Training

I started trianing again for a half marathon. My goal this time around is to stay healthy and injury free. I think I am off to kind of a bad start. I had a great 9 mile run yesterday through the trees. There is this spot right as you come across a bridge and look up the creek that is just perfect, right about mile 6, and you just have to smile and run a little faster because everything just fits. I hurt today, but not from the running. On Friday, I think I fell badly and gave myself whiplash. Pretty silly. My head and upper chest kind of jerked backwards as I fell from the bouldering wall. I think the jerk caused my shoulder and neck problem to come back and a pinched nerve in my shoulder is telling me to do some yoga and take it easy.

It was a great weekend. I got a lot done, got a lot of exercise and ate healthful meals. I am still immensely tired today. Prior to this past weekend, I had been doing a lot of playing and it left my week feeling really chaotic. But at least I am fulfilling one of the two goals I set for myself this year - to have a social life and to improve my math instruction.

Math is one of those subjects that seems to be very kid unfriendly. As a student, I struggled with math a ton. As an adult, however, I find I really enjoy math. I try to help my students recognize the patterns because I wish someone had showed me the patterns. But perhaps the patterns only make sense when you are an adult. Our school uses a math program that I was quite resistant to at first. I didn't use it much last year because it would have required getting rid of P.E. (yes, I know that is federally mandated, someone actually suggested it to me,) and well, I am an active adult whose parents made sure I was an active kid. I don't really feel like contributing to the problem of obesity. Neither here nor there. I also don't want a computer activity to be the core part of my math teaching. I want it to be an assessment tool that informs where I need to improve my teaching. There is the option of breaking down by strands the students performance - number sense, mathematical reasoning, etc. That's useful to me. Supposedly it is ideal when used 20 minutes per day. So I have to decide, 20 minutes, plus an additional 10 or so to get there and back and set up, dedicated to going everyday, or writing. Hmm...a no-brainer. So we go twice a week and I spend most of the time trying to log kids in on various computers because several of them seem to not work at any random time. It seems like that 20 minute session is taking into account all the flubs that can possibly occur. We also used to have audio books which I thought was great and the kids loved last year and well, there just isn't time for that. It was like having your own personal read-aloud. Always a new gimmick in education. Alas.

Tomorrow should be fun. We all get to give up our prep time to go and learn about a new social studies curriculum. Social studies?!? Who has time to actually teach social studies?!? We are busy learning to read and write - bah! Of course, I find the first time they present any new curriculum the trainers know about as much as I will after a 5 minute reading of the first 10 pages of the teacher's edition. And then I will sit and whine about how utterly useless said training is. Hey, can I help it if I am a fast learner?!? It is made worse by the fact that KS won't be there to pass notes back and forth with and made snide comments. Text messaging!! Cha-ching!

Don't worry, I reserve the very highest expectations for myself, then again, I am the only one who can meet them. Au contraire.