Overcoming the Challenges

It is inevitable that when you begin a Genius Hour project, you will face challenges and obstacles along the way. However, the most important thing to look back on is how you overcame those challenges. When I took on the goal of running a half marathon by October, I knew that I would face obstacles when trying to achieve my goal. No matter the running goal, there are always bumps in the road that you must conquer.

For me, my challenge right now is finding the time to train. With school, volunteering, and trying to work as many nights a week as I can, working out cannot always be my priority. I have always been the type of person that will work extremely hard at school in order to achieve good marks and with the pressure of finding a full time job now that I am so close to graduating, volunteering has become important to me as well. Because of my efforts to work hard at these two major parts of my life, running does slip through the cracks sometimes.

One of the reasons that I decided to do running as part of my Genius Hour project was that I wanted to make an effort to find the time to workout, even when life got busy. This has proved more challenging than I would have thought. While I do make time to run 3-4 times a week right now, I do find it challenging to add longer distances to my training because for one, it takes much more time to do so and additionally, the weather in the winter is not ideal for running long distances. This results in my having to run on the treadmill and while running on the treadmill is great for up to 6km, it is hard for me to get my mind around running longer distances on it.

Something that I would really like to work towards for the rest of my time doing this Genius Hour is finding the time to run longer distances, even if it is just once a week. By doing this, I will be able to work my way towards my goal of running 21km overtime. I am confident that as the weather continues to get warmer, I will enjoy spending my time running outside and it will become a time when I can take a break from the other busy parts of my life.

While I am confident that I will be able to achieve my goal in the end, I did want to write this blog post to discuss the challenges that I've been facing while training. Reaching a goal is never going to be easy and there will never be a road towards a goal that does not include bumps along the way. Despite these bumps, it is important to have a positive attitude and to have a growth mindset. I strongly believe that if I do this, I will be successful and will be able to conquer any challenge that comes at me along the way.

Zantamata, D. (2014, May 10). Quote [Image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2kJYHIJ

An Important Message for All Educators

This week in our technology class, we were asked to find a TED Talk to watch and evaluate. After watching this TED Talk by Sal Khan, I thought that it was important that I share it with other educators out there who may not have had a chance to see it. This lecture not only highlights the importance of giving students time to achieve mastery, but it talks about teaching students to have a growth mindset. By teaching grit and perseverance, we are teaching students to see their mistakes as opportunities to learn, rather than as failures. Allowing students to have time to master the subjects that we teach will lead to less gaps in their learning and less students falling through the cracks. 

Despite all the important messages that this TED Talk touches upon, my main question after watching it was how teachers are expected to give students enough time for all of them to master a subject at their own pace, when there is so much curricular content to cover within the school year?

I hope that you find this talk as inspiring and interesting as I did. Please feel free to watch the TED Talk at the link below:

Khan, S. (2015, November). Let's teach for mastery - not test scores [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores

An Update on My Training

It is time to start training!! As I have stated in previous blog posts, running is something that is a common form of exercise for me to do. I generally run short distances, usually around 5km 3 or 4 times a week; however, in the summer it is not uncommon for me to run longer distances a couple times a week, usually 10-12km.

In learning that I was going to begin to train for a half marathon for my Genius Hour Project, my dad recently lent me a book that provides a training program for running a variety of distances. This book has a program for running 21km that I plan to follow starting next week! It is a 16 week program that is intended to build the runner up to running 21km slowly. It suggests which days to run and how many kms to run each day. Because of my busy schedule, the days that I run may need to be adjusted; however, I will aim to run 5 days a week as the program suggests. I am lucky enough to have a treadmill in my basement, so even when it gets snowy outside, I will have no excuses! Here are some pictures of the book with the pages that outline the training program. I am looking forward to getting started!

Stanton, J. (1999). To complete a half-marathon [Image]. Retrieved from 
Running start to finish book.

Stanton, J. (1999). To complete a half-marathon [Image]. Retrieved from 
Running start to finish book.

I am looking forward to next week's Genius Hour and since it's an online class, I will spend that time running and training!