A while back, I talked about the weather and how it was a good way of pushing kids outside of their comfort zones when it was raining and a little bit tough. I also mentioned at the time, there was one experience in which I was sent out in conditions that weren’t safe, nor character building. Balancing this risk versus benefit is the ongoing challenge for the outdoor educator. However, even when you plan and prepare for everything, sometimes you find yourself caught by a weather front that's far more intense than anyone predicted and this was one of those times. The morning started as most days towards the end of summer. Clear blue skies, hot, humid and not a hint of breeze. After a delicious cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs, we finished packing the trailers and I checked the weather. Despite this perfect morning, when I saw the forecast, I immediately raised my concerns. The weather was set to change early to mid afternoon and a severe weather warning had been issued. With severe thunderstorms and damaging winds forecast, it wasn't something I wanted to be taking the kids into. Clear Blue Skies I argued the point with the director, expressing my concerns that it wasn't a great idea to head out with that warning in place, especially when we were supposed to be camping near a river, which floods quite quickly. Despite all these concerns, I was told, “Don't worry about it. It will be fine.” Unconvinced, I left, having been told we were still going out on the hike. It was about a 50 min drive from base camp to get to the trail head where we left the bus and our ute. By the time we'd done all our briefings and had lunch, it was around 1pm. It was hot and extremely muggy. The sky above was clear, but to the southwest an angry bank of clouds was building and I could hear the distant rumble of thunder. Setting out, I had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. The hike followed a winding track along a rugged ridge line. I'd hiked it many times before, but this time felt so different. About an hour passed and, several kilometres in, the humidity shifted, the temperature suddenly dropped and that's when the storm hit. We were engulfed. The wind ripped through, mercilessly bending the trees above us. Suddenly came a flash. It felt as if the air had been sucked out of my lungs. The deafening boom rippled through the group. There'd been no time to count the seconds between the two. I yelled out for the group to stop. “Everyone on their packs!” I instructed to try and insulate them in some way from what was about to hit. Moments later, another blinding flash, was followed immediately by the concussive boom. I could feel the ground shake. Quickly checking I had everyone and they were all in their rain jackets and sitting on their packs, there was nothing else I could do, as we were hit by wave after wave of lightning strikes. My heart raced and I felt helpless as each strike hit, some of them only metres away and rain sheeted down. There was nothing we could do. There was no shelter and no lower ground to which we could safely get. We had to hold our position or increase the risk of getting hit. Branches whipped and creaked ominously, several cracking loudly and crashing down below us. It felt as if it’d never end. The rain cascaded over us, soaking every inch of our Gortex jackets until they reached saturation point and no longer held the moisture at bay. The storm crashed around us for what felt like an eternity, yet in reality, it had only been two hours. The rain began to ease, and the deafening booms of the thunder become increasingly distant. I felt a sense of relief as I did a quick assessment of the group, but this was short-lived. I realised quickly that three students had all the signs of hypothermia and another storm front was rapidly approaching. With no time to lose, I left the other two instructors with the group and taking one instructor with me, we raced back for the vehicle. I'd had a lot of time to think of a plan whilst perched on top of my pack trying to avoid a subterranean strike through the tree roots and pool of water in which I was sitting. The plan was simple. Get the 4WD and find a safe alternate campsite. This was easier said than done, as we had to race the coming storm and run about 3km back to where we started. Through muddy puddles we dashed, slipping and sliding on the sodden surface. Massive droplets crashed down on our back. The storm was here! Without our packs and with less than a kilometre to go, we sprinted for the vehicles. Lightning flashed around us as the thunderous boom smashed us again and again. I felt as if any moment we were going to get nailed by a strike. Gasping for air, I could feel my heart pounding through my chest. Turning a corner and charging down the hill, I could see the vehicles. Suddenly there was a blinding flash and a deafening explosion. I saw sparks fly from the roof of the nearby building, as I felt the air get sucked out of me as the concussion of the blast rippled through my skin. With keys in hand I grabbed the door handle and jabbed the key into the lock. It clicked open and I leapt into the driver’s seat, safely out of the storm. Taking a few moments to catch my breath, there was no time to lose. Off we went to shuttle the group back to safety. It was a slippery and treacherous drive in and out from where we'd left them. It took another hour and a half to complete the evacuation. We soon had a fire going, some water on the boil and our hypothermic campers in some warm dry clothes. That evening, camp food had never tasted better and I was more thankful than ever before of my cosy sleeping bag. The evening air was filled with the sound of joyous frogs and cicadas. There was not even a hint of the storm that had torn through us that day.
