Here are a few notes on my recent trip to Australia and, in particular, my time in Adelaide, South Australia. I have been very lucky during my career to have had the opportunity to meet and interact with hundreds of teachers and students, but I have to say Adelaide has a special place in my heart.
Adelaide is a beautiful city with incredibly friendly people, great restaurants, and lots of fun places to hang out and experience the rich culture of Australia. I was especially impressed with the teachers and students who participated in my master class and workshops. The students were very articulate and creative and had LOTS of great ideas for launching their very own podcasts. They were also some of the most polite students I have ever run across. From the 1st year students all the way up to the year 12 students, I received warm “welcomes”, hand shakes and “thank you’s” from nearly every student. The people of Adelaide are a class act!
The master class and workshops were sponsored by the Technology School of the Future (TSOF). This is a fantastic organization chocked full creative and professional (and FUN!) people focused on bringing technology into the learning experiences of children in South Australia.
Karen Church was our main contact with TSOF and she treated me and my friend Tom, who was nice enough to travel with me all the way around the world, like royalty! Karen, along with Peter, Jim, James, Richard, Enver, and many others were a great team and took care of every detail you could imagine. We also got to meet up with Karen’s family for a day at the Cleland Wildlife Reserve where we had our first close encounters with Kangaroos, a Koala (named Banjo!), Wombats, Emus and other assorted Aussie creatures. We also spent a great afternoon tasting wines in the Barossa Valley region just outside of Adelaide. Beautiful places. Wonderful people. Did I mention it was also SUMMER there!?
Thank you Karen and all the wonderful people we met along our travels! We can’t wait to come back again someday. 
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Sounds wonderful. My cousin is married to an Australian girl and they live and teach in the Adelaide area. They are to be in the states with their children during the holidays. They are visiting us here in Ohio at the end of the month. Rich, my cousin often has told me I need to get into their exchange program and teach there for a year. Sounds like you have found the people there to be as enchanting as we have found his wife and children to be.
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