About Life

About Life

Out of Rhythm

By 1 Comment

I’ve been out of the classroom for the better part of 4 months now. Having made the decision to participate in a new project in Mexico City, I am now building a new company alongside several experienced people in the field of micro finance. Still, I miss being in a school environment.

It’s interesting how one can get used the dynamic rhythm of school life. Every day is full of the unknown, and full of potential.

I’ve operated in the senior admin teams of various schools throughout the past 12+ years. And every year has been totally unique. From entering a campus when it is totally void of any human presence due to summer break, to going right into a MUN assembly full of visitors, families, students visiting from other countries to political dignitaries waiting to take the stand to speak to the audience; an independent international school is truly an incredible place to live/work.

So now that I find myself trotting around the poorest rural towns around Mexico City, I often wonder how these two worlds can be connected. Already many schools participate in social programs such as Habitat for Humanity and other similar programs, but I feel there is a huge disconnect with the world most independent international school students (and the majority of faculty) come from and the world I am being exposed to now. I wonder how this can be turned into a learning opportunity for students.

Just a thought.

About Life, Play, Work

Are schools interfering with children’s education

By

I just watched this video made by a recent university dropout that makes some very good points about the current reality in education; that it is sorely lagging behind the fast-paced changing world our digital natives are born into.

An Open Letter to Educators

Earlier today I also enjoyed a conversation with an outside consultant in which he confided to me that even though he is into selling high-tech stuff to schools, when it comes to finding a school for his 19-month old son he is looking at the values of the school before anything else. He feels too many schools now-a-days promote a big campus, tech-equipped classrooms, multimedia library centers, and ample playing fields before the offer the core values that drive their educational philosophy. I feel fortunate that I am currently at a school where technology, a shiny campus and large playing fields are not at the core of what we do. I strongly believe we have one of the best Elementary School leaders there is. These, after all, are the most important years for soon-to-be leaders of the world. Our Middle and High School students are teenagers who enjoy a rather free environment where there are in charge of their own time, and though there is discipline, they are allowed to make mistakes and given the opportunity to learn from them.

 

About Life, Play

Kids in school on Saturday!

By

Here I am, sitting at my desk on a perfect Saturday morning waiting for a group of student to finish shooting a short film they are making to compete in a 48hr competition online. It is such a great way to spend a Saturday, seriously!

These kids are fantastic, enthusiastic and totally given to the project. Sure, they have no script, not much of an idea of how to operate the equipment, nor much of a crew – only 3 of them because the other 3 or 4 managed to get themselves grounded last night – but they are committed to finishing a 3minute short within 48hrs. This is what I love about video in the classroom. Even though many of the students in school who work on videos are not my actual Digital Moviemaking students, the word gets around that we have decent equipment for them to use and they gravitate towards my neck of the woods.

Once kids have an interest – and if they are in school on a weekend they sure have an interest – the rest is easy. Teaching them how to operate complicated equipment, how to deal with editing issues using post-production effects, or how to make better audio for their projects is simple when they are actually paying attention. When students get together to create video projects they employ all the good stuff employers are looking for these days; group work, leadership, good communication, [some] planning, troubleshooting, quick-problem-solving, creativity, imagination. As long as they are interested I watch as they develop these skills all on their own….I’m there to guide the process, but they get to do all the work. It’s a joy really!

Check out what Dimitris and company churned out in 48hrs: 

About Life, Work

RBaldizon Executive Summary

By

I am one of few fortunate people who have not had to search for a job in more than a decade. But, just in case, I’ve always had an up-to-date CV at the ready. My e-CV is online at http://es.linkedin.com/in/rbaldizon. My print-ready CV I keep on Word. Still, whenever I read through either, soooo much is missing that I wish I could tell the person seeing it whenever the moment comes. So, for the past few days I’ve been tinkering with the notion of creating a life/bio summary page that will be the first page of my formal CV. After seeing it on screen, and thinking about each bit of info I’ve included I figured it would not be such a bad idea to post it here…so, here it goes.

Later on I will include short capsules on this site that further explain each piece of the following document. Stay tuned!

RBaldizon Executive Summary