Sorry for the delay in posting....this past week was very very busy. First of all, we made some changes to the website over the first part of the week. Challenge of the new week for you: see if you can figure out the pages we made the changes to!
I also spent a fair bit of time making the presentation for the kids at Bloorview Kids Rehab as good as I could, but in the end a massive amount of props goes out to my two greatest heroes of the week (who saved my bacon).....Danielle Spenard and Christina Dabrowski!!
Christina not only helped me working on my presentation, but on top of that she made the most AWESOME boxfish you can imagine....well, why imagine? Here's the proof:
Seriously, COOL fish. Thank you sooooooo much, Christina!! You were awesome and thanks for all of the support in the last couple of weeks. And thank you for the little diver dude too, the kids loved it.
Danielle. Well, what can I say? She was a superstar. Danielle helped me co-present the whole thing. Not only that, but she met me on the Thursday for three hours to iron out some of the wrinkles; she made an octopus cake which her mum and dad decorated while she was at school all night; then she made more cake and decorated it at 1:00 a.m. when we found out we didn't have 6 kids to present to, but any where from 14 to 21; and, then we headed up to the school at 9 in the morning on Friday to set-up for the show.
Time was precious too on Wednesday and Thursday....Wednesday I had meetings galore (oh yeah......we have new stickers for the tanks!! These ones look great and they actually look like they'll stand up to the wear and tear of training and diving)....
Thursday was also our inaugural week-night class and our first e-Learning course candidate! It went great. E-Learning is definitely the way of the future, but I have to admit, it's a little odd getting used to it. The student turns up and is ready to go....but it's hard to tell exactly where they are in their understanding of the materials that they have covered. It's almost like a leap of faith for the instructor....you have to hope that they know what you are talking about as you start their pool session. Or perhaps it is more like testing the waters (ha, get the pun?)? I felt like I had to frequently probe the student as I proceeded from skill to skill to make sure they understood the material that covered the various attributes that the skills related to.
Anyway, e-Learning is undoubtedly going to be the way that the sport progresses, but the transition from knowing the student's level of understanding through classroom interaction to hoping they get it from their online studying, is simply strange. Regardless, our first class went well.
Then I got to go home and work late into the night finishing off the presentation.
I think the kids loved it. If you haven't popped onto our facebook page, you won't have seen the pics, so here are a select few......we could only take pictures of a certain number of the kids due to privacy concerns, so unfortunately you won't get to see the whole class:
I think Danielle also had fun....but more than that, she covered my butt when I needed a segue. We made a great team and there was a ton of interaction with the kids. The teachers were overly grateful (I've always felt shy receiving thanks) and they told us that the presentation was one of the best they've seen. They encouraged us to take the presentation on the road!! Danielle....you know it was your participation that made the presentation work for me.....thank you again!!
The only problem with that is that we left "Benny" the Boxfish in the kids' make-believe underwater reef...
....so if we do it again, Christina get your model-making hands back at it!! Oh....and did I say thanks, Christina?Ok, I'll leave it there for now, I may have lost some of you about five or so paragraphs back.....
Keep it Eel everyone....
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