Happy Birthday Dad — Still Learning from You

Reenacting my high school graduation photo. This time at my Masters Convocation in 2009.

I’ve felt compelled share a bit of my Dad’s story since I read George Couros blog about his Dad.  A lot of who I am today as a father, husband, son, brother, friend, and educator were born in the loud and quiet moments I shared with my Dad.  Here is a small part of my Dad’s story on what would be his 76th birthday.

He was the hardest working, generous, and most selfless person I knew.  He had a quick witted sense of humour that would light up a room. If something needed to be done he would figure out a way to get it done.  He was the eternal optimist.  He loved people and formed many strong relationships with friends and family during his 74 plus years.  His strongest relationship was the one he had with his bride, our mom, Rita.  We miss him dearly but as a family we are supporting our Mom and helping her grieve, remember, smile, and enjoy her 6 children and now 14 grandchildren and counting.  She is the matriarch of our family and we love her and our Dad immensely.

Dad was born in Humbolt, Saskatchewan on May 22nd, 1937. He was the eldest child of Grandpa Hughie’s and Grandma Dolores’ children.  As a toddler he moved with the family to Wiseton, Saskatchewan where the family settled, ran the town store and Dad grew up with his 3 younger siblings. Growing up he enjoyed playing the trombone for dances in the area with his family’s jazz band the Hugh McDonald Family Orchestra. Hearing countless stories about our mischievous Dad growing up helped us understand the root of his sense of humour and some of our frustrations with him growing up.

McDonald Family Photo at the site of the town store in Wiseton, Saskatchewan.  It is the store my Grandpa and Grandma ran from 1942-1980.

My Mom and Dad met in September 1974 and were married December 18th, 1975. Soon after their wedding they started building their life and their family together. I was born in June 1976, Wendy in June 1977, Louise in November 1978, and Eleanor in February of 1980. For those keeping track that is 4 children in just over 3 ½ years. I kept requesting brothers and they kept coming back with sisters. In reflection I see this as my earliest realization that my Dad was a tad bit stubborn and mom was a tad apologetic. There is nothing I can do she would say.  In July 1984 our youngest sister Delores was born and our family became complete for the time being. Including my older sister Tracy, I had 5 sisters. We were a busy and chaotic family growing up but a loving and supportive one.  I have many fond memories of our Dad.  The one that constantly sticks out in my mind is his when the many times he whispered into my ears that he is proud of me.  It is the same phrase I whisper to my kids before I tell them I love them and tuck them into bed each night.

It was with profound sadness we said our goodbyes to a Husband, Dad, Friend, and colleague at 3:41pm September 2, 2011 at the age of 74. He passed from complications relating to kidney cancer discovered only 2 weeks previous. We were optimistic he would overcome his sickness to battle the cancer made it difficult for the doctors to help him with some of his other health issues.  It was the saddest day of my life.

Our Dad had an unbelievable 42 year run as a top sales person with Ford Motor Company. He was an incredibly smart, funny, hardworking, and passionate man. He was always very protective of his clients and wanted to do the best for them. He was a great jokester, and was always finding the good and opportunity in any situation no matter how difficult it seemed. Sir Winston Churchill stated,

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

This was our Dad in a nutshell. He was an optimist, and he tried to always come up with a solution no matter how difficult the situation seemed or how many hoops he had to jump through to help you.  It wasn’t out of character for Dad to give an out of town guest one of our family vehicles or offer up a place to stay. Sometimes he would send his son on a bus to Northern Alberta or Central Saskatchewan at the drop of a hat to help a customer because it was the only place where you could find that model or colour of vehicle in Western Canada.  Dad’s generosity and selflessness were legendary.  He cherished, protected, and devoted his life to his family and his many close friends. Those who knew our Dad closely knew that he often put the needs of others before his own. He loved his family, Dixieland Jazz Music, Airplanes, Air shows, Air racing, old cars, and smiles.

