What it means to TRI

The world of triathlons is an exciting one; it is bursting with passionate athletes, full of fierce dedication.  Want to see a little crazy?  Wake up early on a Saturday morning and head to the nearest start line.  The grass is still wet with dew and the air is buzzing with anticipation; there are hundreds of people swinging arms in wetsuits or pumping up bike tires…  it’s truly an amazing sport.  Through the years, I’ve become familiar with the language and fluidity of the race.  I have grown to understand and love this community and their unique brand of insanity.

But I’m not infected by the passion; I don’t eat, sleep and breathe racing. 

I am the spectator.

I am the one behind the scenes… budgeting for new wheels and ordering energy gels.  When it’s time to train, I stay at home with the baby and the dog while my husband completes 19 mile runs and 100 mile rides.  There’s a wetsuit drying in my bathroom and bicycle grease on the carpet.

I am the spectator.

THE GOOD:

There's nothing quite like a race.

Here’s the thing; I love the races.  I really enjoy sticking my toes in the sand while Tim is swimming, or taking pictures through the transitions.  While he’s on the bike, I spend time playing peek-a-boo with Henry or walking Kali; and when he gets to the run, we make our way to the finish line to cheer him down the home stretch. 

I can also appreciate the way triathlons have shaped Tim, both physically ( and mentally.  I am lucky to have a husband who is so passionate about a sport that is nothing but good for him, body and soul.  He has such strong determination and pride for this tri-life… he is always trying to improve.  There are so many people out there who are complacent with their sedentary lives and never feel the need to push themselves and strive to be better.  I am blessed to have such a strong man who always yearns to be stronger.  He has passion for his sport, love and devotion for his family, and some pretty incredible leg muscles.

THE BAD:

Triathletes have to train.

The part no one talks about is the training time… and boy, is there training time.  Do you know how much time these triathletes need to train for a full distance tri?  Hundreds of thousands of hours! On a ‘heavy’ week, he will train for a couple hours every day… sometimes getting up to 15-17 hours by the end of the week.  Those ‘easy’ weeks end up cutting workout times down to an hour or so every day.  Even then, it’s a HUGE time commitment. 

One afternoon, I took Henry swimming at the Y while Tim did his swim workout.  I wasn’t in the pool ten minutes before he gave up the workout and came to play with Henry and I.  In times like that, I can see how difficult it is for Tim to sacrifice time with us to train.  But the problem is, I don’t always remember how difficult it is for Tim… I can only see how difficult it is for me.  The worst happens when Tim’s working and it’s been a rough day and night with the baby.  When he finally gets home the next morning, he has to turn around and head back out for a 4-hour bike ride.  And the days where he needs to complete a bike workout AND a run workout? Yikes! I’m sure bringing a new baby into the mix hasn’t helped, but these past 7 months of training have put a definite strain on our marriage.

THE UGLY:

A post-partum body can’t keep up with a triathlete.

Don’t get me wrong, I would do it all over again for that beautiful baby, but there are a lot of ugly things that happened to my body throughout pregnancy.  I gained nearly 70 pounds during those 9 months and I’m really struggling to lose it.  I’ve never had such a devastating combination of low self-esteem, postpartum depression, and poor body image.  Any woman who has looked at herself in the mirror after giving birth can understand… there is such a crazy mixture of emotions!  You proudly wear the battle scars; the stretch marks, the 8-inch scar (yeah, he was a BIG baby) and that sad little pooch of skin that refuses to shrink back to its original size.  On the other hand, you have concerns about your sex appeal or whether your pre-preggers jeans will ever fit again. With all of these emotions running rampant, I watch my husband with a plethora of feels… I want to shout for joy when he finishes another race and cry because I feel left behind.  I am inspired to run but devastated at how slow my body needs to go.  It can be exhausting.