0 Comments
One of the recent debrief questions I posed to a group, made me think and reflect on my own experiences. Whenever I run a debrief, I’ll always frame the question, then provide an example from my own experience before asking the students to share their thoughts and feelings about the topic or issue. This isn’t just about story telling though. This is about relationship building and whilst you’re not telling them your life story, you're giving them a glimpse at how you think and feel. This can be a very powerful way to effectively engage everyone in what can be, at times, a very challenging, yet positive conversation and educational tool. For me, this is very easy to jump in and do, because we have groups come for a short period of time (generally four weeks on my current program). They know nothing about me and I know nothing about them and the only way we get to know each other is through sharing stories and experiences. However, one massive problem for most classroom teachers who don’t do experiential education programs all the time, is that they only know their students from the classroom context. Consequently, getting out on camp and sharing a vulnerability, can be extremely difficult and confronting.
Despite this, the right story for the right group can have a powerful effect and change the classroom relationship for good! I can't tell you which story from your life will result in this, but I can say that being honest and genuine is a wonderful relationship building tool and can help you teach some of the most important lessons in life. The most nerve wracking experience of my teaching to date was when I was working for a school in the country and one of the kids had googled my name. This revealed a number of newspaper articles about bullying which occurred to me years ago when I was at school. Even though the articles weren’t bad, it exposed a huge vulnerability of mine. The thoughts that ran through my mind were horrible and I felt totally exposed because of what had happened to me. However, in the end, rather than shy away from this, I tackled it head on! I spoke with the Yr 9 boys (the entire year in fact) and was open and honest with them about what happened to me and the fallout from the experience at school and after school. There were masses of questions thrown at me and I answered every single one honestly and openly. The positive and supportive response from the students was totally unexpected. I went from thinking my career was over, to ending up with really positive long-lasting relationships with that year group. It actually made every class I taught so much easier than ever before. So what is it from your life? What is it from your experience that you can share which will help your students face the challenges that life throws at them? This is where the debrief becomes so powerful. It's not just about asking questions to fill in time around the fire or getting the kids to think and reflect a bit, it should also challenge you, as the teacher and instructor. If you're not facing your own challenges head on, how can you expect others to? Sharing parts of your own experience is a valuable tool in conveying real meaning to a debrief. Back to the original point though of self-reflection, the question that I posed, on hearing some of the students’ responses made me think about my answer more. It made me question if I were tackling my biggest problem in the most intelligent way and sparked my thinking about different ways I could tackle it! Without this transparency and honesty about myself, I would probably get superficial and shallow responses in all my debriefs, which simply makes them pointless ventures. You might as well just tell ghost stories round the fire, if you don't put any genuine effort in to engage with your students. However, by using this wonderful reflective conversation and snippets of your own experience, you can teach some truly remarkable lessons and build some amazing, positive relationships with your students that can totally change the dynamics of their lives and your teaching. This week’s kinda short and to the point. We’ve been flooded in down south of Sydney on one of the Yr 9 programs and thankfully, we’ve been flooded in in a good way! How can we been flooded in in a good way I hear you ask?! Well last year, we got flooded to the point we had to evacuate from the campus, then I ended up sleeping on a gym matt for the night (not comfy at all)! Last Year's Gym Matt This time, we’re all ok, we’re still on site and the right decisions have been made about changes to activities. We’d planned for canoeing on Saturday, then abseiling and archery on Sunday. However, none of these could be safely run with the continuous deluge of rain we’ve been having and it’s put our upcoming 3 day expedition in doubt as well. Slightly Wet Out There! We’d been watching this weather front for days on the Bureau of Meteorology, so it was no surprise when it hit yesterday. This is why regular weather checks and updates are so important for safely planning and implementing activities. It reduces your risk and can save you massive amounts of time dealing with bad situations you don’t need to be in. Flooding Around Us! So with endless rain falling, roads blocked and floods surrounding us, we’ve stayed indoors, taught some lessons. Now everyone’s learnt something, had fun and are safe and dry. The bottom line this week is that even though sometimes taking students out in adverse weather conditions can be character building, in situations like this it’s not! Therefore, changing plans and rethinking activities is a vital part of your risk management and operational management strategy to ensure you keep everyone safe from seriously dangerous weather conditions.