I’ll close this post with a short note I read to my Dad at his funeral in September 2011.

Dad,

You are a hero to your family and friends. Your 6 children learned well from you and Mom. Your grandchildren will learn a lot about your passions and the importance families, friends, and relationships are to the foundation of a quality and enjoyable life. Cancer may have complicated things and took your life, but it didn’t take your heart. It continued to beat in us after we said our tearful good-byes in hospital. All of us with the support and love of Mom will do everything we can to create a generation of hardworking thinkers that will contribute to society positively and help find a cure for Cancer and prevent future tragedies in future generations.

We love you and will miss you everyday. Each time a plane flies over head we will think of you and smile knowing that you are with us to help guide us.

Notice the plane my children spotted in this video?  Love you Dad!  I hope you enjoy the view.  We are doing well, but we miss your presence everyday.  Happy Birthday!

Hugh

Genius Hour is Personalized Learning

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daverugby83/6257970819/

I feel the importance of personalizing learning for students should be at the forefront of any discussion relating to education and Genius Hour does that. We want to find ways to engage students as learners and creators of inquiry driven content. Students want to feel connected to the learning that is happening in their classroom and the standardization of learning across North America does not do that.  Students in many classrooms around North America are motivated by letter grades and percentages and NOT LEARNING! Students in our classrooms are like adults in the real world.  If you do not engage them in their learning then they will not know how to learn and not want to learn. How else can you explain large chunks of the population dropping out from school?

http://tinyurl.com/cmazcw5

Please check out this journal article published in Educational Leadership. “Special Report: Why Students Drop Out” by Amy Azzam. She states,

“Approximately ⅓ of all high school students in the United States fail to graduate. For Blacks and Hispanics this rate rises to 50 percent. Why are students dropping out in droves? No one knows better than the students themselves.”

The number one reason the students gave for why they were dropping out was they were bored with school! Yikes!! Inquiry driven models like Genius Hour put the focus on how to question, persevere, and recognize the joy of learning more about their passions. If we give students more opportunity (time) to be creative and connect with what they are learning, then I am sure legislatures around North America and the world will have to adjust their thinking and education policy to support Genius Hour.  Our understanding of school is shifting and we must embrace it and listen to what the world of learners is telling us.

“Connect me to my learning, so I can inspire others and myself.”

It is not enough anymore to say we are creating a generation of life-long learners if we are not embracing a change in our philosophy in schools to a more personalized inquiry driven model that connects a student’s learning to the world.  Engage them and teach them how to learn and they will learn for a lifetime. They will be motivated to ask questions and find solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems (poverty, cancer, aids, civil wars, etc…). Dan Pink’s book “Drive” and Ted Talk has really pushed my thinking on individual motivation.

Simply put, Genius Hour is here to stay because it engages the learner to question and want to learn more.  It provides the time and framework for students to engage in their learning and be driven by a connection to their passion rather than the “carrots” traditional models of grading use to attempt to engage learners.  We know this doesn’t drive learning.   Teresa Amabile is quoted in “Drive”:

“External rewards and punishments – both carrots and sticks – can work nicely for algorithmic tasks. But they can be devastating for heuristic ones.”

Knowing this the only question we should have is how do we create opportunities for all learners at all levels of schooling to experience the magic of Genius Hour? Above is a built upon excerpt of my contribution to the Genius Hour Manifesto.

Hugh McDonald @hughtheteacher

Genius Hour Manifesto

Gallit Zvi, Denise Krebs, Joy Kirr and I collaborated to write the “Genius Hour Manifesto” It was published in Education is My Life (@edismylife).  Thank you A.J. Juliani for giving us the platform to share our insights.  Genius Hour is a passion of ours, and we are excited to share more of its story with the world.

It gives the story behind Genius Hour, how it looks in our classrooms, what is the future of Genius Hour learning, and how everyone can get involved.  Be sure to refer to the Genius Hour Wiki for the many great resources used by Genius Hour teachers that were collected by Gallit, Joy, and Denise.

