TTT

Never ending to-do list

This past Friday was a district-wide in-service day for the 9 international schools in Quito. The event, called Teachers Teaching Teachers, or TTT for short, happens in Quito every two years and is an opportunity for educators to share their expertise and to learn from and exchange ideas with other like-minded professionals.

This year, the theme was Student Engagement and the event was hosted by Colegio Menor down in the valley. Nine schools and 1,000 participants attended. Way back in November there was a call for proposals to present, and of course I submitted a proposal. I said I would be happy to share Robert Marzano’s research on student engagement, this being an area of great familiarity due to my time in our previous school district. My proposal was selected and I was asked to present my session twice. Now before you go getting impressed, I don’t think anyone that submitted a proposal was not selected. And while some only had to present once, there were several teachers asked to do it twice.

You may be surprised to hear that when it comes to projects such as these, I am a hopeless procrastinator. Have been that way since college. I could have been assigned a research paper or essay 3 months in advance. But for some reason I could just never force myself to put pen to paper until usually about 48 hours prior to the due date. And the quality of my work was never compromised. I still always got A’s on everything. This probably only served to reinforce my procrastination. I learned that I could do really good work on really short notice. Besides, I always found something charming about those 2 am visits to Kinko’s, eyes twitching from being awake for two days, heart racing from the unsafe levels of caffeine I’d consumed.

Seriously, the list didn't end

And sadly, even as a full grown, mostly responsible adult, it appears I still suffer from project procrastination. I mentioned my proposal was accepted back in November. So I was given over 4 months to pull a presentation together. It wasn’t until early February that I started at least writing “Start Marzano PD” on my weekly to-do list. And there it sat for weeks. It wasn’t until this past Monday, with the conference being held on Friday that I finally decided to get to work.

Now let me say, I’m quite comfortable with the information. I remember the research, I understand the philosophy, and I can speak confidently about this topic. But it’s when I start putting together a presentation, and designing slides, and inserting charts that I turn into a real crazy person.

I know a lot of people would say it’s not the design of your presentation that’s important, it’s the information that matters. And yeah, I get that. But I also disagree to an extent. Presentation is extremely important. To me, at least. I find it incredibly distracting when I see a presentation that’s sloppy, or I spot a typo, or an image is distorted, or (perish the thought!) clipart is used that still has a visible watermark! Eeek! To me, it’s extremely important for the information to be good AND to have it presented to me in a polished and professional manner.

So yes, I browse Google Slide themes for longer than I should. I make sure all my images and text boxes are perfectly centered. I check that the font and alignment is the same on every slide. I choose themes and colors and layouts that are going to be aesthetically pleasing and creative. And so I end up adding a lot of time onto my projects. And I go a little crazy.

It got bad last week because in addition to all of my Type A eccentricities, I also started to question my entire structure. Should I take this out? No, I need to add more information on this. I need more examples. Less videos. More videos. I NEED TO CHANGE EVERYTHING. OH MY GOSH, I SHOULD JUST START OVER. WHAT HAVE I DONE, THIS WAS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. 

Such a long list

My school days were filled with back-to-back reading classes, and I meetings before and after school almost every day. Leaving me hardly any time to work on my presentation. Unless I were to bring it home, but then again one of my symptoms as a procrastinator is being unable to work from home.

So I was down to the wire, completely stressed, not sleeping because I was obsessing over my presentation and questioning every decision I had ever made.

I think there’s something really intimidating about presenting at conferences like this. It’s a well-known saying that teachers make the worst students. We tend to be jaded and sarcastic when people are trying to give us professional development. We think everything is easier said than done. We can be extremely critical. But we can also be incredibly kind and appreciative and encouraging. It’s a mixed bag of emotions, really.

And when you combine that with someone who is by nature a perfectionist, then it can be a pretty stressful scenario. Friday morning I was a complete mess. I was so stressed and worried that I wouldn’t do a good job. And, (likely due to my stress levels) I was beginning to get a head cold on top of it.

Justin did a really good job of trying to calm me down. He even came to my first session and sat in the back and kept giving me smiles and nods of reassurance. I was really grateful for that. He even wrote me a really sweet note that I read afterwards just encouraging and supporting me. It was super sweet and it really helped me to calm down for the second round.

Presentation Time

What’s funny is that I got extremely positive feedback from several participants. Especially comments on how “well-organized” “thorough” and “extremely clear” and “really easy to understand.” Ha! All of those tiny little details that I obsess over are exactly what people appreciate from me!

So I guess the fret and agony paid off. I definitely have not learned my lesson about procrastinating. And I can guarantee I will do this to myself again. But at least I know that it’s received well! And my behind-the-scenes existential crises and meticulous nit-picking all comes off to the casual observer as smooth, cool, and polished.

Island Hoppin'

It's over. It's finally over. Our long and arduous basketball season has come to an end, and I as the coach, get to finally take a break. I wrote a bit about coaching the JV team last year and I had a blast doing it. Last year I wrote about the interesting dynamic and balance kids have when it comes to sports. They view sports as an extracurricular activity rather than life. That is healthy. It was much of the same this year. We had a pretty solid year, going 9-5 with a group of young and inexperienced players. It was similar to previous years with one exception, tournaments. In international schools, the varsity teams are often sent to cool exotic locations for tournaments. This year, it was the beautiful Caribbean island country of Trinidad and Tobago. We would be going with our boys basketball team and our girls soccer team.

Great Basketball Season

 Now, the trip was awesome. Amazing even. However, while my trip was paid for by the school, (being coach has its perks) I was not able to bring my whole team. It was an expensive trip, and as a result I only brought 5 players to the tournament. In case you didn't know, the minimum for playing a basketball game is 5. If I had any injuries, or kids got tired, or someone fouled out...tough. It was a tough task to take on, but still...we were going to Trinidad.

