Learning at Elkanah House Senior Primary): The Travelling Rhinos Project – Save Our Rhinos. To see this activity, go here: http://goo.gl/nokMPx.
As a MIE Expert, over the course of 2015 these teachers can expect:
They will be expected to share their learning with their peers and also participate in a series of webinars over the course of next year. Each teacher has also received a certificate of recognition for this achievement.
For a full list of the South African and Lesotho teachers who were selected look here: http://goo.gl/5KFUiF
Here is the story as it appeared in ISASA’s Independent Education Magazine – Autumn Edition.
Lisa Parisi, teacher extraordinaire and global teacher of note, organised and collated this global collaboration video in honour of the International Day of Peace on 21 September. We very proud to have one of our Grade 4 classes contribute to the video! The song used for the video is Nothing More by The Alternate Routes. We think it turned out beautifully!
Take a look for yourselves:
Our Grade 6 classes are also exchanging Peace Cranes with international classes in Hawaii, Guatemala and Australia this year.
I feel like I am living in a dream! I am going to Atlanta, Georgia in the USA for the ISTE2014 conference! Better yet, I am going as an award winner! Yes, the project of my heart, The Travelling Rhinos Project, has won ISTE’s SIGOL Online Learning Award and as a result, I get to travel to Atlanta, attend the conference and receive an award! I also get to present my project in a two-hour poster session. I am beyond excited.
The annual ISTE conference has been on my bucket list for a number of years, but as a South African, actually getting there is a huge stretch. Not only is the distance a challenge, but the costs are prohibitive. However, I have now truly learnt that one should not give up on your dreams, and that dreams can come true – or, as my daughter said, miracles do happen!
What started off as a small, Flat Stanley-type project, has grown beyond my wildest dreams. Five little stuffed rhinos have touched hearts and captured the imagination of students and teachers all around the world. These rhinos have worked hard to raise awareness of the severe rhino poaching crisis in South Africa. They have travelled to the corners of the earth from South Africa to Australia and New Zealand to Singapore, Korea, China, Russia, Greece, Ireland, Guatemala, Canada and many states in the USA – including Alaska and later this year, Hawaii!
On their travels these little rhinos have visited the classrooms of passionate teachers who, with their students, have gone out of their way to raise awareness and use their voices in different ways, so that the future of our rhinos might be more certain. Each of the teachers followed a different approach, but their passion shone through in the activities they have involved their students in. We’ve had everything from rhino songs, rhino presentations, letters and articles in local media, art work, rhino sand castles, messages in bottles, posters, letters to President Zuma, rhino appeal videos, rhino assemblies, a shout-out on a radio station, a petition, fundraising (a bonus spin-off, totally unplanned) and so much more! Some teachers have even signed up for a second rhino visit.
Obviously technology has been the underlying success of this project. Through the wiki and other online tools such as VoiceThread, Padlet, YouTube, Glogster, Vimeo, blogs, Skype, Google Hangouts and others, the work done by these classes has been made all the more possible and the sharing and collaboration has been amazing.
All these wonderful activities have been documented in the project wiki for all to see. It has become a symbol of the power of PASSION – my passion for our rhinos and also the passion of the teachers and students who have participated in this project so far, and also those who will still participate in the future. These are the wonderful people who made this project possible and who have, ultimately, led me to this award. To each and every one of you, I am eternally grateful. You have become rhino warriors of note and your students have learnt so much, not just about rhinos, but also about how to be better citizens of this world by standing up for the animals and being the voices that they do not have. While there have been champions of this project, I do not want to highlight specific people here, for fear of omitting someone. Each and every teacher and student who has participated and contributed to this project so far has touched my heart profoundly. You have all made a difference in your own special way. For this I thank you all.
I would, however, like to extend my gratitude and thanks to Michael Graffin, co-founder of The Global Classroom Project. If it wasn’t for him, I would not have entered. He brought the ISTE SIGOL Online Learning Award to my attention about a year ago, when he suggested that I enter. I felt it too early then, but Michael didn’t leave it at that. Later in the year he reminded me of it again and then in December he again suggested I enter for the award – and that’s exactly what I did. The rest, as they say, is history! Thank you, Michael, from the bottom of my heart.
I also have to make mention of my school, Elkanah House. I have had nothing but support throughout this project and my colleagues and the management have joined me in celebrating the successes of this project. I am deeply indebted to them for helping me to make this dream a reality.
Much has to happen before I can jet off at the end of June. There are so many ideas going around in my head – a Travelling Rhinos teacher meet-up is high up on the agenda. I look forward to meeting face to face with the many online friends I have made over the past 17 months. Let the good times begin!
My inspiration
Thank you for taking time to read and share my blog post! Karen
Thank you very much for taking time to leave a comment! Karen
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Great Post !
I just love your karate blog. Being a karate mom for 11years I can relate. Keep up the good work.
Dear Sensei Ian, Thank you for taking the time to respond to my blog post. It is much appreciated. T
My reaction on “All about karate, but karate was not what it was all about” As a senior and experien
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