This weekend is the 12th Annual Cape Town Gay Pride parade. It will be the second one I attend, since I have been away the past 2 years.
This year is extra special because my family and I are going to have a float, all decorated and stuff. My parents are kind of the "managers" of the Cape Town PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). By managers I mean they started the group on Facebook and try to give advice to those who ask. I am obviously extremely proud of them for doing this, and I love them even more for supporting me.
My family is kind of sprinkled with a lot of homosexuals. Like, A LOT! So this is a great weekend to celebrate all that is, and was and will be. Celebrating life and family and freedom and of course RAINBOWS!
Thursday, 26 February 2015
Environmental Education
We were told that we can write about anything. That we need to choose a subject and learn about that throughout the year. Well my subject is environmental education.
I have been interested in this for a very long time.I was fortunate enough to be in charge of the outreach to local schools at my previous job. Living and working in Limpopo really oped my eyes to the different challenges that we all face on a daily basis. Where I lived, on a private game reserve, we had no power and we were totally seperated from the world. I remember moving back to Stellenbosch and listening to the radio while driving around. I had this overwhelming sense that the world was ending because I would hear of murders and people kicking babies, and accidents and death. I asked told my mom one day that I think something in the world has shifted, people are acting crazy all of a sudden, doing horrendous things, she just said "No, you've just been out of society, away on your island of the African bush". In that moment I felt so sad, lost almost, what has happened to people? More importantly, how could I allow myself to become so oblivious to everything? I felt so selfish.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand, environmental education, and what my current education is teaching me.
In diversity and inclusivity we learn about how a child's background can affect their learning, their school life and social life. That economic status gives a child an advantage or disadvantage of sorts. I found this very interesting, and a lot of things makes sense since I have been learning about this.
I have also learned more about the affects of nature on learning, or what people do with knowledge about the environment.
I am not quite sure exactly what I am going to do with this new knowledge, but I am sure we will find out together.
Here's to peace and love and and that jazz!
I have been interested in this for a very long time.I was fortunate enough to be in charge of the outreach to local schools at my previous job. Living and working in Limpopo really oped my eyes to the different challenges that we all face on a daily basis. Where I lived, on a private game reserve, we had no power and we were totally seperated from the world. I remember moving back to Stellenbosch and listening to the radio while driving around. I had this overwhelming sense that the world was ending because I would hear of murders and people kicking babies, and accidents and death. I asked told my mom one day that I think something in the world has shifted, people are acting crazy all of a sudden, doing horrendous things, she just said "No, you've just been out of society, away on your island of the African bush". In that moment I felt so sad, lost almost, what has happened to people? More importantly, how could I allow myself to become so oblivious to everything? I felt so selfish.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand, environmental education, and what my current education is teaching me.
In diversity and inclusivity we learn about how a child's background can affect their learning, their school life and social life. That economic status gives a child an advantage or disadvantage of sorts. I found this very interesting, and a lot of things makes sense since I have been learning about this.
I have also learned more about the affects of nature on learning, or what people do with knowledge about the environment.
I am not quite sure exactly what I am going to do with this new knowledge, but I am sure we will find out together.
Here's to peace and love and and that jazz!
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
What is digital Pedagogy?
If you think of what pedagogy is, the philosophy of learning, then digital pedagogy should be the philosophy of learning through technology. To me, it is much more than that. It is about discovering new thins whilst look for your answer. If you think about it, have you ever googled something specific, and then 30min later you realise that you are learning things about a topic that is not really related to your original topic. Yet, it is. Everything is connected! You start looking at a cute cat video on Youtube, that leads you to big African cats, then it's hyena's attacking lions, leading to vultures feeding on a carcass, leading to harmful chemicals in natural water sources... Cats lead to harmful water sources, in a sense at least.
Friday, 20 February 2015
It's a wild wild, matie world
I have recently moved back to Stellenbosch, after being away for 4 years. A lot has happened in these four years, both to me and Stellenbosch.
First I will tell you what happened to me... isn't that what self reflection is all about? Self reflection shared with THE WORLD WIDE WEB. Anyways... After I graduated, I went to South Korea for 13 months (no, I cannot say '1 year' because that extra month made a difference) to teach English to a bunch of cute, yet naughty, 6 year olds. After that I came back to the rainbow nation, the land of wild animals and even wilder people, to became a qualified game rangers (since my undergrad was in BSc Conservation Ecology). So, for the past 18 months, I have been in the African Bush (No, not THAT kind...wink wink). Confusing sexual innuendo aside, I have to say I miss it with every fiber of my being. More on this later... Now, I find myself here, in this 'lab' full of computers and people.
I cannot help but draw certain parallels between wild animal behaviour and "wild matie" behaviour. I am sure this insight (for lack of a better word) will go away over time, but for now, I still find myself needing to analyse animal behaviour, and since there are no pride of lions, or herd of impala's around, the jocks, nerds, 'poppies' and misfit maties will have to do.
This is not all I will be writing about on the blog. I am passionate about a lot of things, and mildly interested in even more. So, since this platform is here, I will use it, as often as possible.
Peace out!
First I will tell you what happened to me... isn't that what self reflection is all about? Self reflection shared with THE WORLD WIDE WEB. Anyways... After I graduated, I went to South Korea for 13 months (no, I cannot say '1 year' because that extra month made a difference) to teach English to a bunch of cute, yet naughty, 6 year olds. After that I came back to the rainbow nation, the land of wild animals and even wilder people, to became a qualified game rangers (since my undergrad was in BSc Conservation Ecology). So, for the past 18 months, I have been in the African Bush (No, not THAT kind...wink wink). Confusing sexual innuendo aside, I have to say I miss it with every fiber of my being. More on this later... Now, I find myself here, in this 'lab' full of computers and people.
I cannot help but draw certain parallels between wild animal behaviour and "wild matie" behaviour. I am sure this insight (for lack of a better word) will go away over time, but for now, I still find myself needing to analyse animal behaviour, and since there are no pride of lions, or herd of impala's around, the jocks, nerds, 'poppies' and misfit maties will have to do.
This is not all I will be writing about on the blog. I am passionate about a lot of things, and mildly interested in even more. So, since this platform is here, I will use it, as often as possible.
Peace out!
Photo: 2 male dung beetles fighting over this very well constructed dung ball. How acuurate!
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