In the last month we’ve had three groups of apprentices through our Personal Learning and Thinking Skills course, challenging themselves and thinking hard about learning in the beautiful surroundings of Snowdonia. With more groups taking on the course in the coming months we asked one cohort to come up with some advice for those that followed in their footsteps. With no prompting from our Development Guides, this is what they produced;
[Click for full size]
Amanda Visell has created four wonderful posters, nominally for girls but we think the messages apply to everyone, male, female, young and old.
“Explore, Get Dirty, Dream Big, Be You” pretty much sums up our attitude at Totem, and that of many of our clients as well. Make today your day to jump in puddles, hatch some plans, set sail for distant shores (with or without a fish) and wave your flag.
via BoingBoing
Way Back Home is the incredible new riding clip from Danny MacAskill, it follows him on a journey from Edinburgh back to his hometown Dunvegan, in the Isle of Skye.
You can read about it and watch the interviews with Danny at http://www.redbull.co.uk/waybackhome
They wouldn’t tell me what I was going to be doing for my stag weekend. All I was told was to turn up in Nant Peris and to bring my black tie evening suit.
by Dr. Seuss
I recently read this at my sister’s wedding and I love the sentiment contained within it.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the couple who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets.
Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “We don’t choose to go there.”
With your heads full of brains
and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down,
any not-so-good street.
And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.
It’s opener there
in the wide open air,
Out there things can happen and frequently do
to people as brainy and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights!
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have all the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang, and you’ll soon take the lead.
OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
Wherever you fly you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’t.
Because sometimes, you won’t.
You’ll get mixed up of course, as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up with so many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step. Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed? Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and three quarters percent guaranteed.)
You’re off to great places! Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way!
“For London is like prison for children, especially if their parents are not rich. Of course there are the shops and theatres, and entertainments and things, but if your people are rather poor you don’t get taken to the theatres, and you can’t buy things out of the shops; and London has none of those nice things that children may play with without hurting the things or themselves—such as trees and sand and woods and waters. And nearly everything in London is the wrong sort of shape—all straight lines and flat streets, instead of being all sorts of odd shapes, like things.”
March isn’t the ideal time of year to be jumping in the rivers of North Wales. With snow on the hills still and persistent light drizzle, the water temperature is 4-6°C and the air only fractionally above that.
However, Dave from Boulder Adventures called and said he had a new gorge to explore and would I like to tag along. Jumping, swimming, climbing and sliding, all mixed up with a little adventure, of course I would!
In 1965 Paul Petzolt, founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming used the phrase “Expedition Behaviour” for the first time.
For him it represented a series of principles which guide the decisions and behaviours of an expedition’s members in order to achieve the maximum across the team with the minimum of stress. By 1974 he’d refined the idea enough to write 17 pages on it in his seminal “Wilderness Handbook” and it continues to be at the core of NOLS courses today.
Expedition Behaviour means being prepared, on time, organized, flexible and humble; seeing the humor in everything; exercising a tolerance for adversity, uncertainty and discomfort; and putting the needs of the group and others on the same level or above one’s own needs. Some people do it instinctively, others take a while but eventually, given the reality that wilderness places in front of us, almost everybody gets it.
It had been a cold, grey, damp winter. The cloud had barely lifted off the hills for more than a few hours in months. The bare trees were covered in moss and dripped continuously. It felt like we hadn’t been out to play for weeks.
Then one night the cloud disappeared and it was clear. No moon meant dark skies and the stars leapt out of the inky blackness. The Milky Way traversed from horizon to horizon.
Donning head torches, two friends and I walked up into the old quarries behind the village, built a fireplace from some pieces of slate and lit a fire. Under the stars we toasted marshmallows and put the world to rights. There was a cold wind but lots of layers and the fire kept us warm.
It was gone midnight when we picked our way through the slag heaps and back to our homes. Our eyes were red and our hair and clothes smelt of smoke but it didn’t matter, it was just nice to have been out doing something.
We don't change organisations, we change people. People change organisations.
