pi day

not sure if i mentioned it in the last post, but PI Day was awesome last week! Above is a picture of one of my classes spelling out PI!

a great few weeks!

It's been a while since I've posted... mostly just general busy-ness and high school exit exam testing last week!

Several more successful events in the past month - February 22-23rd saw 7 kids and myself going up to Folsom to volunteer at a duathlon and a great time was had by all. Pictures are at http://picasaweb.google.com/hightri/camping The week after that was our second time doing the Tree Fresno race in downtown Fresno. 12 participated -including Eric's family (mom and 4 siblings!) It was absolutely amazing to see them racing! First race for Francisco too which was cool. Albert got 10th place overall, and beat me by about 8 minutes in the six mile race. (I got about 45 mins, so about a 7:30 mile).

This past weekend we figured since it was spring break it'd be cool to do a big camping thing. So I took 9 kids along with fellow teacher Wendy up to Folsom. We borrowed mountain bikes from Jen/CSU Fresno Triathlon Club, and 7 kids did the Chanoko Duathlon either as a relay or individual. (2 mile run, 12 mile Mountain Bike, 2 mile run). I did the six mile trail run and completed it in about 50 minutes which considering the hilly terrain I was happy with!

We will practice this week but not a whole lot... I need a break too! This morning I rode 30 miles and it felt great! I did get a flat tire though. This afternoon I'm going to do some reflection time at Woodward Park and probably do some running as well; Ironman California 70.3 is LESS than two weeks away!

This weekend I was pleased that I felt much more like the coach than previous trips. Last year I focused a lot on mentoring and that kinda thing... this year i feel like I know the kids less, but it is helpful sometimes too because they seem to be more willing to share stuff sometimes too and there's less risk of them telling me something they shouldn't. However I still feel the relationships being developed on this team are incredibly powerful. It gets more complicated sometimes when I go on a trip such as this past one and I know for sure that I have strong relationships with at least 4 of them - tensions sometimes rise if they perceive favoritism and such. But that's life. It was a great trip and after a great time talking with my girlfriend Meagan last night, I'm on cloud nine right now! And my car's in the shop so I'm stuck at home :-)

First Race

We did a 5k this weekend. 9 kids in call, thanks to the heroic last-minute efforts of my girlfriend Meagan. Thanks Meagan. For six of these kids, this was their first actual race before with numbers and everything, and we had a great time! 3 kids beat me too... one kid by just one second despite my best efforts at sprinting at the end! So I'm seriously going to start running twice a day.

Doing special right triangles this week! If you hadn't seen the myspace pages yet (which I'm afraid I'll have to take down soon because some kids are abusing them):
http://www.myspace.com/306090tri
(and the more popular http://www.myspace.com/454590tri )

Hilarious stuff. "i love long linear walks on the beach..." etc. I think I'm funny. The kids think I'm goofy. I don't care!

On a personal note my grandfather is very ill and I spent all day Sunday visiting him up in the Bay area (about 2 and a half hours away). We'll see...

first official triathlon club practice of 2008!

Preseason is over! The first official swim practice of the Fresno PAL Triathlon Club (the largest active high school triathlon club in the country as far as we know! (seriously!).

Two kids came along to the fresno State tri club practice and we had a good time swimming. Albert noted that "I'd forgotten how hard and yet fun swimming is!" and Sovann got several cramps so didn't swim much - but it was the first time he'd tried actual swimming since Triathlon season last year (march)! So I was very proud of both of them! Next practice is wednesday!

cool connection

Last night one of my earliest mentored students (all the way back from 2003 when i was a camp counselor) sent me a message on facebook basically saying what's up.

the cool thing about that is i hadn't heard from him since probably 2004... he'd been going through some problems at home, so i sent his parents a letter around Christmas time offering to talk to him or whatever; to, "get inside his head." apparently he hadn't liked the wording of that and had gotten pretty upset.

well, he said that he'd forgotten about that... it was "in the past" and was excited to be talking again. i reminded him to not send me "email" type messages on facebook since im a teacher and stuff now... but wow, it just really made my day to get the message from him! relationships that matter are truly why we are in this profession! even when we think the kids have forgotten about us!

sick

I'm sick so had to skip out on most of the buyback day today, but will be in class tomorrow! Tylenol rocks...

Finishing up Quadrilaterals this week for Geometry; point-slope form for Algebra. Triathlon Meeting on Friday and some swimming stuff during the week.

on teacher-student relationships

It's cool how we work and work and work and -- somewhere along the way are often able to become more than just math teachers to our students!

Today I was working out with some students - just three guys today... but one new guy to the Triathlon Team which is great, a kid from a different high school who I'm starting to get to know through Winter Water Polo as well, and another kid that started out as just a cross country kid and was also in my student teaching class - 3 school years ago! So it was a good group.

We biked about 5 miles then ran probably only about a mile and a half or so, but it was all hills and stuff so it was hard! Sprint up the hill, do 5 jumping jacks, back down, 5 pushups, and we did that four times! I was sweating for sure when we finished! Afterward we went to Riteaid to get some water and such... good times.

Anyway, I mention all that to talk about the subject line. As I've gotten to know about a dozen students really, really well over the past few years, I'm amazed at how much they in turn know about me even though I don't really talk about myself that much. I mean, some of them even know what radio station presets the Suburban has; ask me when the last time I got it oil changed, etc. And there is a growing list of stories and inside jokes ("We left Sovann @ the gas station... check for carrots...). I was talking with some students today and noted that I am simpily enabling them to "do their thing" in regards to sports. Sure, I set the tone, the rules, and provide the means - but this is THEIR triathlon club. It is the students who last year succeeded in being the first organized high school triathlon club in the Central Valley - and one of a handful in the US, if not the world. Can't wait to see what will happen in 2008!