Oh and I finally watched Tron! Awesome movie. This week, it's time to cover burnout and exhaustion on programs. Having done four straight weeks of Year 8 camps, despite having two days off in between each camp, this weekend I feel totally and utterly exhausted! Thankfully I have the next week off to recover before we start the Year 9 program. However, if the staff didn't have this recovery time, a serious number of dangers and increase risks for activities can creep in! It's often the case that management don't figure in burnout to the overall risk assessment of programs. It might be thrown in as an idea on a risk management form, but is it really taken seriously? Just Slightly Tired... After the past month of intense programs, without a week off to recover, I doubt very much that we’d actually have any staff left to run the next program. I used to work for one such school, who on the one hand said staff need to be looked after, but in reality, they didn’t. Staff exhaustion and burnout were common place and it resulted in massive staff turnover. Because the school could never really decide what they want to do with their program, they did a bit of everything and a bit of everything meant a lot of everything. Half the staff did the majority of the work whilst management sat around scratching their heads not really knowing what was going on. The core of issue of burn out in that situation came down to the nature of leadership within the organisation. After four years in that job I was one of the most senior staff on campus, people just got sick of working ridiculous hours without any real break and they simply left, which ultimately costs more in the continuous recruitment, induction and retraining processes than it’s worth. So how do you avoid burning out your stuff and churning them over so many times that there’s no history or culture left with in your school or organisation? The first approach is to value the work that your staff are doing. Simply acknowledging the fact that they’re not off on vacation is a good start. The work outdoor ed teachers do is different. It’s not in a structured classroom environment where you can set and forget half way through the lesson. It’s in a fluid, risk filled world that requires constant attention to detail and vigilance. Camps and activities can be all consuming and over this period of time staff have to make sacrifices including being away from family, from home and all the conveniences of the modern world. For one thing, I miss good coffee!!! Catching Up Between Sessions The acknowledgement by senior management that this is above and beyond what most staff do, is essential in reinforcing positive and proactive culture within the school and encourages others volunteer and organise other trips themselves, which ultimately enhance the student’s educational experiences throughout their schooling. The danger of staff exhaustion is that the tiredness, isolation, time away from family can creep in and start to impact on staff morale and staff judgement. You want teachers and instructors at the top of the game running your excursion! You want them exercising the best judgement, constantly monitoring the group, the environment and any third party risks that may arise. What you don’t want is having your staff thinking, ‘When am I getting off this activity?’ ‘When can I go home?’ ‘Why is this job so relentless?’ All of these negative thoughts and distractions mean that your staff aren't focused on the task at hand of running high quality activities and providing continuous operational management and risk assessment for activities. It's important to balance everything. Some programs are longer than others. Some run on weekends and some run for weeks on end. All of this costs times and money to provide quality educational outcomes, but it’s all worth it in the holistic educational development of students in functional and effective young adults. In the overall risk management of excursions, it’s vital to consider the fact that staff are humans and need real breaks from children and all the demands that come with the responsibility of looking after other people's kids for extended periods of time. Always ensure that your excursions have sufficient staff not only to cover statuary ratios, but also to figure in the 24 hour supervision needs and the contingency plans if something goes wrong. By doing this it means you’ll have the most proactive and effective operational management in place for your excursions. Keeping staff happy, kids safe and providing the best framework for everyone to have a wonderful, memorable experience when away from school. Finally Relaxing In Front Of The Fire!
Food on camps is tricky, but not in the sense that it's hard to do well, there's just so many considerations when you're catering for a diverse school group. Added to this, you often don't know the kids very well. Before camp we do a lot of work preparing for any group and no two camps are the same. To begin with, we look at medical risks and dietary needs. What concerns are there? Do we have kids with allergies? Will some additives make them sick? Will bread and milk cause them to be ill? Can they eat meat? Is it the right sort of meat? Are there any other foods are of concern?
