Training Log Archive: barb

to work, with David

On the Charles, with David

to Miracle of Science from work

Want to sleep less? Eat less.

to work. hot.

work to school. hotter.

Meeting with jr high teachers - it'll be another great team-building/orienteering outing! I'm psyched because I got even more classroom time for preparation this time.

school to work. hottest. omg. Great first day to start running. 94F.

Home from work

To River Gods for drinks & dinner with Caz, then later to the Diesel Cafe in Somerville to celebrate Dave Gibbs' birthday. Happily, he'll be coming to the Pawtuckaway camping weekend.

OK, going back to tracking my time teaching orienteering. I realize it's not training per se but I think it will be valuable to know what my time commitment to this; one benefit could be a more data-based approach to making commitments in the future, and since I already log time using AP, this will be easiest for me.

This morning I met with Julia Bishop, the 5th grade teacher with whom I first worked last year. We will again do a year-long program on orienteering in her classroom. Last year's students were particularly wonderful - it was a cohort of kids that teachers have raved about for years. This year's class will be more "normal" -- but that's great for a couple of reasons. We have the benefit of a year of working with our curriculum, and have ideas for focusing the content in a way that should drill the ideas in a clearer and more effective way. Also, some of the kids who are "troublemakers" in class might respond well to this kind of activity.

Our main strategy is to focus very clearly on the specific skills we want the kids to learn, and to really drill those so that by the time we go to the Fells at the end of the year, the kids really get it. The skills include orienting the map, distance estimation on the map, measuring distance in the woods, reading features, reading contours, route planning and route execution. The year's activities will include these main activities:

1. make a classroom map; use it to describe and find things


2. orienteer in the school garden


3. make a 3D model of part of the Fells using a topo map


4. street-O


5. Catching Features (hopefully... have to work out how this would happen as I'm not a CF user at the moment). Wouldn't it be cool if we could get the Boojum map into CF and then use it to execute the routes that they had planned before they go?!


6. park-O


7. visit from US team member, or video about them? And then opportunity to meet them at a local meet?


8. classroom prep/training for the big field trip


9. all-day orienteering trip to the Fells; orienteer in teams as we did last year

I'd like to get posters of Sam & Ross &/or the US team, big ones, up on the classroom walls. Maybe also those posters from the international O magazine - how do I get some of those?

One thing we need is money, for the bus to the Fells and maybe for materials (like posters, maps). I wonder if I should propose a NEOC schools grant program. And what is the status with USOF grant program - probably not in budget? The school budget is really really tight; last year the teacher raised money "under the table" from parents, but she's not supposed to do that.

One change from last year will be to involve parent chaperones early so that they might be involved with multiple activities and understand better what we're doing. Also, I'm hoping to get some families to a NEOC meet this fall.

It's nice to work with the same set of kids over the course of a year - you can make more progress than with a single session. In particular, you can help kids who wouldn't "get it" readily to gain some of these skills.

C • Bus Fund 5

C • Posters 6

work commute; took Izzy to her friend's; picked her & David up after cross country and soccer practice.

Back at work.
Starting to log last week's canoe trip.

C • Love your pics! 2