Training Log Archive: barb

Event: WCOC Osbornedale State Park
 

Biked over to Dana Park for the Halloween party where Rachael, Dave, David, Isabel and I put on an orienteering course for kids age 4 and up. There was also a magician and a piano recital (David & Isabel both played). We got to see (and hear) a big tree across the street split in two and fall down; some damage was sustained by houses but it could have been a lot worse.

Event: WCOC DuO #3, Huntington
 

Went with Izzy's soccer team to a great Revolution playoff game vs the Chicago Fire, at Gillette Stadium.

C • DC United vs. Revolution 2

To work.
To school to check on the 3rd grade bulb planting. (And take a photo of Linda's class with their recorders.)
To the post office to enter a lottery for a cabin in the Haleakala crater in January.
Back to work.
And home.

C • layoffs suck 2

Yesterday sucked. There were massive (from my point of view) layoffs at work. I was not chosen (so I don't get six months of severence pay without having to work, nor do I get pushed into some interesting new future). And I had to give the bad news to an employee.

A bit of jogging around setting controls for a Night-O for first and second graders. In retrospect, *what* was I thinking? This was the first time orienteering for many of the first-graders. I didn't have any reflective material on the controls. It was really really cold and windy. The experience could have put them off orienteering for life.

I guess we were thinking that we could build on their planetarium field trip, where they learned how to find the north star. But it was partly cloudy and at the start we couldn't see the big dipper or the north star. So we used compasses instead.

Each kid went with an adult. All 18 kids finished the course, even though half-way through the course a number of parents hinted to Dave (who was running around checking in with teams and helping) that they might quit early. Times for the 1.1-km course ranged from 21 to 59 minutes. Their (phenomenal) teacher, Linda, has a habit of expecting a lot from the kids, and the kids have a habit of living up to those expectations, and I think that's why they did so well.

work, school, work, home.

Taught an hour-long class introducing 1st & 2nd graders to maps. Talked about different ways of finding North. They went to the planetarium last week and learned about the Big Dipper and the pointer stars. Tomorrow I'll take them to Danehy Park for a Night-O!

Yesterday I heard from Cristina's mom at Concord Academy - sounds like she is going to start an orienteering club there! And NEOC prez Caroline says a Finnish (?) orienteer teaching at Philips (?) Academy might start a club. And then I'll have to reconstitute the Graham and Parks club, and we can have some serious interscholastic fun here in the Boston area!

To and from "Key Communicators" meeting with school superintendant.