Having catered for so many groups on camps and residential programs, one of the key concerns was that everything has to be ‘normalised.’ Even though I might’ve been catering and cooking for a number of different dietary needs, because they’re kids, I never want anything to stand out or be remarkably different. The last thing I want to hear is a whiney toned, “Why do they get that?!” So if I was cooking burritos for example (which kids love), I'd cook a variation of the burrito for everyone to enjoy. Some have mince, some have chicken, some have tofu, some have beans. Some have tortillas, some have gluten free tortillas, some prefer just to have it on the plate! Regardless of the mix of ingredients and the time that goes into this, the most important thing from my point of view is every student’s well-being and part of that is making sure they don’t feel ‘different’ a meal times. I’ve been to far to many venues that provide vastly different meals for the kids, making them feel left out and even isolated due to their dietary needs. I won’t have any of that on the camps I run and it’s not unreasonable to expect the same! To be honest, I love buying different foods when I go shopping. I think of all the cool combinations I can do for pizzas, curries and salads just to name a few! Whatever the menu is, I just love wandering around and searching for the best combo to make sure my one meal, can be eaten by all! This does take time, but once you’ve got an idea of a meal plan, each time you have a student with special dietary needs, it’s now only a matter of checking the plan and grabbing the right ingredient! Ok so, this is something that should go without saying, but it really annoys me when it has to be said. I’ve been in the situation before on a number of occasions where we’ve shared a venue with another school and after dinner you notice some of the teachers sneaking off to have a drink! I mean seriously!!!! WTF? They even speak in poorly veiled code that most kids would understand.
I was reminded of this the other day, when I was plowing through a boarding school training manual, something which just seems common sense after working in boarding schools for 15 years. However, I still had to go through this and there was a question about the school’s alcohol policy, which was really easy to answer! Zero! Nothing whilst on duty, on back up, on camp or anywhere near the kids! It makes perfect sense! So why is it so hard for some teachers not to have a drink for a few nights? The real danger is if something unexpected happens and yes, on camp, something unexpected happens all the time. Things like finding a kangaroo in my bedroom, finding a funnel web spider in my bed, kids accidentally falling out of bunks and hitting their heads, kids getting stuff in their eyes, one boy cut his leg tripping up a step late at night when he was trying to get a drink of water after lights out. So yeah, anything can happen!!! When something random and unexpected does happen, you’re immediately on deck, and so are other staff, even if they have to be woken up. I’ve had the experience of night time trips to the hospital and having to delegate responsibility to other staff, but what if they’d been drinking? This puts everyone in a compromising position! Scenario: You must take a student to hospital to get urgent treatment, but your backup staff have had something to drink, therefore not able to responsibly deliver their duty of care. You’re suddenly put in a terrible situation and really have no back up at all. What if something else happens? Who can deal with it then? Before I get too preachy about this, it’s something that you as a responsible adult must make an informed decision on. Even if it’s one drink, it’s one too many! If you can’t go a couple of days without a drink, then perhaps you shouldn’t be taking kids anywhere. At the end of the day, all staff members are responsible for kids throughout the camp and they need to be able to effectively step in if something happens. Stay sober! Stay safe! Then if anything ever happens, there’s no come back on you at all. Last month I talked about team building activities which are great to engage kids of all ages. It helps them come out of their shells and challenges them in ways that Xboxes can't. Whilst these activities might last an hour or two, what happens if you want to make this a longer, more involved and more challenging experience? Since I've now canoed more kilometres (about 147km) this year than I've run so far (134km), I thought it was high time to talk about it. Canoeing is one of the best ways you can keep kids engaged in a team building activity over a number of hours or even days on expedition. There's something magical about travelling to a remote inaccessible location along a winding river, barricaded on two sides by pristine wilderness or high vaulting cliffs and nothing but water in front of you. But it's not just about the scenery, sadly most of which teenagers don't appreciate. It's about the journey and the experiences along the way. Amazing Scenery! The canoe expedition has a multitude of challenges for the kids, beginning with loading the canoe! Getting the balance right is so important because if they're going to be paddling somewhere over a long period of time, trying to do that with a lopsided boat is really hard and sometimes it just means you go around and around in circles. For a high school group, I wouldn't load the boats for them, I'd demonstrate how to do it, then let them use their initiative to pack their own boat. This is always an interesting