In the end, it is a challenge for me.  I am not naturally drawn to exercise like my husband.  I am the one who hates every second until I’m about ten minutes into the workout.  I grudgingly put on my shoes and tell myself I have to do at least one lap at the park.  But I refuse to be sedentary. 

My husband deserves a wife who takes pride in her body.

My beautiful baby boy deserves a mom who can keep up with his boundless energy. 

And me?  

I’m going to swim/bike/run a half-iron triathlon with my husband… 

because I need to know I can.

~Changes~

Okay, it’s been a while since the last update (let’s be honest with each other… I’ve taken an extreme hiatus from writing) and there have been hundreds of changes over the last few months. 

The biggest change is actually the smallest… a little over fourteen pounds now. That’s right, I’m a mommy!  And while this absolutely the best thing to ever happen to me, no one can ever prepare you for the entire experience. 

Over the last twenty-eight years, I have had many different kinds of adventures.  I’ve had simple adventures like building blanket forts and playing in the leaves with my siblings.  I’ve had fancy adventures… walking the red carpet to my senior prom and drinking cocktails at my first opera.  I have gone on adventures with my sisters and brothers, with my husband and my friends.  Out of all of these experiences, nothing could prepare me for the biggest adventure…  and it started with a ten-pound, five-ounce bundle handed to me in the early hours on a Monday morning. 

Who knew life could change so suddenly? With no warning or fanfare… just simply Tim’s quiet voice, ‘it’s a boy’ and a small, strangled cry in the background.

...Life shifts…

Now my days are filled with strollers, car seats, burp rags, and pacifiers; my nights are broken up with 2 am feedings and diaper changes.  On one hand, I miss the ease of my ‘pre-mom’ life… leaving the house when I wanted, or having lunch when I got hungry.  On the other hand, I have this tiny human who smiles at me every morning and cuddles when he’s tired.  Even just the smallest coo can make me melt! 

Before this little guy made his way into the world, people warned me how little sleep I would get and how life would change completely.  Even though the first two weeks were pretty rough, I’ve determined I must be one of the lucky ones.  Perhaps it’s because he was a big baby or maybe it’s God’s way of giving me a rainbow after the storm that was my labor experience, but this baby sleeps anywhere from 6 to 9 hours at night.  And on the nights he does wake up, I spend those forty minutes awake, staring at the most beautiful face... so it's impossible to be upset. 

At the end of the day, I might be exhausted and smell like spit-up, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  He is perfect and I love him more than I ever thought I could.

Time to reflect...

 Well folks… another Walden class finished and a million more ideas to implement next school year! Haha! Sometimes I think I should spread out these classes so I can work with each set of tools before moving on to even more. Regardless, the course is coming to a close and I have so many great plans set up for next year.

My GAME plan was two separate parts and the first was to set up a learning community within my school and help the teachers move towards a more technology-infused base for their lessons.  Many teachers need help with the simple tasks with technology and I wanted to create a presentation to offer up a few examples of how they can integrate different technology tools in their lessons.  I met with our principal and the tech coordinator to set up a time I could present to the other teachers in my building.  Being the end of the school year, most of my plans were put on hold until the fall, but I have a presentation ready and a date set.  The other teachers within my department helped me come up with some basic uses of our Mimios (similar to SMART boards) I will present to the rest of the staff.

The second part of my game plan was to improve the morale of our staff.  To often the day-to-day drama bogs us down and my goal was to provide little reminders of why we started teaching in the first place.  I also am setting up a day to have a cookout in August to start our school year off on a good note.  I work with a lot of wonderful people and I know we could do a lot better in our own classrooms if we relied on each other just a little bit more.  Here’s hoping next year goes better than this past one!

This GAME plan setup is a great one to keep you continuously thinking of how to reach your goal.  To know you need a goal and some kind of action to follow through with is a great start, but also creating a monitoring plan with an evaluation is something we should definitely be teaching our students.  It’s a great method to follow anytime we are problem solving.

