Write about a time when you tried your best and still made mistakes. How did you react?

The never-ending project started off with a simple vision of allowing every student to code with a Raspberry Pi; after several vendors of looking and deciding on a suitable vendor to supply in Dubai. Two classrooms sets were ordered and ready to set my classroom alive!

Of course, this was not the case when it eventually took two years to get everything set up and running with them labelled connected to a server with a safe port, software, each having its own SD card, USB connector and protective case. Eventually, they worked superbly and anyone in the school could use the Raspberry PI perfectly but in the classroom, the remote login using them on PC's was lost on them and students were uninterested in these low-powered slow computers. What a shame as it took immense effort, craftsmanship (as I had the maintenance team make a container for them), networking know-how for only a short brief moment of use. In the end, I learned a lot and enjoyed working alongside so many colleagues to get it off the ground. I personally this is a unique set-up that has not been achieved in any other school at this scale.

Why can mistakes be detrimental to our learning and our brain growth?

Simple, by not learning from them we would never grow. I always reminisce back to my childhood years from my sisters stereo system blaring out the tune 'I get knocked down' but I get again by Chumbawamba when at first I don't yet succeed. I know that this is an opportunity to learn from when in fact, mistakes are actually essential to learning, that no one gets better at anything without first making some mistakes and going through some struggles. I think that sometimes this can be perceived as my downfall in my approach to most new things new. The reason being is I can appear silly as I like to reset my brain back to being like a baby so I can sponge the experience like I know nothing to fully experience all inevitable side-effects. I believe these are my clues for learning and get to know how to teach/mentor others.

Is there an example in your life or someone else's life of a time mistakes prevented you or the other person from doing something great? Describe the situation.

Being stuck on having to be right can lead you down a pathway that can be detrimental to a relationship. It feels like you are solid ground on being right about something as you go off an early life assumption in life that wasn't right, to begin with. I trust my gut so much that it can cloud what is actually happening in the real world. It is true what they say that ignorance is bliss! A situation I can think of is hiring someone for their great talent and not focusing on their personality has been a mistake where we both struggled to thrive together.

What should you do next time you make a mistake?

I am human and showing empathy, humility and forgiveness would be taking responsibility for my mistakes. I am not one for passing for a buck or looking to blame others, when something is not working then I see that as an opportunity to grow and improve on something that I did not see before.