So it's has been a little while since I last added an entry to this blog. The school year is now in full swing and there a been quite a few new adventures I've gotten into since last time.
I had mentioned a teamwork building trip to an outdoor, overnight camp in Macau, specifically in the remote southern region called Coloane for our grade 9 students at the end of the last entry. The trip was quite stress-free for us teachers, as the outdoor education staff did a great job running everything and we were simply allowed to sit in the background to watch the kids go through the activities.
The first day had the kids participate in some uniquely challenging team building activities. One activity had them boosting up classmates to hurdle a very high horizontal bar, while another had students support each other in crossing a series of beams without having the beams make a noise when it touched the floor. In the evening, the kids had to prepare their own dinners and build their own stove for cooking their dinners on. As a courtesy to us teachers, we were provided with a properly cooked dinner prior to looking after the students build their stoves and prepare their food. I will say though that most of the student groups did a decent job in creating their food dishes. Extra credit grades go to the group that came to camp prepared by bringing curry powder to spicy up the dishes. It was a very late dinner after a long day of activities so the kids weren't too picky about what they were eating.
The second day provided the kids with even more firsts and other hair-raising adventures. They all had the opportunity to tackle new heights in completing a high ropes task or rock climbing activity. All of the naturally enthusiastic kids got a jump by getting in on the activities first. I noticed a few girls belaying for the kids who were climbing and together with my grade team, pushed them into trying the rock wall. A few of them were quite terrified of heights and one of the girls started tearing up which backed the other teachers off their attempts of getting her to try the activity. I persisted and after working through a good chunk of things to say from my motivational playbook, I got their entire little circle of girls to try the activity. That girl who teared up? Well she literally raced all the way to the top of the rock wall in very little time and was bursting with excitement and enthusiasm when she got back down to Earth. I also got another student, a boy to scale a high ropes challenge where he seemed petrified to move upon getting to the start of the rope line. Despite encouragement from his friends and the instructors at the place, he would only heed my instructions. Despite it not be an achievement of mine, I was very pleased that I was able to connect with the kids and help them overcome their fears and doubts to reach a goal they didn't think they could accomplish. It's a feeling every teacher prides themselves in and it was no different for me.
More recently, with the volleyball season starting to pick up steam, I decided to organize a tournament for the four volleyball teams at the school to play against each other and against a team of teachers. It was a busy Saturday, as I was running between playing the games and coaching the junior girls games. In the games that I played, it was not a pretty sight in the morning. As a team of teachers we were trying to be too fancy and had a lot of positional coverage errors in our first game vs the combined senior boys team. We re-grouped considerably better for the first set of the game against the starting players of the senior boys but experienced a collapse of grand proportions, while leading the set 23-20 late. The boys reeled off 5 straight points to take the set. Serve receive was abysmal for a considerable part of the 2nd set and it was not much of a contest by the time I rotated to the front court to play the setter position.
In the afternoon, I transitioned over to coaching the girls team. They started their first match vs. the junior boys. Most of the boys had never played organized volleyball before and few still had never been on a sports team before. Meanwhile, my girls team had 8 returning players who all have multiple years practicing with this team and not to mention, a full complement of starting players who were a part of the SCISAC championship winning team last year. In a game that didn't have the typical outcome when a boys team plays against a girls team, the girls keep a comfortable lead throughout the entire match. The difference of experience was evident. The girls executed the game plan somewhat sloppily but still effectively enough to win by a comfortable margin.
Right afterwards, my girls had a game against the senior girls team. In another game, where one would peg our team to be the underdogs on paper, we delivered a composed performance taking the first set comfortably. In the 2nd set, I decided to rest most of my starters and swap the remaining starters to their secondary positions. Despite the unusual formation, we dictated the pace of the game well and were in line to put our team's best server to drill a few serves before a few mental lapses closed the set unexpected against us. The girls came out completely flat-footed at the start of 3rd set and when they finally did snap out of their lethargy, all we could do the rest of the way was trade the senior girls point for point to the end of the match.
In the final game of their triple header, the girls were to face-off versus the teachers. A seemingly impossible task in theory, provided the most entertaining match of the day. The girls served well and didn't back down against the teachers at the net. The team played great defense and made opportunistic kills throughout the match to raise some eyebrows with all those in the gym. They actually took the first set 25-20 and forced the teachers to put their full effort into the next game. With a rejuvenated teachers' team in the second set, they jumped out to a big lead early. Reminiscent of the 3rd set versus the senior girls, by the team the team played up to their potential, they really could only trade points, clawing back minimally to lose the set 13-25. Digging deep, the girls started the 3rd set much stronger and resumed their fearless play against the teachers. But unfortunately, the team still lacked the killer instinct to close out a set after being besieged by some strong (but manageable) serves to have teacher pull even at 13-13 before edging out the girls 15-13. After the game, I've was repeated complimented by the other teachers' who played or even watched bits of the game on how my team was by far the most disciplined and really looked like they knew what they were doing out there. Despite 2 losses, overall the girls really do a great job and it has gotten me excited to see where their skill level will be by the end of the season at SCISAC.
Well that's all you'll get for this entry. But wait... weren't there a few long weekends the past few weeks as well? There were, and I did a good bit of traveling around the area just outside of Macau during those weekends. However, with a busy week and the Fall Break looming, I thought it would be a good idea to post more updates about my personal travel adventures a little bit later on. During the Fall Break, I'll be heading south to El Nido, Palawan, Philippines. A week of sun, sand, and gorgeous landscapes awaits myself and another teacher that I'm tagging along with for this trip. You'll have updates about the Fall Break trip and the previous ones as well in the next entry. Check back soon! I leave you with the promised pictures from my school based adventures the last few weeks. Enjoy!
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| Dom Bosco 2013 |
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