The Two Wolves

I heard this old Cherokee story the other day.  I thought you might like it.

A young Cherokee boy, angry about being mistreated and not knowing what to do, went to his grandfather for advice.

The grandfather told him:

I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do.
But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times."

"It is as if there are two wolves inside me. One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.

But the other wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.

Sometimes, it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for they fight to control my spirit."

The boy looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"

The Grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one that I feed."

Which wolf will you feed?

Big Time Timmy Jim - Tim Lincecum's ESPN Commercial

EVERBODY Needs Practice

The San Francisco Giants won their first baseball playoff game in 7 years last night. The Giants earned their spot in the playoffs mostly on the strength of their pitching, which in terms of Earn Run Average (ERA, or Earned Runs per 9 innings) was the best in the National League this season.

The winning pitcher was Tim Lincecum, also known as "the Freak". Lincecum has won the National League Cy Young Award, the most prestigious award a pitcher can earn, two years in a row. He is one of the most feared pitchers in the league, has lead the league in strikeouts for three consecutive years and is the first San Francisco Giants pitcher since Juan Marichal to strikeout at least 200 batters in a single season three years in a row. He even has his own ESPN commercial.

One of the reasons for Lincecum's success was his practice routine, which was taught to him by his dad. Lincecum's dad supervised his workouts right up to the time Tim became a Giant.

Lincecum started the 2010 season with a 5-0 record and a 1.76 ERA. It looked like he was headed for another great season, but it didn't quite turn out that way.

After that great start, Lincecum began to struggle.

In August, when the Giants were trying to gain ground on the first place Padres, Lincecum didn't win a single game. He has an ERA of 7.82. He was so ineffective the fans worried that something was wrong with him. His fastball, which he was throwing at 94-95 miles per hour at the beginning of the year, was down to around 90 miles per hour. Lincecum said that he felt fine, and that he should probably go back to doing some of the things he'd been doing earlier in his career.

Lincecum was referring to his practice routine. Sometime after the beginning of the season, he'd stopped practicing some of the things which made him successful. In late August, he started doing these things again. In September, when the team needed him most, Lincecum won 5 games and lost only one.

The lesson here is a simple one: Everyone, no matter how good, needs to practice.

PE is a class where kids learn new physical skills, then practice them. When we are learning a team sports unit, like football, it is very important that everyone be given a chance to participate by playing different positions. This helps students to understand the game and try new skills. The more chances a student gets, the more likely they will experience success. Success gives the students a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Some of you do an outstanding job of sharing responsibility. On your teams everybody gets a chance to play every spot and experience some personal success. The members of those teams became excited about playing football. I had several students from those teams tell me "I understand football now!" and "this is fun!"

Unfortunately, this isn't true of every team. The members of some teams get so wrapped up in winning or showing off how much they know or how good they are (at least in their own minds), that they neglect to give other teammates a chance. This is selfish. It prevents students from learning. Several students from those teams told me: "I don't get football," and "this is boring".

Kids, I need your help on this. Kids can't learn if they aren't given a chance to go so. The next time we have a team sports unit, please, please give everybody a chance to contribute. Sharing responsibility makes everybody feel good. It keeps people's buckets full.

Who's That Big Kid?

Farewell, Class of '10

We're going to miss you. Good luck in middle school!

(click on photo to enlarge)

Scavenger Hunt Solutions

Thanks to all of you who decided to participate in this year's scavenger hunt.  Hope you had fun!



Double click on a picture to enlarge it.

How Failure Breeds Success

How long did it take for humans to invent a controllable aircraft?

The first known drawing of a flying machine was done by Leonardo Da Vinci in around 1488,

but the first controlled flight of an airplane wasn't until 1903.

That's a span of 415 years.

So what happened in the meantime?  Didn't anyone try to make an airplane between the time of Da Vinci and the Wright brothers? 

Of course they did.  There were many, many attempts to build aircraft before the Wright brothers.  They just weren't successful.

So, how did the Wright brothers accomplish what other before them had not?  Did they suddenly awake one day with a breakthrough idea? 

No.

They learned from everybody else' failures.

Orville and Wilbur Wright took the knowledge gained from everyone who had gone before them, eliminated the things that didn't work, kept the things that did and added their own twist, "three axis control"; a system used to this day.  The result?  An airplane that could go up, down, left and right.

The Wright brothers themselves failed many times before they flew successfully.  But each failure taught them something.  By figuring out what went wrong, devising a solution and sticking to it, they were ultimately successful.

This is just one example of a process that has been repeated throughout history.

Everybody fails at some point.  It is how we handle failure that determines whether or not we will eventually succeed.