Image by Abode of Chaos – Thierry Hermann

Thank you for reading my blog!  Enjoy the read and please share the Genius Hour Manifesto with the world!  Inquiry and passion based learning should be the focus rather than percents and letter grades.  Let’s connect with each other and make it happen for the learners in our classrooms!

Sincerely,

Hugh McDonald (@hughtheteacher)

What's the Difference Between "Doing Projects" and "Project Based Learning"?

Reblogged from TeachBytes:

Thanks to Amy Mayer of FriEdTechnology for this fantastic comparison describing the key differences between "doing projects" and project-based learning! This, my friends, is exactly what I have been trying so ineptly to explain to educators at my own school. There's a BIG difference, and one that completely changes how the classroom is run and what students take out of it.

Late Work: The Thorn in My Side

Reblogged from YA Book Bridges:

****Addendum added at the end of the original post*****
In my thirteenth year of teaching, there is one thing that has NEVER changed about me: I hate late work. Before I go any further, let me share my definition of late work. In my mind, "late work" is any assignment or project for which a student was present in the classroom when assigned or worked on, and s/he just doesn't do it.

Read more… 1,359 more words

My response to this blog post. What do you think? It really got me thinking. I agree completely with you Denise and Joy! School deadlines imposed by some teachers do not reflect all real life situations. More student choice, conferences, and portfolio demonstrations of learning is where education is going. It may be further away in some countries, states, provinces, citities, districts, etc., but I am fortunate I work in an area where we are starting to see some light in the tunnel. We can't see the end of the tunnel yet, but we are moving in the right drection. Yabrookbridges, agree with you on your point on numerical values in assessing student learning. I do appreciate your post because it has had me reflect on my own perspective. I to agree with Denise that if you worked beside me I would frustrate you because our "deadlines" are often rough ones. I care more about what they can show & tell me about their learning & the growth they have experienced than if they can get something in on time. Grading is the problem & should disappear sooner than later. What does 80% look like anyway? What does it mean to the student? Therefore it comes back to us to help guide students to create meaningful learning experiences for themselves & guide them in establishing their own assessment models. Again this might be easier in some areas of Canada & the US than in others but it is our responsibility as educators to demonstrate to the uninformed (people who are not educators) that the focus on learning should be the center of all decisions in education & not whether a student's excuse for not having something in on time. Some are valid & some not so valid. Are we going to give a student a zero for an assignment for their learning when it is not their learning that is the problem? Poverty, mental health, work habits, family, etc... these are all real issues students face everyday. It may not be as prevalent in some but it is overwhelming in others. If your concern is about students & deadlines then involve them in the process. Engage them in the process. Engage them to create projects, criteria, meaningful rubrics, & help them establish deadlines. My belief is the voices (blogs, videos, & other visual demonstrations of learning) of students in our classes showing the why & how behind their learning will transform learning from quantitative external evaluations to students understanding their own learning in deep & personal demonstrations. Assessment for learning is a must! Will it be quick? No! Will it be messy? Yes! Will it ensure 100% of your students handing everything in on time? No... but they will be more concerned about their learning & more likely to hand something in on time because they were expected to lend their voice. We as a collective must look at our practice more critically to figure out ways to meet the needs of all he learners in our classes. This includes students who struggle with deadlines for a variety of reasons. Thank you for sharing! Hugh

Caine’s Arcade Style: Project Based Learning

http://tinyurl.com/ajeyzgt

We have been doing a lot of learning this year that is different than I would have imagined if you would have asked me 17 months ago. My teaching colleague, Gallit Zvi and I embarked on our own journey of discovery to team teach 2 classes of grade 6/7 students.   When we started we were nervous but excited to start.  We didn’t know where it was going to take us because we were constantly learning new things on twitter that we could adapt, collaborate on, and make our own.  We did know that we both wanted to jump into a project based model for student learning because we knew we could model a collaborative environment necessary to make it successful for our students.  However we didn’t know where and how to start.  We saw ourselves as guides through unique learning experiences that connect learning in the classroom to their lives outside of the classroom.  We were just looking for that sign on which direction we should help guide them towards.

