I brought a standing desk for home a few weeks ago after falling in love with my one at work. I enjoy being able to stand during meetings and normally write my blog standing up having found that it keeps me on task and less likely to get side tracked by something else. Today however, I’m so completely exhausted that I have no other choice but to sit because I have been standing ALL GOD DAMN WEEK. 

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All this standing around has been for a good reason of course. We had our final Girls/Boys in STEM program days at the Tech School. This term students had to design and build a rollercoaster type contraption that could move a ping pong ball from one side of their section to the other. Each team joined their section with another group to create a continuous path for the ping pong ball to travel. There were lego mechanisms, cardboard and tape, heaps of tape. It was a pretty intense two day long program (4 days all up for boys then girls) with engineers from Mars Snacking invited in to select the winners for best design, highest elevation, longest run and best in show. 

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While all this creative chaos was happening I spent most of my time with the student leaders preparing for the showcase event that was on the final evening. We invite all of the program participants back to the Tech School with their families and teachers to share their creations. There is a formal presentation that is presented by the student leaders and is what we've been working towards all year on our student leadership days. The leaders MC the event, present about the program for the year and share and promote their role as student leaders. We have a guest speaker and the boss and head of pathways get up but ultimately it is a student run event.

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During the year we’ve been working towards this very moment. We have a big focus on communication skills and teach the students how to introduce themselves properly, shake hands, speak clearly, use body language and most importantly, give them opportunities to practice these skills as soon as possible. Working with the student leaders is by far the most rewarding part of my job. The transformation that happens from the beginning to end of the year is extraordinary. You can physically feel their confidence bloom as we ask them to step up and out of their comfort zone again and again. 

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Supporting the boys and then the girls from the side of the stage is one of my proudest teaching moments and a lovely way to wrap up my work with the Tech School. It wasn’t perfect but that's what I’ve been trying to tell them all year. It doesn’t have to be. The very act of getting up on stage, holding a microphone and confidently introducing yourself to a 100 odd people is awesome. Most adults would rather eat their own tongue than do it. 

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The vibes afterwards were palpable. The leaders were all so proud of themselves and of each other. During the year they’ve all become great mates which is a fantastic side effect of the program. My favourite part is coming in a few weeks when we have a handover day and the current leaders spend a day with the new leaders. We do a speed mentoring game where the current leaders get to pass on all the lessons they learnt throughout the program to the incoming crew. It's amazing to see what has stuck and what had the most impact. It’s always something unexpected. Something we didn’t plan for but naturally occurred somehow. 

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Most of the highlights come from being challenged. This is common with lots of feedback we get from the Tech School. The most challenging part of the program is also the best. ‘You made me sit with people I didn’t know’ becomes ’I made lots of new friends’. The comfort zone and the growth zone are separate spaces. I’ve spent most of my life in the growth zone, doing things that make me feel nervous and excited all at once. Mostly this is by choice and sometimes it’s forced. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is the best bit of advice I hope these students leave with (from me anyway). Butterflies in the stomach should be celebrated. It means you’re doing something new, something different, something that you thought you might never be able to do.

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When I think about the future these young people are facing, uncertainty is the only thing we can guarantee. You could argue it’s the same for every generation but AI is really going to fuck things up. And I’m pro AI. It’s capable of extraordinary things but I also think it smoothing out everything that makes us human. It’s designed to remove challenges but it's the challenges that we need to be the best humans.

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