The two simple keys to succeeding from failure are:

1.  Don't give up.
2.  Learn from your mistakes.

It's not paying attention to this second key that causes people to fail repeatedly.  You see, in order to learn from your mistakes, you must first admit that you made one.  If you can't admit to yourself that you made an error, you can't learn from it because in your mind, you haven't done anything wrong.  Many people choose to blame others for their own errors and therefore never learn from them, dooming themselves to fail over and over again.

So try to remember that it's okay to make mistakes.  Admit them, learn from them and do better the next time.  That's how to be successful.

"Every failure brings you one step closer to success"

Michael Jordan "Failure" Nike Commercial

The Best Teachers I Ever Had

By the time your formal education is over you, like me, will have had dozens and dozens of teachers.  Some of them will be funny, others will be boring or seem bored themselves, and some will seem like they're trying too hard to be liked.  The best of them will keep your attention, fascinate you and inspire you.  On this Day of the Teacher, I got to reminiscing about some of the teachers I had.

Among the teachers I had was a creepy middle school English teacher who used to flick his tongue, like a snake, whenever he was asked a difficult question. 

Then there was the high school Chemistry teacher who used the analogy of boys asking girls to a dance as a way of explaining chemical reactions.  It didn't always work.  Whenever a student asked for further explanation, this teacher would simply repeat the same analogy again.

In college, I had an Economics teachers who use to come to class in costumes in an effort to make a very dry subject interesting.  It didn't work.

I remember those teachers for their idiosyncrasies, but don't remember much about what they taught.  Memorable personalities perhaps, but not particularly good teachers.

The best teachers I had all shared a common trait; passion.  Passion not only for the subject they taught, but for teaching itself.  Their passion was contagious and inspired me to change the way I looked at the world and the way I thought.  I feel their influence to this day.

In high school I had Physiology teacher named Mr. Hawks.  He wore his hair in a crew cut and drove a Jeep.  He had obviously once been in the military. 

His classroom consisted of rows of lab tables.  On the first day of class, I sat in the back row.  The first thing Mr. Hawks said to us, as he pointed successively to each row of tables, was:

"In my experience, this is where the A students sit (pointing to the front row), the B students (the second row), the C students (the third row), and everybody else (gesturing to the rest of the room)."

"If you want to change your seat," he concluded, "now would be the time to do so."

I didn't move, but thought, "Whoa, this guy is going to be tough"

And he was.  He was very demanding and very particular about the quality of our work.  He allowed no talking in class and his demeanor was such that he only had to tell us once.  But, he was also a fascinating lecturer and a great story teller who always managed to keep our interest.  It turned out that talking in class wasn't a problem, because none of us wanted to miss what he had to say.

As the semester went on, Mr Hawks began to loosen up.  When we did experiments, we got to see a different side of him, because he went from table to table, patiently answering questions and even making jokes when somebody got an unexpected result.

During winter break, Mr. Hawks took a trip to the Amazon.  He returned with several native artifacts, including a blow gun, a bow and a mortar and pestle.  He put them on display for the class.  We students excitedly approached the display.

One of my classmates picked up the bow and pulled back on its string.  The bow snapped.  The class went dead silent.

Mr. Hawks gave a death stare to the student and took the bow from his hand.

"No wonder I got it so cheap," he said.

I took Mr. Hawk's class when I was a junior.  His inspiration was such that I chose to go to college at U.C Davis as a Biology major and created in me a lifelong interest in the natural world around us.

As a graduate student in college, I signed up for a class called "Theories of Criticism".  I like to write and thought that this class was going to be about how to write movie and book reviews.  It was about anything but that.

The teacher for this class was a Mr. Jenkins.  The class was small, with only about 15 students.   We all sat around in a circle.  On the first day of class, Mr. Jenkins sat down, look each of us in the eye in turn and declared:  "in order to be an effective critic, the first thing you need to do is kill your ego."

This was my introduction to the single most interesting and thought provoking class I ever took.  It was way too complicated to explain here, but it turned out to have nothing to do with writing criticism at all.  Instead, this class made me take a look at our society as a whole and the hidden forces that encourage us to make the choices we do.  This was a 90 minute class in which Mr Jenkins did almost all of the talking and it was never, never boring.   If there was a theme to this class it was Socrates' writing that "the unexamined life is not worth living".  Mr. Jenkins had a profound influence on how I see the world and the people in it.  Just as Mr. Jenkins intended.

Mr. Hawks and Mr. Jenkins couldn't have been more different.  Hawks was very fit with an upright, military bearing and liked complete order in class.  Jenkins was overweight with long hair and liked to sit, informally, in a circle with us students.  Both, however, shared two great loves:  love for the subjects they taught and the love of teaching that subject to their students.  This is what made them the two best teachers I ever had.

 

Another Oceanic Garbage Patch

A gyre is a place where oceanic currents meet and combine to rotate in a circular motion, like an enormous whirlpool.  It is in one such gyre that the great Pacific Garbage Patch can be found.

