Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Who Do You Admire?


My school day starts with a Morning Meeting from Responsive Classroom.  These help set a positive classroom climate and get many a kiddo's day started in a positive frame of mind.  One element of Morning Meetings is Sharing.  Currently for sharing, 2-3 people a day are sharing someone they admire. Many of the kids have shared about a family member they admire and the stories have been very sweet. Today it was my turn and I certainly could have shared about family members but I chose to share about Matt Long.  I had the pleasure of hearing him speak last summer at Lake Place Ironman and recently read his biography. My admiration for him runs deep.  I could not believe what he overcame as I read  his biography and found out more details of his horrific acccident of being run over while riding a bike  by a 20 ton bus.  This morning when the kids arrived I had the Runner's World site up on the whiteboard to show the kids a short video about him.  They were reading the article and were already intrigued before I even spoke.  They were fascinated by the story. When they heard he had run the NYC Marathon after the accident they wanted to know if he won.  Loud groan  here - they always ask that. I said, no the important thing was that he finished. When we did watch the video he said the goal for him was to cross the finish line!  The more they hear it isn't about winning for everyone the better!  When the video was playing you could have heard a pin drop.  They were completely into this story!  We talked about how he persevered and managed to do what seemed so impossible. They were very impressed by his muscles and his scar.  I may have managed to sneak into my story that the reason I was able to hear him speak was because my daughter did an Ironman.  (I had told them what that was as I was telling them Matt Long's story.)  When I said my daughter did one they gasped!  Maybe some of their admiration for her spilled onto me!  It was a great way to start the day.

I had been swimming first which seems to be my favorite way to start my day at least once  a week. Yesterday I got up early and went to the gym for a good workout but  swimming in the morning is what really works for me. I have such a satisfied feeling the rest of the day.  I did my 6 sets of 3 laps of freestyle again. I was a little worried when I started as I felt tired right away. But once I warmed up I was fine. Speaking of warming up the pool was 89 degrees!  Yuck! I hope that changes.  Before I got out of the pool I did one more lap of freestyle this time for "speed."  I have not done any laps of freestyle for speed and it felt quite good.  Baby strokes, baby strokes.  One lap for speed is fine.  The rest continue to be breast stroke which is my safe stroke  - no fears of drowning or ending up on the bottom of the pool.

Who do you admire?  Who do you hope students would admire?  

I have been glad they have admired family members and not some of public figures in our society that are not admirable at all.  One girl shared today that one thing she admired about her family was she knew if there was something going on at school, someone from her family would always be there. That is NOT something that is true for all students and I loved that she appreciated it about her family.

12 comments:

Fruit Fly said...

That is such a great way to start the day!

I have always admired my mom. She pretty much raised me on her own, with the help of my grandparents. She's always been working, yet I never felt she was absent. It was nice to see that a woman could work, raise a child, put her through dance and music lessons, get her to school, all that ... and still stay sane! She is a great role model - and now we actually work together, so I guess she constantly rubs off on me.

And then there's always Steve Prefontaine. Love him!!!

Ana-Maria RunTriLive said...

My son always asks me if I won a race. Only a few times I was able to say yes, LOL. Who do I admire? My mom, my MIL, even a blogger or two:)

MCM Mama said...

He is such a strong man. So amazing.

I always love to hear about students who admire people in their families.

BabyWeightMyFatAss said...

Matt Long definitely! It only took about 3 days to get through his book but it's amazing. Another person is Kyle Maynard. He's definitely one kids can read about because he was born with his handicaps but they never did handicap him. It also teaches kids to not to treat someone different because they are different. Great guy!

Laura said...

I LOVE Matt Long...I am going to read his book on my way to cheer my coach on at IronMan Arizona. I admire my coach a ton....she is one of my heroes for sure.

Michael said...

I was just watching a video today about his story. Truly, truly amazing!!

Kate Geisen said...

Sounds like a great start to the school day, and I love the way teaching gives us a chance to share what inspires us with our kiddos. I love what you said about they always as about winning. So true! And it reminds me of when we learn about Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. The whole focus is on their lives and what they DID, and what do the kids know about them? They were shot. Sigh.

I'm tired...this is sad, but I can't think of a person who inspires me right now. I love my mom, but she mostly inspires me NOT to be like her (in matters of work and fitness...there are many ways I'd be a better person if I aspired to be like her). That's not very inspirational. I am really inspired by other bloggers and love reading about others accomplishments, and (sometimes more importantly) their struggles.

Yes, mountain biking is definitely my main bike love right now, partly because it's so darn fun, and partly because every little accomplishment on the trails has been so hard won.

Char said...

It's so good to get kids thinking about what's admirable and what qualities they'd like in themselves. I admire anyone who goes through adversity with a positive spirit and who overcomes.

Anonymous said...

I'll tell you who I don't want students admiring: anyone with Kardashian or Lohan in their name...

Ewa said...

I have only one, very short comment: you are a great teacher, I bet your students will remember your lessons well.

misszippy said...

So cool that you got to bring Matt Long in and inspire the kids. Too often I think they are short of real heroes and overshadowed by high-paid pro athletes w/ not much to offer.

89 degrees? Wow--that's really awful! We have four different pools to choose from in my gym system and I only use the two that are kept at 79 or 80. After that, it's just too hot!

Anonymous said...

I admire every day people. People who help other people. People doing good just to do it. I have never really looked up to famous people too much. If I had to pick an athlete I look up to, I would say Chrissie Wellington- her smile is contagious and she is so humble.