Last week before we left, we gave the whole speech about behaving properly and partying and all of that stuff to the team. The morning we left, we met up at the school at 5:00am and boarded up. We were in the air by 7:00 headed for the islands. When we landed in Trinidad, I was taken aback a bit by the sweltering heat. I lived in Florida for 5 years before moving to Ecuador, and I was accustomed to the kind of heat that makes you baste in your own sweat as you slowly roast from the inside out. This was something different. The heat was intense and unwavering, but within minutes, a cool Caribbean breeze settled in on us and all was right with the world.

A bus picked us up and took us to the school for an opening ceremony. I have never in my life been to a country where they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel was on the right. It was quite an adjustment to me. Every corner we came around I was momentarily convinced that we were going to be in a head on collision and end up in more pieces than a jigsaw puzzle. It is very disorienting.

Representing Ecuador

We did a little opening ceremony where each team and each coach was introduced. This was also the point where I looked around and saw that our competition was stock piled with rosters of 11 or 12 each, some full of 6'5 grown men. I looked at my tiny collection of tiny boys and sighed. But then I was comforted by the fact that, yes I was in the Caribbean for free. Also, our kids have a healthy view on the balance of sports and life. All good. The ceremony also featured national anthems with kids singing at the top of their lungs, some even sporting their country's flag like scarves. That was pretty cool. It's not often kids get the opportunity to display such nationalism. Sure they since their national anthems in school and pledge their undying allegiances to people, places, and ideas, but how often do children get to REPRESENT their country? It was kind of like a mini-Olympics for them. The countries represented were Ecuador, Trinidad, Venezuela, Panama, and of course our hosts, Trinidad and Tobago.

Fab Five Fought Hard

After the ceremony, our kids were whisked away by the brave and helpful souls of parents from the school in Trinidad. They were eager to take our kids in, feed them, and provide transportation to and from the school. Hopefully the kids saw the kindness of their hospitality and behaved accordingly. Maybe they even picked up some culture along the way.

The games started the next morning and we were up in the second game. We played a school from Panama and lost a close game. It was clear to me that with more games left in the day, my kids were going to be exhausted. So is the game of basketball. Our second game featured the home team from Trinidad and they sported two giants. If I would have saw them on the street I would have assumed they were 28 year old body builders who worked nights as bouncers at a local club. We got smoked in that game. My kids didn't know what to do when one of the bouncers dunked. "But coach, he was so high he could have bit the rim..." Oh well.

That afternoon, the kids went out to a local mall and had a chance to hang out with the kids from the other schools. I took the opportunity to go to a local grocery store and buy some spicy sauces and curries native to the island. I also loaded up on the luxury goods we can't get in Ecuador that Shannon and I value so highly. This included buffalo sauce, M&Ms, malt vinegar, dill pickles, and the like.

That night after our hosts whisked away our responsibilities players, and we had a coach's social. This consisted of having a local beer or two and eating copious amounts of incredible and spicy food from Trinidad. We talked about what it was like to live in each country. We had opportunities to vent about the frustrations we had with our living situations, and also praise the incredible opportunities we were given. It was a really cool and unique experience.

Speedboat Chaperoning

The next day we had one more game against the Dominican Republic before heading out for our "cultural outing." We lost the game but were quickly consoled with some good food and put on a bus.

Cultural Day on a Private Island

After a 20 minute bus ride, we arrived at a local dock and all of the teams hopped on speedboats. Side note: In the United States, many families who have the means to, buy their children a car when they reach 15 or 16 as a milestone gift. In Trinidad, at least with these international school kids, they get a car and a speedboat. So the children of our host school took their speedboats and drove us through the Caribbean Sea to a private island residence. Fact: It's impossible to NOT smile on a speedboat going full speed. There, the kids had a party. There was a ton of food, drinks, a pool, a jacuzzi, a private beach, and well...we were spoiled for the day. I want to wait a second to let that soak in. We were taken by the kids, and their speedboats, to the residence of another kid, ON A PRIVATE ISLAND. The kids had a blast.

We Really Had it Rough

When it was time to return, we were all exhausted from the games, the sun, and swimming. Poor us. The kids got picked up by their hosts again and the coaches went out to dinner again to gorge on more spicy stuff, fish, and other local delicacies. The days were long (6am-11pm every day) but they were fun.

The last day we were there, we played hard and lost in the playoffs. Our kids were rewarded with some more delicious food, food trucks, a carnival at the school, and a party at the school that night. All in all they got to play sports they loved, meet kids from similar situations, see incredible sights and have fun.

Gearing Up for a Tough Game

Our trip back was somewhat eventful as it involved getting immigration and customs forms squared away for ourselves and our players. We also had to sprint across an airport in our team gear at the airport in Panama to catch a connecting flight. We made it. We had fun. We're home now. The season is over and we can rest.

Culturally speaking, in my experience the people from Trinidad were very warm and open. They speak English which was comforting to me after wading in the land of Spanish. (Although admittedly it took me a day or two to decode the thick Caribbean accents that lace their words) The food was spicy and featured a lot of vegetarian and seafood options. I had two personal favorite dishes in particular. The first was the double, which was basically a fried casing containing some sort of chickpea concoction and tons of sweet and spicy pepper sauce. The second was called bake and shark. It consisted of the same fried casing, kind of like a soft battered pita pocket, fried shark meat, cucumbers, spicy garlic sauce, and pineapple. WOW. It was out of this world. I was a little surprised at the sheer overwhelming number of people of Indian decent. I had never read up much on Trinidad but that was a surprise and a really interesting part of my experience on the island. The people, food, temperature, and everything else was fantastic.