There are 5 gyres in the world's oceans.  Researchers suspect that all of these gyres may serve as collection points for oceanic garbage.  Last month, they were able to confirm that there is, in fact, a huge garbage patch in the Atlantic gyre.

Both the Pacific and Atlantic garbage patches are composed primarily of plastic.  That's because, as you may know, plastic is not biodegradable - it doesn't rot.  That means that, as long as people continue to use plastic without recycling it or disposing of it properly, the garbage patches will get bigger and bigger.

While plastic isn't biodegradable is it, photodegradable.  This means that ultraviolet rays from the sun makes the plastic brittle, causing it to break into small pieces, yet doesn't make it go away.  Just makes it harder to see and easier to eat.  The garbage patches look like "synthetic soup".

The result is that while these garbage patches are immense (the Pacific garbage patch is said to be the size of Texas), they are hard to see.   Add that to the fact that they are out in the middle of the ocean and it is easy to understand why most people aren't concerned about, or even aware of, the garbage patches.

Should we be concerned?  How much impact does plastic pollution have on the environment?

Right now, we know that marine animals frequently mistake plastic for food and that some of the chemicals in plastic cause cancer in humans, but nobody really knows what the long term consequences of plastic pollution are because there are so many variables to consider.   Scientists suspect that plastic pollution will cause long lasting and far reaching difficulties.  Most will agree that plastic pollution is a problem that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

A plastic bottle showing bite marks

For more information on the garbage patches and their impact, click on the 5 Gyres link to the right.

For photos of the consequences of birds mistaking plastic for food, click on the Chris Jordan link, then on "Midway, Message from the Gyre".  Be sure to read the introduction (warning:  the photos are graphic and are not for the squeamish).  Some examples of his work are below:

Made from 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

Closeups of the above image:

2010 Park School 5th Grade Rhythmic Movement Competition Winners (Evacua...

2010 Park School 4th Grade Rhythmic Movement Competition Winners (Firefl...

Is Junk Food Addictive?

"Junk food" is defined as food that is high in calories but very low in nutritional value.  Junk food is usually made from high amounts of salt, sugar, fat and bleached flour in some combination.  Examples of this kind of junk food are:  candy, donuts, popcorn, sweet breakfast cereal, sodas, chips and french fries.

Other foods are considered to be junk food despite having some nutritional value because they are full of artificial ingredients such as colorings, flavorings, preservatives and something called textured vegetable protein.  Examples of this kind of junk food are:  some bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch meat, and frozen pizza.

Eating too much junk food can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  So the question is, if we know it's bad for us, why do we eat so much of it?

The three simplest answers are a) because it tastes good, b) it's cheap and c) it's convenient.   Now, a recently completed study has determined that there is a fourth reason:  Junk food is addictive.

That is the conclusion drawn by the Scripps Research Institute of Jupiter, Florida.  For their study, researchers used two groups of rats.  One group (the control group) was fed a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet.  The other was fed the worst food the researchers could find, including bacon, sausage, cheesecake, pound cake, Ding Dongs and frosting.

The first noticeable, but not surprising, result was that the junk food group gained weight and became less active compared to the control group.  It was what happened after that that surprised the researchers.

First, the rats began to behave like human drug addicts; craving junk food, as addicts crave drugs, even when they knew it was going to hurt them.  In the study, the rats continued to eat junk food even when they knew that they would get an electric shock when they did.

Later, when the junk food was replaced with a normal diet, the rats refused to eat at all.

"They actually voluntarily starved themselves,"said one researcher.

The research scientists believe that junk food stimulates a pleasure center of the brain called the D2 receptor.  When stimulated, the D2 receptor releases a chemical called Dopamine into the bloodstream.  Dopamine gives us a sensation of pleasure.  In other words, eating junk food makes one feel good.  But, as with drugs like heroin and cocaine, the pleasure center develops a tolerance to junk food.  The only way to continue to get the feel good sensation is to eat more and more junk food.

To test this theory, the scientists inhibited the D2 receptors in healthy rats.  Those rats became compulsive eaters.

So, if you find you can't resist that candy bar or those chips or that popcorn, this could be the reason why.  Junk food makes you feel good.

For more information on Junk food, click on the "Junk Food Facts" link on the sidebar.

Fit or Fat?

Fitness testing, which started last week, always seems to cause a lot of student anxiety.  Many students worry about not being able to do a push-up.  Others worry constantly about the mile run.   Even more obsess about what they need to do to get a good score.  But most of all, students worry about whether or not they are fat.

I want to address the last concern, but before I do, I want all students to know that the purpose of these tests isn't to evaluate your worthiness.  Kids get measured, yes, and we record your scores, certainly, but the results have no effect on your grade or how I see you as a person. Also, the best way to insure that you don't do well on any test is to worry about it too much.  Worry results in stress.  Stress results in poor performance.  So relax.  Try to have some fun.