process to watch with some students getting it straight away, whilst others have to repack several times. It also means nobody can stand around and let others do the work for them. Getting into a fully laiden boat is the next challenge! Most people will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid getting their feet wet, and in doing so I've seen some spectacular fails! Everything from pushing down too hard on the gunnel (side of the canoe), to stepping on the canoe with one foot, leaving the other foot on the river bank and the boat slowly but surely slipping away from under them. Then there's the inevitable splash! Life lesson: Don't be afraid to get your feet wet! Glassy Smooth Water! When you eventually get away from the shore, (which can take a while) it's time to paddle. Before any expedition, it's important to have run various skill sessions with the kids, to ensure they can execute a range of paddling, steering and emergency skills. Including forward stroke, J-stroke, sweep stroke, ruddering, emergency stops and X-rescues. All of these skills require teamwork and co-ordination and by doing this you also help manage the risk involved in the activity. As you travel along on the expedition it's good practice to cruise up to each boat and just see how the techniques are looking, providing feedback to correct, as well as reinforce if the students are doing it well. After a few kilometres, everyone usually settles into a nice consistent rhythm and now it's a great opportunity for the kids to talk with each other! If you've got hours on end to chat with someone you don't know very well, this provides such a valuable opportunity for some great social development along the way. I've had some fantastic chats and some of my most memorable teaching and mentoring moments in a canoe, so it's far more than just a nice paddle around. It's about relationship building and communication! It's astounding what issues, questions and concerns can come up from your canoe buddy when having to sit and paddle with them for hours on end. Everything from favourite movies to life goals and ambitions can come out, but don't ever force it! Just use this opportunity to enjoy the environment around you and let the conversation flow naturally. The End Of The Day! Whilst I'll talk more about risks involved in water activities on another occasion, it's worth mentioning that when the going gets tough, everyone needs to adapt to the conditions! Often when paddling in the afternoon you may end up with a decent wind against you. If this happens, keep your boats closer together and try to instill in everyone the need to paddle harder when conditions get harder (whilst you'd think it goes with out saying, it's seriously not often the case). This is a great test of teamwork and a really good debrief activity for the evening, where you can relate the need to adapt to harder conditions when canoeing, to the need to adapt when faced with other challenges in life. Ultimately canoeing, on one hand is developing physical co-ordination skills, but on the other it's also a fantastic platform for developing team-work and communication skills. It's well worth looking at building in a canoe expedition as part of your outdoor ed program. A Magnificent Morning!
As I lay back snuggled in my sleeping bag, the constant pitter patter of rain hits and splashes noisily away on my tent. We've just canoed all day on Lake Yarrunga with our Year 9 boys. Half of this was in the rain, the other half on calm glassy water. Dinner and our debrief tonight switched between sitting around the campfire and huddling under the tarp as the rain swept in and out! The boys were all in bed by 8pm, so no complaints on my part. I'd known about the rain for days, so this was neither a surprise, nor a concern. I've gone out in far better conditions and far, far worse! But where do you draw the line? For many excursions, weather isn't the most important factor, as you could be visiting a museum, gallery or other indoor venue and not need worry too much about what's happening outside. However, it's well worth developing the habit of checking weather conditions before any and every trip away to ensure you have the whole operational picture in your mind and be able to adapt or react if unfavourable conditions are forecast. It’s far better to change plans in anticipation of problems, rather than actually having to deal with the problems that result from a bad decision. You Know You're Going To Get Wet... So back to my iPhone illuminated tent and the now silent campsite. I'd known since last week the forecast was for rain and it would be a factor in our decision making process. We'd discussed the issue with the team and had devised a clear contingency plan depending on severity. Lots of rain and operating on rivers and lakes with huge catchment areas is always a concern at the back of my mind. I never want to be caught by a rising river nor have to execute a late night evac from a campsite (super dangerous). I’m more the relaxing by a warm fire reading a book type of guy, rather than the Oh Crap! We made a bad decision by staying type of guy! I’d rather err on the side of caution, than be stuck with the consequences and being proactive about the weather is one way of doing this. Mmmm Cosy Studying the forecasts as they were updated each day, the concern remained that we were going to get wet, but it wasn't going to be that wet, so we decided that we were still heading out. Now I'll just pause to reflect here for a sec. I've also been in the situation where the weather