"I Want to Play"

When I first had this student in 3rd grade, it was obvious that she didn't like PE. For starters, she always had to go to the bathroom and it took 15 minutes for her to get there and back. Then, when she was in class, she always tried to hide from me and the rest of the class by going way off to the side of the activity or by standing just out of my line of sight.

I knew why she did this. It was she because was self conscious of her abilities compared to other students. She was a little embarrassed that she couldn't do what others could and was afraid that others would make fun of her. I always told her to do the best she could and that she would get better with practice, but it was how she was viewed by her classmates that really worried her.

Thankfully, many of her classmates were very supportive. Because she knew she had that support, she slowly began to participate more and, with her participation, her skills began to improve. This year, she is in 5th grade and she's totally changed.

During the soccer tournament, she found that she could play pretty good defense. In fact, an outstanding soccer playing classmate said to me (in the middle of a game, no less): "Mr T, I can't believe how much ______ has improved. I can't get around her. She's like a wall."

This week she's been working really hard at learning Lacrosse skills, skills which can be difficult for even the most accomplished athletes to learn. While practicing, she said to me: "Mr T, I used to hate PE. Now it's not so bad."

Then something happened.

During a game, a disagreement between two people suddenly blew up into an argument involving almost everyone in the game.

Two people tried to play peacemaker. Our student, who never gets involved in these things, was one of them.

Unfortunately, the peacemakers were shouted down. Our student started to cry.

I felt awful for not being there in time (I'd been watching the other game).

"Oh no," I thought. "After all the progress she's made, she's going to go back into her shell."

In the past, this would have done her in for a couple of days, so I went to her and asked her if she needed a break.

"NO!" she shouted, "I want to play..."

Is it Important to Win a Certain Way? Or is Any Win a Good Win?

This week's episode of the Amazing Race was won by a team which had already won twice before. This week, in a really close finish, they outran another team to the finish line. They won by about half a step after both teams sprinted what looked like about 100 yards.

As the teams talked to the race's announcer, the team that came in second complained that the winners had already won twice and that they should be willing to let other teams win once in awhile.

What do think about this? Should the winning team have let the other team win? If you won a race because another team let you, how would you feel about it?

Blackbelt

One of the 6th grade basketball players that I coach took her karate black belt test on Saturday. I got to see it.

The test took almost 4 hours and was extremely difficult. It would have been hard for adults, let alone 11 year olds. They had to demonstrate their form on kicks and punches, recite chants, answer questions and read their own essays in the middle of a crowded room in front of a panel of judges. After that, they had to break a board with their bare feet. Then they had to fight.

The first matches had each candidate (there were 3) go against 6 adult blackbelts in a row for about 30 seconds each. After that, they had 3 individual matches against the adults in which the first person to get 5 points won (contestants got 1 point for landing a blow to the opponents body, 2 points for a blow to the head). After that, the contestants fought each other and after that, they had to break bricks with their bare feet.

All three contestants were exhausted at the end, but this was as much a test of courage and willpower as it was about skill.

In a very moving and powerful ceremony, all three kids got their blackbelt. The last thing the teacher said to the kids was "this is just the beginning. You are teachers now. It is your job to share your knowledge with all of the new students, no matter how young or old they may be."

All in all, this was one of the coolest, most inspiring events I've ever seen.

Wildlife

So, there's this creek I cross everyday on my way to school. I've often paused to watch and listen to it when I cross it; there's something soothing about the sight and sound of running water. It was never anything special, really, just a pleasant interlude. Then, last year, things changed.

First, a tree on a sandbar in the middle of the creek was cut down, creating open air above the creek. Then, some kids used bricks and rocks to build dam next to the sandbar, turning that part of the creek into a little pond. The sleepy little creek came to life.

Last spring I started to see birds in the creek that I'd never seen there before. Mallards. Egrets. A Great Blue Heron. A pair of Common Mergansers. A Green Heron. And, swooping through the trees and down the creek, an Osprey.

In August I noticed a bunch of tiny ripples on the water's surface as I walked by. I stopped to see what caused them. Trout! I'd never seen anything but tadpoles and water skeeters in the creek before, but now there were trout! Hundreds of tiny fingerling trout, plus one that was about 6 inches long. Cool. I started to checking on them everyday, hoping for rain that would raise the level of the pond enough to allow the fish to go out to sea. Most of them never made it.

The birds discovered the trout too. First it was just a pair of mallards, but one day I counted 15 mallards in the pond (this begs the question: can ducks communicate?). The egrets and herons came back too.

Now, as I cross the creek, I'm likely to see a pair of mallards and an egret or two. On the surface of the creek there is nary a ripple to be seen. I hope the rains came early enough to allow at least a few of the fish to escape.