While fitness tests do measure the fitness of a particular student, the results are taken as a whole and are meant to measure the effectiveness of the P.E. program of which the student is a part and the overall health of a community, not the individual.  If I see, for example, that most Park School students have low scores in a certain test, I means to me that my program needs to improve in that area, not that kids aren't fit. 
 
The first pieces of information we gather for fitness testing are each student's height and weight.  This is necessary in order to perform a complete statistical analysis.  It is when I gather this information, and a student sees his/her weight, that I hear the dreaded question "does that mean I'm fat?"

Whenever I hear this question, a series of reactions go through my head.  The answer I usually give is a simple "no", because most of you are perfectly within the normal weight range for your age.

My other reactions aren't so simple.   I think about how a one's weight, taken into account alone, isn't a reflection of that one's fitness or attractiveness.  I think about how many physical changes people go through between childhood and adulthood and how one's weight fluctuates wildly during that time.  And, I think about how our society places way too much emphasis on how a person looks.

Everywhere we turn, we are being bombarded with images of how we are supposed to look.  So constant is this bombardment that many people's, especially young peoples', sense of self esteem is affected by how they think they look compared to the images they see.  This is a losing battle, for the images we see simply cannot be duplicated by most people.

For example, the average female fashion model is around 5'10" tall, weighs between 108 and 125 lbs and is between 15 and 22 years of age.  The average male model is between 5'11" and 6'2" tall, weighs between 140 and 160 lbs and is between 18-25 years old.

On the other hand, the average adult American woman is 5'4"tall and weighs 150 lbs, while the average adult American male is 5'9" tall and weighs 180 lbs.   It is therefore impossible for most people to look like those who are presented to us as physical ideals.

I think that everyone understands that we can't control our height or our age.  So we fixate on the one tangible vital statistic we think we can control; our weight. 

Contrary to what we've been lead to believe, our weight is not, by itself, an indicator of fitness or beauty.   In terms of measuring fitness, knowing one's weight is only useful when also taking one's height, age and gender and total body composition into account.  Even all of these statistics don't give a complete picture.  For that, we need to know one's flexibility, upper and lower body strength, heart rate and aerobic capacity.

I know that even after reading all of this, some of you are thinking, "so am I fat, or not?"

To help you answer this question on your own, use the Body Mass Indicator (BMI) gadget on the sidebar.

BMI is a number which takes your height and weight into account.    It isn't perfect, for it doesn't account for bone or muscle density, but it is a more accurate way of gauging fitness than weight alone.

To use the gadget, simply enter your height and weight in the appropriate boxes, then click on the Body Mass Indicator box at the bottom to get your BMI. Then, compare your BMI to the range shown in the box below the calculator. Most of you will be happy with what you see, for in my experience with fitness testing at Park School, I've found only one or two students each year who have a BMI in the overweight range.

Whatever number you get, remember that most of you are only a little more than half grown.  Some of you won't reach your full height until you are 18 and most of won't reach your physical peak until you are in your mid to late 20's. 

One more thing:  the best and easiest way to maintain your health is to eat sensibly, avoid drugs and alcohol and get regular exercise. 

What I Did Last Winter

Last Winter, I coached 7th grade girls basketball at MVMS.  Here's a video of our season:

Password-stealing Virus Targets Facebook

Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.

The emails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials, according to anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc.

If the attachment is opened, it downloads several types of malicious software, including a program that steals passwords, McAfee said on Wednesday.

Hackers have long targeted Facebook users, sending them tainted messages via the social networking company's own internal email system. With this new attack, they are using regular Internet email to spread their malicious software.

A Facebook spokesman said the company could not comment on the specific case, but pointed to a status update the company posted on its web site earlier on Wednesday warning users about the spoofed email and advising users to delete the email and to warn their friends.

McAfee estimates that hackers sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began on Tuesday.

Dave Marcus, McAfee's director of malware research and communications, said that he expects the hackers will succeed in infecting millions of computers.

"With Facebook as your lure, you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that's 40 million," he said.

The email's subject line says "Facebook password reset confirmation customer support," according to Marcus.

Good Rule of Thumb: Don't open an emails from senders you don't know.....

Jump Rope for Heart

In the gadget column to the right, I've added a link to the Jump Rope for Heart web page.  Click on it to open the page then click "Students Register" to set up your own web page.  Your page will allow you to send emails to potential contributors and track your fundraising progress.  The site provides pre written letters for you to use if you'd like.  It's easy and kind of fun.  Our goal is $3000.  Deadline, and performance day, is Friday, April 2nd, so let's get jumping!

They're Back!

