Triathlon

My next physical challenge is the Gold Coast Triathlon. It's only a sprint triathlon, nothing too impressive. 1/2 mile swim, 10.5 mile bike, 3 mile run. It should take me about 2 hours.

Last year, I completed the race in 1:56:44. This year, I'd like to finish under 1:45:00.

I think everyone should try a tri. It takes time to train, maybe a few months if starting from scratch, but it's certainly not impossible, and it's a lot of fun. Besides, if I can do it, anyone can do it.

True Urban Legends

I recently heard a story on an archived podcast of This American Life about Steve Poizner. Steve Poizner made a large sum of money in business. Afterwards, he taught at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose for one year, which he documented in his book Mount Pleasant. His book depicted a struggling school in a crime-ridden neighborhood, where he arrived and motivated the students to success. In the podcast, Ira Glass explores the details of the book, discovering many inaccuracies. It turns out that the poverty of school and the crime in its surrounding neighborhood were grossly exaggerated. Likewise, the account of his astonishing effects on his students were...less than accurate.

One of the questions raised by Ira Glass is: why? Why did Poizner publish a book that son inaccurately represented Mount Pleasant? Was he lying, in order to bolster his gubernatorial candidacy by claiming that he was a teacher who understood public schools? Or was he mistaken, taking his preconceptions into the teaching experience and describing the picture as he saw it?

The podcast suggests interesting ideas about becoming a teacher. How much do expectations affect a teacher's experience, and subsequently the students' experiences? Is it that easy to think you are helping your students succeed, when they didn't really need your help? Will we accept anyone as a teacher?

The podcast can be streamed for free or purchased from iTunes for $0.99.

Races

The next pre-Institute exercise is on the subject of race. It raises some good ideas, such as not being racist and not shying away from the topic of racism with your students. It the proceeds to explain to us the normal path of racial identity development for all black students, and the different path for all white students.

Wha-??

We need to not be racist, but we also need to assume that all black adolescents think the same way and all white adolescents think the same way. Sounds good to me.

I assume these generalizations apply to all students, even if they are in a 99% minority school or have parents of mixed racial backgrounds. Probably adopted kids too.

Long Island Half Marathon

It happened. I ran a half marathon. I managed to train too hard as well as not well enough, and the race was...not fun. Still, I finished, and I'm proud. I ran nearly 100 miles in two months and started off the season with a nice farmer's tan.

Here's a picture of my finish, net time 2:44:29 (I'm the one on the left).

Teaching

This September, I will be a teacher. A real teacher, someone responsible for the education of children.

Strange.

I feel like I was a student so recently. I guess I was, a graduate student, only last year, but I don't feel long enough out of high school that I can be a teacher.

I am a Teach for America 2011 Corps Member in the Connecticut region. I will be teaching Secondary General Science, which is somewhere between 7th and 12th grade. I could also end up teaching Biology if needed. Once I receive my school placement, I will have a better idea of the specific class I will be teaching.

In late-June, I begin training at what is called Institute, the basic training of TFA. I have recently begun doing the "pre-Institute coursework", which involves a couple of large softcover books, a few videos, and some large PDFs.

The first reading assignment is a 100-page story about Ms. Lora, a 4th grade teacher and TFA alumna. It is certainly interesting to hear about her creative teaching techniques, but I think my time might be better spent hearing anecdotes of high school teachers. I don't expect to be teaching 4th graders, and the trials and challenges of teenagers in another beast completely. I am enjoying the reading assignment, especially because it's getting me revved up to be an educator, but I'd rather be learning techniques for managing a middle/high school classroom.

I do like Ms. Lora's stories; I'd call her a badass. She is creative and relentless in preparing her kids for the state English exams. I would prefer if the stories were more organized, maybe by teaching technique or chronologically, rather than 100 pages of independent half-page stories.

Ah, well. Back to fourth grade stories with the badass Ms. Lora. It's an interesting read, anyway.