I am always excited when the Carolina Gloves 3-day tournament comes around. It brings together some of the best fighters from North Carolina and surrounding areas in really good matchups. I get to see coaches I know and don't see very often with their fighters. Since it is a big tournament, there are two rings and additional officials from outside LBCs are brought in to help. This year we were fortunate to have officials from Washington D.C. and Georgia come to support us and what a world of wisdom and experience they brought us during this tournament. I felt really blessed. I got so much good feedback on my officiating and appreciated how helpful and knowledgeable all the officials were. Marshall, our ring captain, has been officiating for 40 years! He is so passionate and committed that we as officials get it right. The boxers deserve to have focused and fair officials and that is something I am also deeply committed to...improving my practice and doing my best by the boxers.
LaTasha Washington was another experienced official who blew me away with her skills and knowledge. I got to watch her referee all weekend and her calm, assertive style is one that I hope to emulate. She reminded me to slow down and stay calm. She's been officiating for 13 years and also officiates on the international level and I can see why. There are so many subtle things she does that take it to another level. We also got to pick her brain over dinner and I felt my knowledge of what I need to do grew significantly. It was a little intimidating refereeing in front of this dynamic crew of officials, but the lessons learned were many..
The finals on Sunday afternoon were packed with top notch close fights. It's those types of fights where good officiating is key. They can be so close and if you lose your focus, you might not get it right. One of the favorite fights that I refereed during the Carolina Gloves was between two 119 lb. intermediate fighters. They were both really talented and each had their moments. It was a clean fight and ended in a split decision, but both fighters should be really proud. They demonstrated excellent skill and poise and I only had to make a few minor calls.
At the end of the tournament, my brain was fried from the intensity of the matches and my focus on them, but I can't express how grateful I am for the camaraderie and mentorship I receive every time I participate in an amateur event. Elouise Joseph, our Chief of Officials, who is a top 10 official in the U.S. and who I consider to be my greatest mentor, came up to me at the end of the competition and told me how proud she was of my growth as an official over the past year. What can I say? It meant the world to me.
Image by jcomp on Freepik
As I work to upskill my professional abilities, and revamp my career goals, there is one gaping hole I need to explain and fill in which is my 6-year career break. In my mind, I feel frustrated to call it that as a break could not possibly describe my experience over the past 6 years as a stay at home mom. I have grown and learned so much as a person. I have had a chance to step away from work that I had been doing for 15 years and come back with a fresh perspective. As Tosha Schore and Patty Wipfler remark in their book Listen where they describe the perception of parenting work note: “Your parenting work is almost invisible in the world. With zero fanfare and a million interactions, you build your children’s character…but there is no preparation, pay or protection from the overwhelming circumstances for parents. Parenting holds the economic status of a hobby.” It has been a challenging six years that began when I left work to care for my daughter who we adopted from India at the age of 4. Trauma and a rare birth defect have made things especially challenging for my daughter. There were many surgeries and hospitals stays as well as an educational system that did not know how to help her thrive. Two and a half years ago, we began fostering my now adopted son who came to us from a really horrible situation at the age of 6. Then COVID hit and there was no question the right choice for our family was for me to stay home and support our children. Adoption is known as an elephant pregnancy as each one can take 2-3 years. For us it was a 10-year journey where I certainly learned how to navigate a foreign adoption system and our domestic foster care and medical system. Learning how to parent is a process in itself. Learning how to parent children with significant trauma requires an entirely different set of tools that took time and energy to cultivate. Making up for the years of my children’s childhood that I missed, requires a commitment that I felt bound to as they adjusted to a new family and life. I was fortunate to land a seasonal job at Girls Who Code as a site lead this summer. It was an incredible experience where I was placed in a position that required all of my skills and experience and paid well. Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code has recently started a new initiative called, Marshall Plan for Moms whose mission it is “to transform our workplaces, our culture and our government to enable moms to thrive.” I feel strongly that this philosophy played strongly in my ability to get such a fitting job as this one, but unfortunately it was only for the summer. And frankly, I still need this year with my children, who are doing wonderfully at 8 and 10, but still need some support. I am using my spare time to learn the skills I will need to re-enter the workforce in the field of Learning Experience Design and Curriculum Development. I have been working part-time as a boxing coach too, which feeds a strong desire to give back to the sport that gave me so much. I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for me as I come back to work from a “break” that has taught me so much about what is truly important in life.
"Each bone represents a call to action, a story, a voice." -Naomi Natale
It is hard to imagine an art installation that is comprised of 1,000,000 bones created by students, artists, and activists laid out on the National Mall. But the vision of one artist Naomi Natale came to fruition on June 8, 2013 and I was there to be a part of it as well as witness the amazing sight in the nation’s capital. In the following video Naomi Natale explains how the One Million Bones project came about:
I got involved with the One Million Bones project back in 2012 as part of the Congo Design Challenge. Students made bones to help raise money and participate in the art installation that raises awareness of the ongoing problem of genocide around the world in places such as Burma, the Congo, and Somalia. Over a two-year period the students at West Career and Technical Academy made approximately 5,000 bones. Being only a 5-hour drive from Washington D.C., I knew I had to be there for the actually laying of the bones. My husband and I drove up in a crazy rainstorm where it rained non-stop for 5 hours. But the following day, the sky cleared and made for a beautiful ceremony that involved guest speakers, music, and a sea of people dressed in white to lay the bones. We were placed into sections to lay the bones and walked back and forth with handfuls of bones. The cellist Amy Ziff played solemn music that rang through the air during the laying of the bones which put us in a meditative frame of mind.
We worked with teachers and artists from the Artworks studio who run art programs for kids in the D.C. area. It took about 4 hours to lay all of the bones. It was incredible to see all the many unique touches and interpretations that people from all over the world had added to their bones. Bones came from every single state in the U.S. and thirty countries and were made of a variety of materials such as clay, papier mache, styrophone, knitting yarn and glass. I also was able to see Grace Lau from Students Rebuild/Global Nomads Group who played a big role in the video conferences my students did with students from Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was an added bonus for me. The amount of energy and coordination to make this event a success was almost unfathomable, but it really went off without a hitch. Naomi Natale founded the Art of Revolution during this project, and it will be interesting to see what her next installation piece will be. You can check out my photo gallery of the event here. Image Source: freepik.com This past week I was completely reinvigorated when Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay invited me to be a Co-teacher and Community Builder for the current cohort of the Flat Classroom Teacher Certification Program. I felt so honored to be chosen. My role is to give feedback and support to the members of the cohort. I get to peek in on the work of another amazing set of global educators and support them as well as learn from them. It’s been a little bit hectic as I was brought in 3 weeks after the program started and have had to spend some time figuring out how to best do what I have been asked to do. Luckily, I have a fantastic partner in Sandy W out of Wisconsin who has also taken on the challenge wholeheartedly, making the task a little less overwhelming. We are starting to get into a rhythm and I think things will go more smoothly from here on out. Regardless, I hope I can continue to be involved in the Flat Classroom Movement as it continues to grow exponentially, because its core values and the people it attracts are at the heart of what gets me excited about education.
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AuthorYvonne Caples is a Learning Experience Designer who is passionate about making learning meaningful and engaging for all. Posts
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