The sea lions that wandered away from Pier 39 seem to be returning.  While there are currently only around 100 to 150, compared to the 1700 that once hung out there, more seem to be trickling in each week.

Once the number of sea lions reaches 250 or more, Pier 39 plans to hold a big party celebrating 20 years of sea lion presense.

Report ranks Marin the healthiest county in California

This is an article that appeared in the Marin Independent Journal last week (I added the italics and explanations) :

A new national report has judged Marin to have the best overall health of any county in California. The evaluation by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranks the health of every county in all 50 states. It is unclear, however, how Marin would fare against counties in other states, since the report's methodology makes such comparisons impossible.

"It's a very nice recognition that we are doing many things right," said Larry Meredith, director of the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services.

But Meredith said that isn't the only reason for Marin's high ranking.

"Poverty is a huge factor in health and in Marin we are very fortunate to have a highly educated, affluent population," Meredith said. "That then leads to healthier lifestyles." (there is a strong connection between how much education a person has and the amount of money that person makes (affluence).  So keep studying.  Affluence allows for more lifestyle choices and better health care)

The least healthy is Del Norte County and other sparsely populated, rural areas in the northernmost reaches of the state. Several Bay Area counties ranked among the healthiest in California, including Santa Clara County at fourth-best, and San Mateo County at fifth. Contra Costa County came in at 19th, Alameda County at 23rd, and Solano County at 28th. Researchers analyzed 56 of the 58 California counties.

Researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health in each county. These included: the rate of people dying before age 75, the percentage of people who reported being in fair or poor health, the number of days people reported being in poor physical health over the last 30 days, the number of days people reported being in poor mental health and the rate of low-birth weight infants.

Only 4,053 Marin residents per 100,000 of the population died before the age of 75 compared with the state average of 6,196 per 100,000. Only 7 percent of Marin residents said their health was fair or poor compared with the state average of 18 percent.

The report also ranked counties on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary-care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and the number of children living in poverty.

Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said the report can be used as a tool to identify what is making people in every county unhealthy.

"We hope this kind of check-up will mobilize community leaders to take action and invest in programs and policy changes that makes their counties healthier places to live," Remington said.

Marin outperformed the state average in a number of health behaviors including: adult smoking, adult obesity, deaths due to vehicle crashes, chlamydia rates and teen birth rates. But 18 percent of Marin residents reported binge drinking within the last 30 days, compared with the state average of 15 percent. (binge drinking means drinking a lot of alcohol in a short period of time.  Binge drinkers are often young adults looking for a thrill or with nothing better to do.  This is very dangerous.  Too much alcohol is bad news.  Stay away from it.)

"We've got a major issue there," Meredith said.

Marin received particularly high scores in the social/economic category. Fifty-four percent of Marin residents 25 or older reported having a degree from a four-year college, compared with the state average of 29 percent. Only 7 percent of Marin children under the age of 18 live in poverty, compared with the state average of 17 percent.

But Meredith said one problem with the report is that the affluence of a county like Marin can mask the reality faced by the hidden poor.

"We know that about 35 percent of the households in Marin are below the sustainability level," Meredith said. "You don't find that data reflected in this report."

He also called attention to the fact that Marin ranked 55th out of 56 counties on income equality.

"There are too many families and kids living in the shadow of affluence," Meredith said.

So, You Think Your Lunch is Bad?

Check out these pictures of school lunches from around the U.S. (to be fair, it looks like the one from Brooklyn comes from a cafeteria, which means that the student chose it her/himself).

 

Pepperoni pizza, tater tots and pineapple in syrup from a high school in Chicago.

Something from a middle school in Oakland, Ca

Chicken breast and bread from an elementary school in Brooklyn, NY.

And then there's this (makes me hungry to look at it):

Chicken taco, organic brown rice, fresh cooked pinto beans, sour cream, salad and a plum, from Berkeley High School in CA.

For more pictures of school lunches or to submit your own photo, go to americanlunchroom.com

Basic Team Offense

I think we all understand that the teams which work together most effectively are usually the teams that win.  Most of you understand that encouraging each other, working hard and not giving up are qualities of good teammates.  While these are important first steps towards becoming a good team, these qualities alone won't result in a successful team.  A successful team is one which uses a plan or strategy in which every team member has a job.  It is when a team trusts each of its members to play an important part instead of depending on one of two players to do everything that you have true teamwork.

So what kinds of jobs are there?  The easiest thing to do is assign players to offense and defense, but I'd like to take this one step further.  This is about basic team offensive principles and how teammates can work together.

These are simple tactics what apply to any team sport, such as soccer, hockey and basketball, in which the object is to score goals.  Master them and your team will become very effective in multiple sports.

1.  Spacing - In order to be an effective offensive team, the first thing it must understand is spacing.  Spacing refers to the distance between offensive teammates.  Basically, the more distance between teammates, the harder it is to guard them, because it forces the defense to spread out and cover more ground.

