Soccer,Culture, Growth and Memories: Panorama Ridge in La Trinity

A year of meetings, planning, and fundraising led to one culminating moment, the sense of euphoria, pride, accomplishment at the end of a successful experience travelling with my Senior Girls Soccer team from Surrey, British Columbia to the Twin Island Nation of Trinidad and Tobago.  Though we began our journey with a somewhat rocky start, having to spend over 18 hours in Philadelphia after the  plane was diverted for a medical emergency. The students and their resilience made the trip one of the most memorable life experiences I have had to date as an educator.

Highlights

1. The tireless work and support for an amazing soccer experience for all parties by Former Whitecaps Keeper and Mountain FC Coach Richard Goddard.  Richard set up the whole Tobago Tour leg including scrimmages, tours of Tobago (Bucco Reef, Nylon Pool and Bishops High School).  Richard is doing amazing things and trying to bring experiences for the youth of the Island of Tobago to open their eyes to the plethora of opportunities the world will provide with the right support.
2. Meeting members through the Division of Youth and Sport in Tobago who were wholly supportive of our tour and want to develop a relationship with our school to continue these types of tours for both parties involved.
3. Playing a Scrimmage with U17 National Team of Trinidad and Tobago at the historic Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima.
4. The Tours and Cultural Experiences the girls and chaperones participated in: (Bucco Reef, Nylon Pool, Bishop's High School, Tobago Sunday School, Trinidad and Tobago Fire Hall (Chaguanas), How to make a steeldrum with Historic Steelpan Innovator- Jimi Philip- Visiting the Panyard of Supernova's Steel Orchestra with the prolific arranger-Amrit Samaroo, Maracas Beach, Trincity Mall, Tours of Port of Spain, Tunapuna and St.Joseph.

With this all taken into consideration, the biggest highlight for me was to see the country of Trinidad and Tobago and its wonder through the eyes of the students.  They were so intrigued and willing to try new food, cultural activities, and experiences.  They knew this was a one in a lifetime experience and they wanted to take part in everything.  Watching them interact at Bishop's High School with the other students and realizing that they are all going through similar shared experiences allowed the girls a different perspective on life.  And though we went to play soccer, the girls came back with more:

1. Memories they will cherish with their friends and team-mates for the rest of their life.
2. A respect and understanding of how big and small the world is.  Though we all come from different, unique and beautiful spaces, many life experiences are relate-able- leading to a somewhat shared consciousness.
3. A respect and understanding for the socio-economic and cultural uniqueness of Trinidad and Tobago and how it affects the lives of the peoples of Trinidad and Tobago.
4. How diverse the islands are based on the historical battles of colonialism and how the affects of slavery and indentured servitude helped build the demography of the country. 
5. The social nuances and cultural nuances of each country and how to interact within these nuances.
6. But most important, how lucky and privileged they are to live the lives they do and how much of that is a direct correlation to their parents hardwork, love and support.  Many of the girls came back with more empathy and love for each other and everyone they socially interact with.

I hear the girls humming Calypso and Soca Music in the hallways.  I hear them talking about the beauty of the island, the innovation of its people, the understanding of the steelpan instrument and how exotic and delicious the local food was.  This is what learning is, it is knowledge, application, experience and synthesis.  The girls have become honorary Trini's and will be so for the rest of their lives.

The Complexity of Fostering Resiliency in Teacher Education

During a Master's presentation, a colleague (Nathanael Powell) pointed out that many students continue to not want to "struggle" or "learn through being uncomfortable" anymore.  The moment students are faced with tensions in their learning, they  no longer wantt to inquire or use problem solving skills to address the situation., hey just want the answer given to them. Some theorists have speculated that technology and its ability to provide instant gratification has encourage this process. While other theorists point at helicopter parenting-(in which parents hover and stop kids from experiencing and learning from failure) has also led to the inability of societal members and primarily our "Students" from learning to be resilient.

Resilience is one of those educational "buzz" words that describes a characteristic in which students when presented with failure can 'bounce back', learn and push forward in their goals.  Too be honest, I think there are many students that are resilient, maybe not in all aspects of the 7 C's (confidence, character,competence, contribution, coping, connection, control)  but are on their way to reaching a level which allows them to adapt to stress and adversity effectively.  What concerns me with the discussion of resiliency is that many teachers, parents, and other educational stakeholders do not have it themselves or those who do, do not model it.

