Dalin Oliver provides laughter therapy for teachers at our district today.

As I have explained, our education district, Metro South Education District (MSED) has started our MSED Talks. Our director, Glen van Harte, has a nickname for the talks, MSED FLs. Before your minds race to wonderfully, crazy never lands, FL stands for Friday Lectures.

#Dalin Oliver and Glen van Harte, Director of MSED

Today we had #Dalin Oliver, a vibrant comedian, ex-teacher and a sports presenter on Goodhope FM radio station.

Crowd enjoying Dalin Oliver

The attendance was fantastic too. Many of our schools joined us and we had a large group of Metro Central district colleagues in the house as well.

Vanessa Berry, Head of Lantana Primary School and Andre Pretorius, Head of Heathfield Primary School enjoying the pre-talk snacks.

Dalin''s talk was entitled, I came. I taught. I left, a title drawn from his popular comedy show. Dilan's rapport with the large crowd was brilliant. Despite his youth, he knows how to engage a rather mature audience.

Colleagues, Cheryl Thomas, Carmen Niekerk, Johnny Freese and Warda Abrahams at the talk. The young man on the far left is an exchange student.

Daily took the audience on a humorous trip to his experiences in the classroom ( for a whopping five months) his colourful memories of growing  up in the Retreat community and his experiences as a cricket coach for tween and teenagers.

Nick Sayser, Karen Dudley, Trevor Francke and Vanessa Berry catching up

This young man has a bright future. He is unpretentious and knows how to reflect on life's interesting tosses and turns.  The audience loved him and laughed with abandon at his witty recollections.

Colleagues mingling just before the talk by Dalin Oliver

"What an afternoon with Dalin Oliver!" said Andre Pretorius, the Head of Heathfield Primary Scholl. "Aweh. Brilliant comedian in the South African context. We as South Africans make up so many words such as "ne" and double up names of games like "seet to seet` (when playing hide and seek), "housie, housie" ( playing house). Was great to laugh and just chill. Hilarious!


One of my colleagues sent a message saying: " Thanks for arranging some laughs. Really enjoyed it. " AWE. Ma se kinder!s"

Dalin, Sharon and Faldiela after the show.

Other colleagues said this is what teachers need. Teachers are tired of being bombarded with serious administrative overload and being stressed all the time.

" This is what teachers need", said another principal. "They need to be able to just sit back and enjoy being entertained. We need laughter therapy and other forms of fun for teachers who are bombarded with so much stress."

From Left: Lucia Petersen and Lorna Arendse with Dalin Oliver.

We definitely struck the right chord by having some laughter therapy.The MSED Talks series is proving to be a wonderful, relational medium to bring schools and the education district closer.

Let's keep meeting and inspiring one another... 

Just love this kind of community building.

If you want to get Dalin to come to your school to inspire your teachers and learners, GO AHEAD. #DalinOliver's e-mail is dalin@dalinoliver.com

From Left: Glen van Harte, Mr and Mrs Essop, Dalin Olver, Sharon Lewin, Faldiela Chotia and Achmat Chotia, the principal of Glendale High School.

A few of our guests coming to the talk.

snapshot of part of the crowd.