Conversely, if the offense is too close together, the defense's job is much easier because they don't have to move very far and, because they are so close together, can help each other out by clogging up the area in front of the goal.

Let's say for example that in a soccer game, the offense has one player in the middle of the field, another 20' away on the right and a third 20' away on the left.  This spacing makes the goalie's job difficult because s/he can only see one player at a time.

From team offense

On the other hand, if all three offensive players were only 5-6' apart, which is common, the goalie can see all three at once.

From team offense

2.  The Give and Go - this is the most basic of all two player offensive tactics.  A give and go is when player 1 passes to player 2 then cuts towards the goal and receives a pass back from player 2. 

From team offense

In order for this to work, the offense must be properly spread out.  That's because the defense will tend to watch the ball.  So, if one player 1 passes to player 2, who is 20' away, all of the defenders heads will turn towards the player 2 and won't see player 1 cutting to the goal.  If players 1 and 2 are too close together, the give and go won't work because the defenders won't have to turn away from player 1 to see player 2 and because player 1 won't have any room to cut.

3.  The Triangle - this is a basic three player tactic which is especially effective in games with goalkeepers.  The idea here is to force the goalkeeper to guard one side of the goal, then pass the ball to the opposite side of the goal.  Let's start with three properly spaced players 20' (or more) apart.  Player 1, in the middle of the field starts with the ball.  S/he then passes to player 2, 20' away on the right.  When player 2 gets the ball, the goalkeeper will protect the goal by moving to the right post.  Player 3 then moves to an area near the left post, behind the goalkeeper, but in an area where player 2 can reach her/him with a pass.  Player 2 passes to player 3, who has a wide open shot, because the goalkeeper is caught on the opposite side of the goal.

From team offense

Again, if the offensive players are too close together, the goalkeeper will be able to see all three of them without moving and won't be pulled out of position by the first pass.

There is at least one hockey team in this year's tournament that understands these basic offensive principles.  An interesting by product of this is that everybody on this team gets a chance to make plays.  As a result, everybody on the team is excited to play, and always feels like they have a chance to win even when players are missing.

Try these things with your team and see how much more effective it will become.

Speechifying - How (and how not) to Get Yourself Elected

For this year's hockey tournament, I conducted an experiment.  On team captain election day, I gave all eligible candidates a chance to speak to the class.  This was an exercise in persuasion - an effort by the speaker to cause classmates to believe that s/he was the best person for the team captain position. 

One of the secrets to this is to talk about how the speaker can benefit the voter.  Voters choose based on who is best for the voter, not the speaker.   Voters aren't really interested in hearing what the speaker wants.   They're interested in hearing which speaker will give the voter what the voter wants.  Speakers who to do the best job of telling voters how they would be good for the voter will usually win.  This year's hockey team election was a good example of this.

Most of the speeches went something like this:  "I'm running for captain because I've always wanted to be team captain, and, yeah...."

Others, seeking to be more convincing, said something like this:  "I'm running for captain, because I really want to be one.  I really, really want to be a captain.  I hope you vote for me."

Are these persuasive speeches?  How were these candidates different from one another?  What are these candidates offering the voters?  How do the voters benefit?

There were two speeches which had a significantly different message.  One speaker told the class, "I'll be a fair and honest captain, I'll listen to what you tell me and I'll work hard to make sure the team is strong."

The other said: "I've watched other captains, so I think I know what a good captain should be like.  I won't yell at you and I'll try to make sure that everybody has fun."

These speeches contained specific messages directed at the voters.  In essence they said, if you vote for me, I'll do this for you.

The voters liked what they heard.  The kids who delivered the latter speeches were the top vote getters in their classes by significant margins.  The other speakers didn't get elected, receiving fewer votes than people who didn't speak at all.

My Rainy Day Video List

Apparently, we are in for a true El Nino winter, which means really wet. The latest weather forecasts are calling for rainy weather all the way through spring. This means kids stuck inside their rooms at lunch, watching a video to keep them quiet.

I say, why stop there? If I could, I’d turn rainy days into spur of the moment film appreciation classes. Doesn’t have anything to do with P.E., but it would be fun.

Film is an art form. I studied Film in college. Back then, I wanted to make movies for a living. I made some short films in college, and still dabble in video now. Every time it rains and I see students stuck inside watching videos they’ve already seen, I think about films I’d like to show students. What follows is my rainy day video list.

Most of the films on the list are older ones that you probably haven’t heard of, let alone watched. Together they demonstrate the full power of the film medium and the many ways film can combine the use of images, words, sound and music to tell a story. All of them would generate lively discussion.

Some of the films on the list were chosen because their stories are unusual looks at certain periods of American history.