was checked, discussed and I thought it wasn't safe to proceed, yet I was told by my then boss I had to go out! The result was pretty bad, like really bad... but that's a whole other story in itself and one I will come back to another time. Setting Out In The Rain It might seem simple enough and should go without saying, but often it’s overlooked and being able to make an informed decision through checking what the weather is doing is an important part of any school's risk management strategy on all excursions. It can help you better prepare contingencies for adverse conditions or help you pack the right clothing and equipment. The last thing you want when organising your excursion is to be surprised by a sudden storm, a heat wave or strong winds that could put you and your students at risk. It literally takes two minutes to check the weather and can save you hours or months of trauma by doing so. This is not to say that you should only be a fair weather field tripper. That’s not the point at all! Having kids feel uncomfortable in the elements can be a great learning experience. Some of my best trips have been in bad weather, but the difference was that it was never dangerous weather that put them at risk of harm. If we only ever went out when it was clear blue sky, then we'd never do half the activities and the kids would be poorer for the lack of experience. I’ll address different approaches I’ve taken in more detail in some later posts and examine the consequences of some poor decision making on other school trips, when a check of the weather could have prevented injuries and serious consequences. Anyway, despite being uncomfortable today, it proved to be a great learning experience for the boys, canoeing, setting up and cooking in the rain. For some looking after their personal equipment has never been more important. For me, my feet are still drying at the base of my sleeping bag and I know my tent will be soaked in the morning, but I’m snug and warm, all the kids are sleeping soundly and I’m about to drift off myself… It’s been a good day!
There are so many fantastic team building activities for kids, which can vary from simple trust activities with little to no equipment, right up to obstacle courses or races that require significant preparation. However for the purposes of simplicity here are three simple ones which I love to use. 1. Entangled Hands: Get the kids to stand in a circle shoulder to shoulder and put all their hands into the circle and take someone else's hands. They can't both be the same person's hand! Then they have to work as a team to unravel the knot of hands without letting go until they're all standing in one big circle hand in hand. This is a fun activity that kids can get into and do with no equipment needed. Key to the success of the team in this game is effective communication. There's lots of communication needed to achieve the untangled circle, as it will involve co-ordinating with each other, stepping up over arms and twisting around every which way! A great variant to add in is for them to do it without talking! 2. Shared Sight: You're going to need a blindfold, two ropes and a couple of random obstacles for this one! Lay out the ropes so they snake around the room to make up a course that must be travelled, then randomly place some obstacles such as soft toys or drink cans along the way! The idea is that one kid is blind-folded and the other, using only their voice has to safely guide them through the course without touching any of the obstacles or the rope along the way. This game not only requires communication, but a huge amount of trust as well, therefore helping to meld participants into a cohesive team. Huge Amount Of Trust Needed For This Activity 3. Raft Building: This activity requires a few pieces of equipment, including poly pipe capped at each end, empty sealable barrels and some lengths of rope. The wider the selection of items the better, because it allows for greater variation in design and greater creativity from the kids. You will also need to be near a creek/river/pool for this challenge and there's a great chance that everyone's going to get wet!!! In small groups of 4-6 kids, set clear parameters as to how many pieces of equipment they can use. From the collection of materials they then select and use these limited resources to build a sea-worthy raft, that will not only float, but safely carry all members of the team across the river and back. It's amazing how many variations of a raft are created each time, some far more effective than others. In this activity the kids must work together to design, build, then paddle the raft as a team. It's a great way to engage all members of the team and whilst some may be stronger in design or building, others may be stronger in paddling and steering. The real test comes when the kids have to carry the raft down to the river banks and it hits the water for the first time!! Does it float? Yes!!! Does it float with everyone on it?... Well ummm... There are a huge range of skills being developed in this activity and it's such a fun one to do. It builds confidence, communication, leadership, teamwork, trust, cooperation and coordination! Even if the raft completely falls apart on the water, it's the process the kids have used in creating that craft that's so important in the overall learning process. If all else fails, you're still going to have a great laugh seeing these makeshift vessels breakup and see the kids scrambling to grab all the pieces before they float away!
|
Categories
All
Archives
April 2021
|