In its professionalism, teaching is seen as an occupation that requires teachers to be perfect, smart and to never make mistakes. Teachers use to rarely admit that they were wrong, and many still don't. Vulnerabilities were never shown and many continue not to share personal triumphs and examples adversity and resilience. 
What becomes even more glaring is that Teacher education candidates are affected by resiliency in different ways:

a)  Because of the aforementioned ideas of why young societal members lack resiliency, many Teacher education candidates do not have skills in resiliency to be successful.  Some expect their mentor teachers to do everything for them, others become defensive when taking feedback, and some don't have the basic skills to survive the demands of a teaching day, far less a career.

b).  These teacher candidates perception of teaching being  squeaky clean, safe, and easy comes from the observation of Master educators who have had their fair share of adversity, but now are well oiled machines.  The vicious cycle of perpetuation leads to an unattainable idea of what perfection looks like.

c).  The third idea of resilience is the most alarming.  Many teachers remember their teaching experience and all the work, hardship and adversity they went through and expect their teacher candidates to be just as resilient as they were.  Though we do not state to our teacher candidates they have to be perfect and even though we know that they are a work in progress, we expect them to reach a level of perfection before we open the gate into the profession.  Those expectations at time can be so severe that some teacher-candidates quit, and we allude to their lack of resiliency as their failure.

d).  As a mentor teacher- finding that fine line or feeling that my student teacher is going through and finding that appropriate time to allow them to falter or that moment when stepping in would be more beneficial.  I know many will point out that being a good mentor is realizing these moments are difficult to define.

In the end, resiliency is an important characteristic that helps all individuals deal with those "That's Life" moments.  We as educators must not focus on resiliency and fostering it squarely within our students. We also have to look at growing and fostering resiliency in ourselves, future educators and adult societal members who have lost opportunities to experience these situations as children.  Our children are our future, but their role models are present, and if we presently do not model this integral characteristic, how do we expect them to learn, analyze, apply and synthesize this in their lives.  Modelling perfection and ease is not the purpose.  Share your trials and tribulations, success and failures, the messy, the complex and the misfortunes. In these vulnerable moments, our students will not just learn, but grow.

Social & Emotional Intelligence and Intercultural Diversity

Buzz words, re-introduced ideas, and new discussions continue to permeate the world of education on a consistent basis.  Social and Emotional Intelligence (#SEL) is something that has risen to the forefront in the District that I work in.  It is important that students learn to recognize and exhibit appropriate behaviors in the appropriate settings.  Actions that were seen as socially acceptable in one era may have not been passed down or perpetuated in subsequent years.  With the bombardment of images of violence, sexism, poverty, hunger, racism, economic inequality, and environmental eradication, students are coming to school with less skills to self regulate.   Playgrounds and social learning environments of the past are no longer rites of passages for students of the future as they are learning difficult lessons on a more grand and public stage: Social Media.  Where you may have learned a life lesson at the mall, or local community recreational center, many students are learning these lessons publicly on the internet and with a bigger audience who can comment, ridicule, and shame the person learning the lesson.  

Now, even though Canada prides itself as being multicultural and tolerant there has been a shift to covert or closet racism that has taken place.  Educational stakeholders and community leaders may argue that it is not as bad as the U.S. and that we are a lot better than before.  Nonetheless, the truth is that within many of our schools in the lower mainland, segregation exists!  Whether it is overtly or covertly implemented, many children in our diverse classrooms choose to be with people of their own socio-cultural ethnic background.  At the elementary school level, it may not be as prominent, but in my high-school experience, many of my friends who were inclusive during their elementary years became more prescriptive with who they considered to be their friends when they entered high-school.  The same situation exists in my current school where kids are segregating themselves based on race.

Donald Sterling made headlines for his rant about black people coming to basketball games! With the internet, more and more younger societal members are sharing their beliefs and stereotypes about race. Student athletes of all socio-cultural ethnic backgrounds are losing scholarships for using racist language in their tweets and posts on Social Media.  The other day in the hallway, two kids who define themselves as "Best Friends" were pulled aside by myself and another teacher for their choice of nicknames for each other which were "Nigger" and "Terrorist".  Many students listen to hip hop music and follow the culture and believe because their favorite artists use these terms on a consistent basis, that they are allowed to as well.  Many hardcore rappers use the N-Word in their lyrics, but Justin Bieber was busted a couple days ago for using derogatory terms to describe black people.  Rapper Joe Budden had to apologize on Twitter for calling an elderly Sikh man a terrorist and posting a picture on twitter.  Now on a brilliant side note, people are holding young members of society responsible for their inappropriate actions, but it still does not address the big picture that Intercultural Diversity needs to be a mainstay in discussing social and emotional intelligence.

As more and more people from diverse cultural backgrounds enter our communities and our schools, we must be able to share their culture in our classrooms with our students.  This will allow two things to happen: a) It will lead to a feeling of inclusion for students in the class which will lead a larger sense of the community, and b) It will allow students to learn about each others socio-cultural ethnic backgrounds leading to a better understanding of the student.  I remember sitting in an elementary school class just after the Holidays (as a student teacher) and observing a teacher asking the students what they got for Christmas, and many of the students answering that they did not celebrate Christmas, much to the dismay and embarrassment of the teacher.  What a humbling time for that teacher, but also an amazing paradoxical teaching moment to challenge their assumptions in their classroom interactions and practice.

If more and more students are seeing racist, sexist, and other societal inequalities in the media and from their supposed role models, then it is up to parents and teachers to challenge their ideas and to help develop their Social and Emotional intelligence on how to learn about different cultures and peoples without offending those people.  Hopefully, as students get to learn more about each others socio-cultural backgrounds then maybe they will become truly more understanding of these differences and in retrospect more accepting than some of  our current societal members in the present Canadian climate.