 The two main things I am taking away from this course is a new desire to incorporate more problem-based learning rather than lecture.  I think it is a remarkable way to have students teach themselves throughout experience rather than just giving them the information and asking them to just practice over and over until they understand.  I will try to incorporate as much technology as possible, i.e. blogging or using online collaboration with these problems, but that depends entirely on how much access I can get to computers at my school. 

The other huge part I am taking away from this course is the importance and possibilities associated with social networking.  I can use this to my benefit in many ways in my classroom and of course the students will be very appreciative that I am incorporating something they are familiar with.   There are so many wonderful plans I have for next school year and I’m glad I kept a log with all of my ideas so I can sort them out over the summer.  Incorporating new technology not only makes a class more enjoyable for the students, but it also reinvigorates me and adds new life into lessons I have taught over and over again.

So here’s to another class finished and so many great ideas for this next school year!

-Kate

And the GAME continues...

   I’m starting to get a bit frustrated with my first goal in my GAME plan.  I had set up a date to share a few technology tidbits with my colleagues but recently I was told it would have to wait until the fall.  I also am having trouble getting my department together to work on Mimio material and lesson plans.  I hope to remedy that this week (we have final exams) and the beginning of next in order to have a set plan for August. 

            

Because of the setbacks, I need to modify the timeline of the plan.  I had been hoping to share the information with other teachers at our final professional development day, but now it looks as if it will have to wait.  If anything, I’ve learned quite a bit of patience. J Nothing ever turns out the way we initially plan it, so I feel very silly having thought it would in the first place.  I also have several questions for the technology department at my school and would like to speak with our tech coordinator again.  I would like to know the allotted budget for technology ever year and maybe see some kind of overview of where the money has been spent over the last few years.  I think the high school has gone quite a long time without any updates and it would be interesting to see the break-down of the district-wide expenses.

            

On the other hand, my encouragement to other staff members seemed to go well.  I haven’t heard much discussion about it, but generally the staff seems to be in a better mood.  I am thinking of planning a few dates in the summer.  Perhaps a cookout where the staff is invited, or dinner on the first day we go back to school in August? I’m not really sure, but I’m still brainstorming different ways.  I’ve also thought about setting up observations with teachers observing teachers, so we can give constructive criticism and actually have someone who works with the same kids, offer up pointers in our classrooms.  I don’t know if I’m sold on this idea.

Thoughts?

-Kate

*making progress*

            After speaking with our tech department, I will be focusing my plan on using our Mimio boards (similar to a SMART board) and students’ cell phones.  These are the resources most readily available in my district and most teachers would have access to them.  I will be using the technology knowledge within my department (five math teachers) and we will come up with a presentation for our professional development day on the first day of school in August. 

            I’ve been able to meet with my administration and determine a day we will be able to present to the entire staff.  I have also met with a few individual teachers to talk about the benefits and uses of their Mimio boards (which they don’t use).  I still need to meet with my department and discuss the progress of our technology use in the school.  Our department makes use of the technology available to us and I know the five of us will brainstorm great ideas to promote tech-based teaching with other teachers.

            As for my second standard which focuses on contributing and encouraging effective teaching and renewal of the teaching profession, I have started by bringing up the moral a bit.  Over the last week, I have been leaving anonymous notes for teachers that have positive and encouraging messages.  I want to start by creating the positive atmosphere amongst the teachers and then move to a place where we can all rely on each other and encourage other staff members without falling into the same dramatic fights over and over again.  

Any ideas to help with encouraging my colleagues?

-Kate 

you've gotta have a GAME plan

Well folks, here we are again… another class with Walden so my blog is switching gears a bit and re-focusing on fun educational stuff! :) 

This week were asked to set up a “GAME” plan to strengthen our knowledge and proficiency using the National Education Standards for Teachers.  Now I will be the first to say that there are a LOT of standards and sometimes the less-important ones get overlooked when teachers try to cram as much into a semester as possible (I have block scheduling so I have semester courses rather than full-year ones).  That being said, the ISTE Standards (formerly NETS) are the kind of standards that can be met through many different avenues.  If anything, these are the standards I like the best because they focus on student learning and creativity.  The one standard I would really like to focus on is #5: Engage in professional growth and leadership.  The two specific standards would be 5b: “Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others” and 5d. “Contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community.”