Others were chosen because they are based on unusual true stories.

One is a documentary which demonstrates film’s unique ability, through words and images, to tell an important but technical story in a way that is easy to understand and that hits with an emotional impact that books cannot.

Lastly, some were chosen because they are fine examples of film art, memorable not so much for the simple stories they tell, but for the way they tell them. These films are beautiful in their concept and execution, yet entertaining as well.

There were many films I wanted to put on this list, but I tried to keep it to 10. I didn’t quite make it, but the 11th film comes with an *.

Here’s the list:

10. Fly Away Home

The fact based story of a Canadian artist who uses his own ultralight aircraft to teach geese how to migrate. While the birds in this film are Canada Geese, the artist later used the ultralight to teach ancestral migration routes to human raised Whooping Cranes which had lost the migration instinct. Parts of the movie are kind of hokey, but the main actors are really good and the cinematography, especially the flying scenes, is beautiful

9. Jeremiah Johnson

The story of a mountain man in the American West during the 1840’s, this film is a good depiction of what it takes to survive alone in the wilderness and how, sometimes, a spur of the moment decision can have life long consequences.

8.  The World’s Fastest Indian 

The fact based story of Burt Munro, an eccentric old man (he made his own engine parts from gas pipes that he’d buried in order to “age”) who, at the age of 60, tried set a land speed record on a 45 year old motorcycle.

7.  Rabbit Proof Fence

Using untrained actors and shot on location along sections of the actual rabbit proof fence, this is a fact based story of two young Australian aborigines who are taken from their families to be trained as domestic servants. They escape from their school and try to walk back home – 1500 miles away.

6.  Searching for Bobby Fischer

A story about remaining true to oneself, this too, is a fact based film. This one’s about Josh Waitzkin, a young boy who discovers that he is a gifted chess player. His dad sends him to a famous chess tutor who believes that in order to be a champion one has to be ruthless and cruel.

5.  Little Big Man

A skewed and often funny story of the opening of the American West told through the eyes of Jack Crabb, the “sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn.” During the course of his long life, Crabb, 106 years old at the beginning of the film, was an eyewitness to several significant events that took place during the western expansion, including Custer’s Last Stand. This was one of the first films to portray Native Americans as socialized, intelligent humans instead of bloodthirsty savages. Stars Dustin Hoffman and features an unforgettable Chief Dan George.

4.  Any Film by Hayao Miyazaki

In an age where almost every animated film is made on a computer, Miyazaki films are still painted, frame by frame, by hand. The attention to detail in these films is amazing (check out the way smoke moves). The artwork is wonderful and all the stories have environmental themes. His most famous films are “My Neighbor Tortoro” and “Spirited Away”, but all of his films, including little known titles like “Nausicaa, Valley of the Wind” and “Castle in the Sky” are worth watching.

3.  Food, Inc.

This is a documentary that I think everyone should see. It’s about the American agricultural system and how much of the food we eat is produced, not with our health and nutrition in mind, but to earn the companies that produce it the most money. Companies strive to produce food as quickly and efficiently as possible with little regard to possible dangers. The consequences of these practices are sad, and very scary. Sounds boring, but the film is really powerful and very moving. If I had to show one film, it would be this one, for it contains a lot of talking points about nutrition, which is related to P.E..

2.  The Black Stallion

The film Wall – E was widely praised for its beautiful opening sequence which told us all about Wall – E’s world without a single word of dialogue. But, long before Wall – E, there was this film, the story of a boy and his horse. It is a true artistic masterpiece. This movie tells its story with images, sound and music and very little dialogue. Beautifully shot, with fantastic sound editing, it contains a 45 minute section in which there is no talking at all. Fantastic.

1.  The Duellists

This was the first film directed by Ridley Scott, who is one of my favorite filmmakers. After this film he went on to direct, among other films, Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and American Gangster. Scott’s films are always visually interesting and the cinematography in this film, particularly in its choice of settings and use of light, is exceptional. It’s the story of an ongoing feud between two officers in Napoleon’s army and a study in the ideas of honor, duty and obligation.

* Klunkerz

The second film I’d show you would be this one because it’s a documentary that is centered right here in Marin County. It’s about the invention of the mountain bike. It is a great story that not only takes place in Marin, but features a main character, Joe Breeze, who graduated from Park School. The film contains lots of actual footage from the 70’s and 80’s. It’s pretty amazing stuff. Unfortunately, also contains several scenes which may be inappropriate for kids. If I can figure out a way to skip those scenes, I’ll show it.

British 7-year-old Raises Over 100,000 Pounds for Haiti

LONDON — A young British schoolboy has raised more than 100,000 pounds ($160,000) Monday for Haiti's relief effort by cycling round his local park.