Eyes_Wide_Open_by_joshthecartoonguy

This past summer our eyes were opened wide by a number different blog and twitter posts about the value of project based learning and the magic that is involved with connecting student’s learning across the curriculum and to life outside of the classroom.  Shelley Wright and others discuss this often on their blogs and websites.  Shelley, in November 2012 spoke passionately at the Surrey School District‘s Engaging the Digital Learner Dinner Series.   She spoke about the power of project based learning and  shared her journey from a teacher in a teacher-centred learning environment to a guide in a student-centred learning environment.   Inspiring examples of engaged students making a difference in their learning and the lives of people in their community rang throughout the hall and into the hearts of the 400 plus educators in attendance that night.  Gallit and I knew we had to take action and move forward!

http://tinyurl.com/buenbuk

We started integrating learning outcomes for students across different subject areas and streams within those subject areas.   One of our projects this year was our Caine’s Arcade inspired Math Project based on 9 year-old Caine’s Cardboard Arcade featured in this video.

To be honest we were nervous to start because neither of us had ever really done a Math based project before.

http://tinyurl.com/b2tfhr6

Prior to this year Gallit and I taught the majority of our Math separately from the other subject areas.  We taught it through textbook, manipulatives, worksheets, problem of the weeks, big 5s, quizzes, etcetera.  However the use of manipulatives did not occur as much as we would have liked.  It was what we knew, how we were taught, and what we were comfortable with.  For us to move to a model of student- centred discovery model from a more teacher driven model was nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time.  Check out a quick glimpse into our learning below in our fun and inspiring movie trailer.  This is the first time I used the iMovie app to make a trailer of our learning and loved every second of it.  Gallit and I can see us doing the same thing in the future with our students using this digital story telling idea to share their own learning journey in an engaging way.  Enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/bw4vr4u

We wanted our students to demonstrate their learning through collaborative hands on experiences during Math learning times and then have them independently be able to explain it according to a 4 point rubric that we helped guide individual groups to create.  Our Cardboard Journey had begun!  Although the students learning outcomes for the project were the same how each group chose to demonstrate it was different.  A fully meeting expectations for one group looked different than another group. We soon began to realize they were incorporating their own creative touches to their projects to make it their own.  Soon students were asking for brushes, paint, scissors, balls, buckets, and we were happy to oblige to assist in making it happen for them.  It was organized chaos in its finest form.  Students were excited about their ideas.  Most students were focussed and listened to the person or persons who designated themselves as the conscience(s) of the group in order to ensure what they were doing was attempting to meet the learning outcomes introduced to them.

http://tinyurl.com/a98fss9

Was our Math Arcade time smooth?  No…  Were we always comfortable with it?  No…  Was it Messy?  Yes!! Was it fun? … Yes!! Was it engaging? … Yes!! … Were our students learning what we intended them to learn? … Yes and no!

http://brebru.com/education/pg2.gi

We expected students to gel together as a group, embrace themselves as learners and check off each learning outcome as soon as they felt they could fully meet the learning outcome.  We modelled checking for understanding of the learning outcomes in the project and how to question their learning in terms of knowing how they could explain and demonstrate to others.

