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!

Good second week

Twas a good second week! Had a nice meeting with my BTSA provider this morning as we assessed student work based on projections (some kids I thought would do well didn't; likewise some students I thought wouldn't do well did great!)

I gave them two point (-4,-5) and (4,5) and they had to completely put it into slope-intercept form without any notes. this week we went from reviewing slope on Monday to point-slope on Tuesday and Wednesday, and yesterday practiced this. Most did very well and I was pretty proud of them! These are my second-year algebra students...

Gotta go get some Carl's Jr. for lunch today! I'm hungry. Last night dinner was a frito boat because I went from coaching winter water polo (4-6pm) to dropping kids off from that to working the basketball game to sell license plate frames for Turning Points Academy, the learning community I'm in. (http://mclane.fresno.k12.ca.us/academics/tpa.html) Got hoem from that and i Was tired!

This weekend will be busy as well! Tonight goin out to dinner with the girlfriend Meagan and some colleagues from school, tomorrow morning working out on the bike, afternoon doing a nice workout again (should have more kids and volunteers tomorrow!), and Monday doing a service project with some volunteers from Fresno Pacific University and my students. Sunday will be spent planning the week's lesson and finishing up grading today's quiz.

Today my geometry students will have to draw and completely label a parallelogram such as a rhombus, square or rectangle. probably rectangle cuz we did those yesterday... i'm off to get food and caffeine!

Good Bike/Run Workout

Today went running and biking with some (mostly new) Triathlon kids. Thanks to Kristina for coming to volunteer... (last time she came with us she fell and had to go to the hospital for stitches and a concussion! :-( )

It was a good time! I ran 4 miles and biked just two, some kids biked as much as 8 miles on a somewhat hilly course and combinations in between. Very positive kids and it was really fun to hear and see friendships between the kids start to develop (no one knew more than one other kid before today's 4 hour outing)... including getting free donuts from one of the kids brothers on the way home!)