Seven-year-old Charlie Simpson was so upset by the images of Haiti's deadly earthquake that he asked his mother if she could help him set up a sponsored bicycle ride around a west London park.
Charlie originally hoped to raise 500 pounds (for UNICEF's Haiti appeal with Sunday's 5-mile (8-kilometer) bike ride, but his Internet page was flooded with donations.
He raised nearly 50,000 pounds in a single day. Charlie's story was splashed on the front page of Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper on Monday, and money is still flooding in.
"I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti," he said on his fundraising Web site.
The effort drew the attention of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with his office Downing Street posting on Twitter: "Amazed by response to the great fundraising efforts of 7 yr old."
The boy's mother Leonora Simpson said she was amazed by the response. "We put it on the Web and that was it, it suddenly took off and we can't believe it," she said.

The Evolution of Revolution Foods

To me, Revolution Foods is a company which has a noble goal: to bring fresh healthy meals to “as many students as possible”. Their first customers were schools in low income neighborhoods where, before Revolution Foods arrived, school lunches consisted of cheap meal made from simple carbohydrates, salt, fat and processed sugar. In other words, they weren’t very healthy.

The meals served by Revolution Foods are made almost entirely from organic ingredients. They include fresh vegetables, whole grains and meat raised in natural settings. They also use ingredients from local, sustainable sources.

Organic food is pesticide free. It is also free of hormones, antibiotics and isn’t genetically engineered.

Locally grown means the food hasn’t been transported 1000’s of miles to get here, which saves fuel and helps slow global warming.

I’ve always been impressed with what Revolution Foods is trying to do, which is nothing less than change the way all of us eat. By starting with school kids, they are hoping that good eating habits will filter up through each kid’s family at home.

There was only one problem. The food they made wasn’t very good. When Revolution Foods first started providing Park School with hot lunches, the food was more likely to end up in the trash than in a kid’s stomach.

Revolution Foods then did another remarkable thing. They listened to you. They sent representatives to all of the schools they served and took surveys. They offered taste tests. As a result, their meals got a lot better.

Today, I’m happy to say, the food is much improved. I personally enjoy the Chicken Teriyaki, Baked Ziti and Cheese Lasagna (the pizza still tastes like cardboard).

The kids seem to agree. The Green Team is no longer swamped with uneaten Revolution Foods meals.

When they first started, Revolution Foods provided lunches to schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today they provide lunches to schools all over Northern and Southern California, Colorado and Washington D.C.. They’ve truly begun a school lunch revolution.

In order to gain a better understanding of why organic food from local sustainable sources is better for you, to understand why the least healthy food which is also the least expensive and why this is the real cause of the nation’s obesity epidemic, try reading “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser,

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan

or see “Food, Inc.”

You'll never take your food for granted again.

Lost and Found? The Curious Case of the Missing Pinnipeds

pin⋅ni⋅ped [pin-uh-ped] Noun:  a suborder of carnivores with limbs adapted to an aquatic life, including the seals and walruses.

Ever been to Pier 39 in San Francisco? If you have, you’ve probably seen the sea lions.

Those sea lions first appeared in 1989. Nobody knows why.

At first, people tried to shoo them away, but they kept coming back. Soon there were so many, that the docks couldn’t be used for their original purpose, which was to park boats.

At first, the boat owners and the merchants who owned businesses at Pier 39 were upset. The sea lions were loud and smelly. But, all of the locals soon changed their minds. That’s because tourists began to flock to Pier 39 just to see the sea lions.

The sea lions became big business. Many of the sea lions have names. Signs point sightseers in the right direction.

There is a Sea Lion Café. There is even as sea lion web cam (http://master.livetrac.com/cgi-bin/pier39marina/live?pset=pier39marina&template=restaurant).

On October 23rd, 2009, there were 1701 sea lions at Pier 39. On November 29th, there were 20. Nobody knew where they went, or why they left.

Until now, that is. It appears that the sea lions have gone to a place called Sea Lion Caves.

Sea Lion Caves is in Oregon, about 500 north of San Francisco. Recently, about 2000 sea lions just kind of showed up there.

"We've seen these huge pods out on the ocean - 200, 300 yards across - altogether a couple thousand sea lions," said Steve Saubert, co-owner of Sea Lion Caves, a private preserve near the town of Florence. "They were just here all of a sudden."

So why the sudden move from San Francisco to Oregon?

One of the sea lion’s favorite foods is herring.

Normally, large numbers of herring show up in San Francisco Bay during January and February. This year, very few herring appeared. It is believed that this lack of herring is the result of a warm ocean current in the central Pacific Ocean called El Nino.

Last summer’s El Nino’s was warmer than normal (the large orange band above is El Nino). As a result, many creatures who like colder water, such as anchovies, smelt, squid and herring, moved north, away from El Nino. The sea lions, apparently, are simply following their food supply.