However our assumption that we could have the students fully demonstrate their learning on all the learning outcomes we had outlined for them was a stretch on our part.  Some students still struggled with explaining how their project relates to angles, probabilities, fractions, etc.  We did discover that students who were strong math students adapted and continued to be strong math students.  The difference being they were learning, being curious, and asking questions alongside those who struggled with math.  This was a big change.  Learning was happening differently.  They became co-learners asking questions and discovering.  Instead of one student understanding and trying to explain it to another.  Often it was a one-sided street.  One person was asking the questions and the other person hopped into the “learning” car for the ride.  More students were attempting to be resourceful and connected learners.

http://tinyurl.com/ae5337y

Most students were asking questions and actively seeking out answers about their learning that they would never had done before when in our teacher centred model.  Although some still had difficulty with some areas of explaining their math learning, they did feel motivated to try to understand.  Isn’t that the key?  Do we all learn at the same rate?  No!  Project Based Learning provides all students with opportunities to ask questions, make connections, be curious, and learn how to be a learner.  I strongly feel this positive learning opportunity will help ease my students into seeing themselves as self-directed passionate learners of Math.  Much in the same way as our Genius Hour time does for them and their passions.  Who knows maybe we’ll see our first Math based Genius Hour project in the future.  Small steps can produce great life long learning passions.  Time will tell but I love the path we have chosen because I know our students are loving to learn and seeing how .

This is why we decided to do 2 other projects with the same learning outcomes.  This way our students could have more time to connect with the learning outcomes, and we have more time to guide them to see how they relate to other facets in life.  We also decided to include writing, assessment, visual arts, and oral language learning outcomes into our Math Based Project.  Our next project will see our students become an architect of their own bedroom and integrate different streams of Math Learning Outcomes.  Using space and shape,  3-D Objects & 2-D Shapes, and Number Connection learning outcomes they will draw scale diagrams and then build it to scale in model form.

We believe that the days of “covering” a lot of learning outcomes is slowly making its way out the door of education in favour of learning opportunities for students that personalizes learning and creates increased opportunities for them to dive deeper into their learning.  How refreshing is that?  Teaching kids how to learn rather than focussing specifically on content that can be googled.  Awesome!  Thank you to everyone in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) who share their practice and help me formulate ideas that become bigger ideas.  In the words of Tony the Tiger, “You’re greaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

http://tinyurl.com/b9lr2zj

I am excited for our next journey, we and are thankful for a 9 year-old boy Caine who inspired us to connect the dots and help us understand where good ideas come from and how we can foster this understanding in students.  They aren’t these big AHA moments.  They are a cumulation of ideas that meld together to form a bigger idea.  Stephen Johnson’s  Ted Talk “Where Good Ideas Come From” summarizes how our Caine’s Arcade Style: Project Based Learning Project was born from many ideas and took shape through collaborative questioning, research, and play with Gallit and the students in Divisions 3 and 4.

What was your learning journey into project based learning?  How did your ideas take shape and inspire the eventual project(s) you and your students engaged in?  I look forward to learning with you.  Thank you Gallit for joining me on this journey!

Sincerely,

Hugh McDonald

@hughtheteacher

Sharing Genius Hour – “Simple to You and Amazing to Others”

Genius Hour and other models of student inquiry are necessary if we are going to spark the thinkers of the next generation to great heights of innovation, self actualization, and self-regulation of their learning. The next step we as educators, parents, and schools must take (and more and more are taking now) is to celebrate this genius any chance we get on a grander scale than just the classroom or school level. The more our students realize they can make and control their positive digital footprint in this world the less likely their genius ideas will escape them.

My fear is students will shrug off potentially brilliant, creative and genius ideas as something that someone else “probably” thought of or something not worth mentioning or exploring because it doesn’t fit into model of learning laid by their teacher, parents, or school.

If platforms for celebration on a world wide scale like blogging, twitter, Facebook, quadblogging, ect. cease to exist in the world of a student in our classrooms then what are the different stakeholder groups in education doing to help students find a positive way to educate and image themselves in the digital reality they live in? What will they really know about their creative idea or innovation if the same people they know and trust are the only ones giving them feedback or are asking them questions about it? How powerful will it be for them to realize a simple idea or dream of theirs can impact others in another school, town, city, province, territory, state, country, or continent? How engaged as a learner do you think they will be after that?