You Know You've Been Accepted When...

I never know how 3rd graders are going to react to me. 3rd grade is the first time most of them have me for PE, so at the beginning of the year they're not quite sure what to make of me.

Like when I tell them a story for the first time, they don't realize that it's supposed to be funny so they don't laugh because they don't know that it's okay to do so.

I want kids to be comfortable with me so they aren't afraid to fail or make mistakes; I try to create an atmosphere where kids willingly try new things, fear of failure limits that willingness.

Anyway, I know kids are comfortable with me when:

A mom I've never met before tells me that her 3rd grade daughter, who never liked PE before, really enjoys my class.

When another kid who doesn't like PE does a report on Survivor (PE style).

Or when a girl who never says anything in class sees me in the hallway and says "Hi Mr. T, I mean, hi Suzy."

Or when a third grader walks up to me on the playground and asks "can I have a play date with you?" ......

Long Rope Jumping

I'm teaching the 3rd grade long rope jumping this week. I started most of the kids with just jumping in with the rope turning both backward and forward, then progressed to simple tricks. Got me thinking about how 5th graders might include rope jumping into their rhythmic routines.

So, check out these videos:

youtube.com/watch?v=R_lsgj7Nl8c
youtube.com/watch?v=bnChvpipSps

And, in case you think jump rope is just for kids, watch this professional boxer:

youtube.com/watch?v=MdgXgjCaus4

In Defense of the Minivan

I drive a minivan.
I also drive a coupe (really fun, really fast), but the vehicle I drive for most everyday purposes is the van. It's really versatile and actually fun to drive.
A couple of you visited me awhile back (btw - not really a good idea to drop in on adults without advance notice) and when they found out I had the van, one said: "that's a woman's car."
I got the van because it can carry 7 people, all their luggage and my basketball stuff comfortably. You can also remove all the back seats and carry tons of cargo (see "FUNdraising").
Now, I know how people judge others by the cars they drive, but I don't really care, because the van is the best vehicle around for hauling people. The first time I took my team up to Reno for a basketball tournament, one girl got in, saw how much room was inside, saw the dvd player and said: "Coach, I like it. This car is sooo uncool, that it's cool."

FUNdraising

This Sunday my high school basketball team held a yard sale as a fundraiser. It was, as these girls like to say, h$#lla fun. First you should know that these San Francisco teenagers are really different from Mill Valley kids - many of them have never been out of California and many of them had never seen a yard sale before. Anyways, we had tons of stuff to sell, but the stuff we thought would sell didn't, and lots of the junkiest stuff did. Weird. We also baked cookies (sold out) and had a car wash at the same time.
Couple of the girls turned out to be really good at haggling and others were great advertisers. All in all a fun day because it was a new experience for many; they never knew how much a bunch of stuff they didn't want anymore could be worth to others.
I brought 8 boxes of books & computer games, golf clubs, softball bats, clothes, a guitar and two reclining chairs complete with ottomans. Try carrying all that in an SUV.

Cha Cha Slide

Has anyone seen the McDonald's commercial set to the Cha Cha Slide? Hilarious.

Survivor

Survivor has been weird this season. None of the players is really likable, like Yao-Man or Yul, and the challenges are dull, so the whole show is kind of boring. Hasn't been predictable though, with a couple of players purposely losing a challenge a couple of weeks ago without telling their teammates and how you can't tell who is going to vote for who in tribal council.
One thing that's always interesting to me is the final comments made by the player just voted off.
This week, it was John-Robert, a guy I thought was just awful: rude, lazy, full of himself. He was the only guy in camp that didn't know that James has both immunity idols, so he spent a whole night looking for one. Pretty funny. Anyway, after he got voted out, he said something like: "I hoped to stay around longer, but everybody knew I was the strongest player, so I guess they felt they had to get rid of me."
Note to John-Robert: No, John-Robert, you're wrong. They only kept you around for your vote. Once they didn't need it any more, they dumped you because you're a jerk and not as smart as you think you are.

We, Not Me / Zero Zero

Had my first high school basketball practice on Monday. Six of the players showed up with "We not Me" written on their shoes. They did it because they wanted to emphasize teamwork. Last season we had a very selfish player (no longer on the team) who kind of spoiled it for everyone.

I thought this was really cool, so I told this story to some of my PE classes. Since then, several of you have written the same thing on your shoes.

Last night I told my high school players how you reacted to my story, and how things they did could inspire younger kids. Then I told them a story about some of you:

One really good, unselfish 5th grade team scored a goal within the first 2 minutes of a game. Before the next kickoff, the captain told her team: "Zero - zero".

