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The last few weeks have been consumed by cross-country practices and meets as I unofficially became the "coach" of the elementary XC team. Coach's son had run some open races the first year Fox was in cross country so the next year I volunteered the younger boys to run as well. This year they invited a friend, then another younger sibling saw them running and wanted to give it a try, she invited a couple friends, and one of the friends had two younger siblings, plus coach's other son started running as well. I began meeting with the kids after school a few times to walk, stretch, run some distance and time some sprints. The boys who had been practicing all along have been performing really well. The girls however have a ways to go but at least they are willing to show up and try, still working toward 'running' the entire course without any walking. Everyone has been very supportive and encouraging especially parents who have older kids in the sport. Next year we may even take it to the next level and make it an official sport for the school which would be great to have a 'feeder program' to draw students into running before they get to middle school. Love this year's motto.

Since I haven't gotten clearance from our newcomers I'm holding off on posting pictures of the kids I've just started working with but at the Brown City 1.5-mile race we had 5 boys and 5 girls in the K-6 group. Below is coach Castle cheering the guys up the killer hill that hits just before the last half mile. Ben is to the far left in blue.

Cass City was last weekend, we lost some of the girls but one 6th grader (and little sis of a regular team member) hung in there and did awesome running with the middle school girls. High school ran first, girls then boys as always. Fox had a seasonal best for his time with a 20:01 but it was far from enough to medal in this competition. Still, for it being his first year he's doing extremely well. Look at him fly in full speed at the finish!

Ben and Ethan have an ongoing smack down as to who's going to come into the shoot first. Ben took Marlette, passing Ethan in the final seconds. Ethan had Brown City hands down. At Cass City they stuck together for the majority of the course but Ethan ultimately came through the shoot ahead.

This was the story of the day, our youngest North Branch runner (coach's son) finished his first 2-mile race in 22:37, nice job! He was starting to fade in the last mile of the course so dad jogged alongside him to keep him going then in the final stretch all the elementary boys ran at his side right up to the finish line. Technically you are not supposed to 'pace' the runners but the official allowed it but told the bigger boys not to re-cross the finish line. It was very sweet to see them want their buddy to do well and finish. That to me is really what it's all about, not who wins, not the time you get, but encouraging each other to push beyond what you think you're capable of and finish what you came to do. I always tell the kids everyone is a winner just for showing up and giving it a go.

I received my room assignment papers back from the elementary school and have been searching for music to work on with the After School Choir, still waiting to get things confirmed for the upper school but many kids have caught me in the halls or outside school to ask when choir is going to start again. I've got some fun pieces selected from different time periods and genres that I hope the kids will really groove on. Hoping to coordinate with the guitar teacher to have he and some students accompany a few songs, like "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and "The 59th Street Bridge (Feelin' Groovy)".

Was in subbing for a couple crazy days in 1st Grade. I don't know about anyone else but this whole language, sound out your words stuff is crap, it doesn't help them learn how to spell at all. What is wrong with giving young kids prompts to help them formulate their sentences. Some of them are so bad at sounding out and guessing which letters to use they can't even read what they tried to write when they go back to it later. Whenever I'm in a class and they have journal time or even a science or social studies assignment where they have to write sentences I always tell them "I'll help you spell any words you'd like to use, just ask me." Any word that is requested I write on the board so it is available for other students to use as well. It opens up a whole new world in their compositions. I also put sentences starters on the board and they fill in the data they need to complete the assignment. For example, for the science lesson they had to cut out pictures of six rocks, 'sort' them and paste them on the sheet, then write a sentences about their choice. So I wrote on the board "I sorted my rocks by ______." Then wrote the words that were their options, asking them for the possibilities first.....color, size, shape.

I had a conversation with a young lady who is in an education program at UofM Ann Arbor she was pretty surprised and dismayed by this technique as well. One day she was working with an ESL student (English as a Second Language) and was not permitted to tell the girl how to spell the English words, she had to make her sound them out so it took forever as the kid guessed and she had to keep saying "no, that's not it" instead of just telling her how to spell it and giving her some clues to help her remember the spelling. So dumb. No wonder half of our community can't spell worth a @#%*! Better go back and proofread now.........