When I think of these questions I always come back to a simple but meaningful quote I heard in a simple but meaningful video by Derek Sivers (@sivers). It was shared with me on Twitter and is a video I use now to introduce Genius Hour and the importance of sharing their learning discoveries. “It may be obvious to you but amazing to others.”

Why would we not want to take the leap to learn more about how we can positively use social media in our teaching? Get your feet wet by jumping in, questioning, and learning these platforms alongside your students or if you are a parent… your kids. By learning how to use a broad and powerful tool to share learning you are empowering students to share and be amazing in someone else’s life.

Check out this article on Blogger Martha Payne. She is a 9 year-old student who grew dissatisfied with lunches she was receiving at school and decided to document it through her blog neverseconds. Through the attention her blog gained she was able to donate over £115,000 for Mary’s Meals, a Scottish charity that feeds impoverished children around the world. Imagine if she was not empowered to share what she was learning about the lunches being fed to her at school? I first learned of this story through twitter which helped her simple genius idea of sharing her lunches with the world into a change for the lunches she was served and a way to help others around the world. How powerful is that?!?

Here are some genius reflections done by my 11 and 12 year-old students (@mcdclassroom) on our Genius Hour projects over the last 4 weeks. As impressed as I am about their projects and their willingness to blog and share their learning; I am more impressed by their conversations and willingness to take a chance, give feedback, ask a question, or lend support to someone else’s learning. If you get a quick moment could you and/or possibly your class read, respond & share their blog entries. It would make my students day to know others outside our class are reading & getting something out of their posts. It helps them realize the positive way they can have an impact on their learning through reflecting and using social media in a responsible way in attempt to be “amazing” in lives of others.

Thank you so much to the many who share their obvious with me!

Hugh McDonald
@hughtheteacher

WordPress on ipod!!

My students will be excited to know they can use their ipods to update a wordpress blog.

Making the Most out of Every Second

Below is a video shot in a relatively short time span this morning while my wife was running errands and I was hanging out with my 3 year old and my 21 month old.  It is a video inspired by colleagues Jodi Pulvers, Antonio Vendramin, Gallit Zvi and projects created by groups of grade 6 students at our school.  They created videos using sixty – 1 second video clips to tell a story.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dean Shareski (@shareski) who introduced this version of digital story telling to Surrey teachers at the opening dinner of Surrey School District’s Engaging the Digital Learner Series this past September.  The great thing about twitter is even though I was unable to be there for this first event of the dinner series I was able to get the full experience of Dean’s presentation from those that were there.  Thank you Twitter PLN!  Here is my sixty in 60 seconds filmed on a beautiful fall day in October 2012.

Antonio also did this activity with our school iPads with all the grade 6s at our school while we were away at camp earlier this week.  Our students were excited to share their creations.  Some of their final products can be viewed on Antonio’s youtube channel.

I must say my inner director was working over time today as I was shooting and editing my video.  I loved every second of crafting it! Planning, adjusting, filming, counting frames, reshooting frames, uploading to iMovie, shortening clips to get each to the desired 1 second each, and finally carefully choosing the audio made for an engaging experience that I cannot wait to try again with a different story.  The editing process was surprisingly easy once I got going.  iMovie on the iPad is user friendly and even had royalty free music to test and use in my video.  I can see how activities like this engage the digital native to learn and explore elements of telling a story.  I’m excited to learn and explore more ways to help our students use digital tools to engage themselves in new ways of telling their story and other stories.

I can see this as a popular choice for my students to demonstrate their learning during Genius Hour this year.  It engaged me to challenge my creative talents.  I am positive opportunities like this will continue to challenge my students to make the seemingly impossible possible. I am excited to see them create and explore their wonders and unlock the creative genius within!

