Sabbatical Part Two

Tuesday 1 July
Where to start? I have developed an atrocious head cold which makes me miserable during the day and keeps me awake during the early hours of the morning!

Despite that we have had 2 great days at Harvard. Yesterday we walked in and registered and had two great presentations. They were close to three hours each, but were very interactive – with 200 people in a cramped lecture theatre.

The first was by Roland Barth who ambushed us into identifying the conditions in which we best learn and then asked us why our schools and classrooms weren't like that. This would be a great whole staff exercise.

The second was by Robert Keegan who took us through a 4 column process which started by expaining that, despite our best intentions, we rarely achieve goals to bring self-improvement or change but that we could be successful if we addressed the underlying commitments we had to keep doing things the same way.

We then met in the small discussion groups we will be in for the rest of the course. Our facilitator is Melissa and I met with our wonderful group of Daphne, Sheila, Kim, Jim, Phillip, Alvin, Curtis, Connie, Rose, Sharon and Silvio.

After that I bumped into an Aussie, John, so after finding Terry we headed off for a quick beer and then to the Harvard Club for a flash dinner in very traditional surroundings – think flash gentleman's club.

Today we were up at 5.45 to get to the bus by 7.00 for the drive out to Project Adventure. We didn't get away until 8.30!!!! but what a great day. We worked in our discussion groups, got to know each other much better. The highlight was completing the high ropes activity with my partner Silvio who has led a remarkable life. It was awesome, also, to see other group members either completing the high ropes or assisting others to do so. Our facilitator there, Angel, did a great job and we now know a lot more about each other.

I've got some neat photos I'll put up but I can't get mine or Terry's camera to talk to the EEE PC I have. Will figure out a way as soon as I can.

I am writing some magazine reviews on my return about the EEE PC. Apart from the camera issue it is proving to be a great machine.

We're now about to head out for tea.