My GOAL is to set up a learning community within my building (specifically my department) and use that team to create a positive example for the rest of my school.  The teachers I work with will often times struggle to get along which leads to a self-distructing team of teachers.  My goal is to create a positive atmosphere within my school to promote teamwork and camaraderie.  I also want to help some of the teachers (very set in their ways) become more tech-savvy.

My ACTION will be to meet with my department and brainstorm ideas to take to our principal. These ideas could be ones that will affect the school or the entire district.  We can come up with ideas to present at our professional development days and coordinate with our tech department to have tutoring sessions for teachers who need help with the latest pieces of technology.

MONITORING my process will come in the form of journaling.  I think this will be the best way to keep track of our successes and failures when it comes to building morale and helping teachers incorporate more technology in their lessons.

Researching different ideas to use in my own classroom and then pass those on to other teachers will be my way of EVALUATING and EXTENDING my learning.  I will study different cases and focus my efforts on creating a positive impact in my school first, followed closely by my district.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education

standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

never too lost

You know that obsession you can get when you find a song you really like? It happens to me a lot.  Sometimes it’s a song on the radio, like Gotye’s hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” and I shush everyone so I can sing along.  No talking. None.

Well, it happened again, but this time I’m obsessed with an entire CD.  That almost NEVER happens. 

Let me explain…

This past weekend, I went down to Kentucky to visit my sister and it was so unbelievably refreshing.  On Saturday morning, we hiked up her ‘backyard’ to the top of a mountain.  We reached the top and sat up on a rock, basking in the sun while Kali scanned the trees for squirrels and deer.  

While up there, we talked about lots of things, but the topic that really stuck with me was that of faith and how I handled it while Tim was gone. 

Unfortunately, it’s been a rough road and I don’t like talking about it…

…I was born a restless child and I could hear the world outside calling me…

Last time he left, I grew so much closer to God and relied on Him to get through each day.  This training has been different; I’ve struggled to stay focused, prioritized just about everything above reading the Word and have let different situations fill my heart with bitterness and resentment.  I’ve been lost.  VERY lost.

*and heaven knows how hard I tried, but the devil whispered lies I believed*

I rely on the comforts I know and the safe places I’ve been before.  I seek reassurance from food and movies, cuddling with my dog, and relationships with other people.  I don’t like to move out of my comfort zone and trust something or someone other than myself.  Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re suppose to do.  I see my sister out there, beyond her own comfort zone, embracing the crazy path God set her on.  She has no fear because she trusts THAT MUCH. Isn’t that amazing?

Sometimes I feel brave…  I am Peter, walking towards Jesus on the water.  But then my eyes shift and I lose focus.  I am sinking beneath the water and I have nothing to blame but my own lack of faith.

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me.”

Faith is such a bumpy road for me and when I get lost, I sometimes feel like just giving up.  Wouldn’t it be easier then starting over again?  But then something (or someone) always puts it in perspective for me.  I’m never truly lost anymore.  Three years ago, I joined ‘Team Jesus’ (as my sister puts it) and from that point on, no matter how lost I feel, I’m not too far away for Him.  He can still find me.  He can still mold me.  He can still comfort me. 

I just have to let Him.

So the CD… it has the songs I desperately need to hear.  I’ve been listening over and over again, letting the words sink into my skin.  The music soothes me and the words comfort me.  I am NOT alone. He’s still here… waiting for me. 

"On the shores of my soul I give you permission 

to wash my tears away

And take all my disappointment

Fill me with joy once again"