When I told her it was 1-0, she said, "No, Mr. T. We have to stay focused. We have to play like it's 0-0"

Cool, huh?

Also cool was when, after the team had a big lead, the captain said, "Okay, from now on we have to shoot from outside the box."

My high school kids were impressed.

Memory Triggers

The other day, as I was walking down the street, I heard a song that I hadn't heard in years. The song was "Hold Your Head Up" by Argent, and it brought back this flood of memories of my summer orientation visit to U.C Davis back in 1972. In my mind's eye I could see the buildings, smell the smells, feel the sun on my skin...

Smells also trigger memories for me. There are certain smells that trigger memories of faraway places that I've visited, like Hong Kong or Japan.

Do you guys have any memory triggers?

The Fire

Back in the 80's, I got really tired of the 5 am - 5 pm grind of running a business, so we sold it and I took a break. I used my time off to help one of my friends set up his electrician business.

Starting up a business can be hard, because it takes a while to find customers, which means that the business isn't making much money. Meanwhile, the business has expenses such as rent and payroll. So, in order to help my friend keep his expenses low, I learned how to do electrical work and did some jobs with him. I only got paid if the job made a profit.

Anyway, one day we got a call to re-wire a house. The house was in the Outer Sunset district of San Francisco, which is the area between Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Zoo and Ocean Beach. It's the flattest part of SF, so it gets the most fog and the most wind. This particular house was 2 blocks from the beach.

When we arrived on the job, we found a two story building with the main living space on the top floor and a garage on the first floor. There was also an illegal apartment, known as an in-law, in the back of the garage. The front of the building consisted of a garage door and a doorway on the ground floor with windows on the second floor. The doorway was protected by a steel gate.

The outside of the building looked fine, but once we entered, you could see that it had had a fire.

It was obvious that the fire had started in the in-law and had spread upward. It didn't seem like the fire was too serious, because the frame of the building was still intact. The inside of the house was like a skeleton; all of the sheetrock covering the walls was gone and the frame of the house was exposed. Before the walls could be re-covered, the wiring had to be replaced. That was our job. We also had to reconnect the house to the power line coming from the street.

It was a simple job. All we had to do was run new wire, put in new switches, plugs and a new circuit breaker box. We didn't have to drill holes or anything. It took us two days.

The first day we ran all the wire and put in all the plugs and switches. All that remained was to install the new breaker box in the garage and bring power in from the street. This was a one man job, so only I went back on the second day.

The second day was a typical summer day in the Sunset: cold, foggy, windy. I arrived at about 9 am and went to work.

While I was in the garage hanging the breaker box and connecting all the new wires to it, I thought I heard footsteps coming from upstairs. It sounded like two people, a child and an adult. It sounded like the child was running, and the adult was chasing it.

I knew I was alone at the site and that it was windy, so I thought I was just imagining things.

Minutes later, I heard the footsteps again, only this time they were going in the opposite direction.

I upstairs to see if anyone was there. Nothing. I went back to work.

I heard the footsteps going back across the room.

I went back upstairs. Nothing.

I went out into the street and looked at the houses next door. It seemed like no one was home in either house.

I looked at the fog and listened to the wind and told myself that it was just my imagination. I went back to work.

The job took about 4 hours. Every few minutes throughout that period, I heard footsteps running back and forth across the floor above me. I tried to ignore it, but at the end of the day, I was thoroughly rattled and couldn't wait to leave.

Two days later, my friend and I went back to the house to meet the contractor so that he could check our work and pay us.

After we were finished walking through the house, I asked him what had happened there.

He gave us kind of a funny look and said: "Didn't you know? Sad story. Real tragedy."

"The tenant in the basement left something on the stove," he went on, "whatever it was caught fire. Fire spread to the wall above the stove and through the garage. All in all, not much damage, but lots of smoke. Unfortunately, the two people upstairs couldn't get out because most of the smoke went straight up the stairwell and they didn't have a key to the gate. They died from smoke inhalation."

"Who were they?" I asked.

"A two year old boy and his grandmother."

The Amazing Race

Yeah, yeah, I know. A PE teacher encouraging couch potato like activities. This time it's the Amazing Race, 11 sets of partners in a race around the world. I've always liked this one because you get to see parts of the world you normally wouldn't see (the non-touristy parts). The racers use local customs as competitions; things like alligator wrestling, or mosaic building. Ultimately, it's the contestants who make the show interesting, so the quality ("watchability"?) of the show depends on whether or not you like any of the contestants. Worth a look, though. 8 pm Sundays on CBS

Things That Go Bump in the Night . . .