Anyone else have a digital story telling idea that they have used with their students?  I would love to see it.  Here are some videos that inspired me to make the video above:

Hugh McDonald

@hughtheteacher

hughtheteacher.wordpress.com

1 Reason to Be Proud: Jared Connaughton

cc licensed (BY) flickr photo shared by Claudio Conch

I sat down this afternoon excited to watch the Men’s 4×100 meter final at the Olympics today.  Canada had a team in the final that qualified 3rd.  I wasn’t expecting a gold or a silver because it was a forgone conclusion the Usain Bolt led Jamaicans and Justin Gatlin led Americans would take down those positions.  However I did have some hope our team had a legitimate chance to win a bronze medal after seeing them qualify with the 3rd fastest time.   The race started and we were jumping up and down, as the guys rounded the track.  It came to the final leg and it was a 3-way race to the finish line for the bronze.  Seeing our Canadian anchor runner out lean the other 2 runners at the line I let out an excited,  ”YEAH” and threw up my arms in celebration of our relay team.

Photo credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

cc licensed by flickr shared by ravitaldar

We saw our new heroes wrapping themselves in Canadian flags and hugging close family and friends after they posted their the result in the stadium.  You could feel the excitement and pride in Canada oozing from the Canadian television coverage.  It was only our second medal in Track and Field at these Olympics and they were going to cover every emotional moment of it.  I was captivated and my young children were captivated in watching their Dad beam with pride in this moment.  I showed them Canadian Flags, explained the difference of a blanket and a Canada flag to my 19 month old, and answered my 3 year-olds question about why they were hugging each other.

cc licensed by flickr shared by welsh government/ Llywodraeth Cymru

Then… The world of our athletes and their millions of new fans came crashing to a halt.  It was announced at the stadium and on tv that our new heroes had been disqualified from the race for an infraction.  They had no idea what happened.  We had no idea.  Tears were flowing on their faces and disbelief was setting in.  How could this be?  I watched the replay and couldn’t spot anything and the announcers couldn’t spot anything.  Canadian television then showed Jared Connaughton pointing at himself.  I still hadn’t seen it yet, but he did on the first replay of the race.  His left foot stepped on the edge of the lane for a brief moment and that was it.  He knew before anyone else.  The bronze medal was going to go to Trinidad and Tobago and a disappointing end to 4 years of hard work with his 3 teammates had come up short.  The medal was gone.  He stood up and faced the Canadian public.  Here is the “Jared Connaughton Interview after Canada’s 4x100m Disqualification” moments after finding out about the disqualification.  I encourage you to click on the link above to watch it you haven’t seen it.

He owned his misstep and didn’t find fault in the rule or anyone else other than himself.  Jared was humble and focussed on the hard work, amazing season, and quality of the performance his teammates and him put in.   Here he is in the most disappointing moment of his athletic career yet he stood there answering questions and making no excuses.  I’m sure he will look back at the race and wish he didn’t step on the line, but that cannot be said for how he conducted himself after.  He was pure class!!  He looked at the glass half full rather than half empty.  What an awesome example he set for young and old alike!   Below is the tweet he sent to the world after the moment passed.  As a new fan of his it was not something I needed to see because I knew it was an honest mistake.  It shows he understands the importance of the moment in Canada and the value he places on connecting himself personally with friends, family, and fans across the world.

A true test of the character of a person is not how they conduct themselves when things are going well but how well they conduct themselves when they face adversity.  This moment will stand with me for a long time.  I added Jared’s interview to my youtube favourites list and plan to show it to my students when a teachable moment is needed or when I need a bit of personal inspiration when I face adversity myself.  As a teacher I strive to handle myself in the same manner he does and model his same qualities.

I am proud of Jared and the millions of others in our world who handle adversity with grace and dignity in the most difficult moments personally.  What lesson or lessons do you take from Jared or the London 2012 Olympics?  I look forward to reading about it.

If you enjoyed this post please consider sharing.

cc licensed (BY) flickr – shared by 223223

Sincerely,

Hugh McDonald

@hughtheteacher