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Space in the class

What could be better then reading from a traditional text book and sitting in a traditional classroom? How about taking a science class with Frank Gregorio. Frank's class sits in a computer lab with the lights off while listening to music while using a free program called Celestia. In this class students use the program to view the universe in a way that no textbook could show it. The program allows students to look at the planets and other features of the universe in a three dimensional view. The program is said to be able to turn any classroom with a teacher, a computer and some video into a space simulation that no textbook could offer. This idea would be just another reason why schools should make a savy investment into their schools technology.

National Champions

Well it was a long week but I am glad that the team and coaches this year were not stressed out like we were going into last years final day. After winning the Mens Team Pursuit (Bennet, David, Taylor, and Rob) the team finished the day off with Sierra taking 7th in the sprints and David, Bennet, Taylor and Alex all finishing near the top of the long and fast points race.
At the end of the night Bennet finished up 5th in the individual omnium and David taking 3rd. On the womens side Sinead took 2nd overall after a long week of fighting a girl from Lees McRae. Congrats to the team on another National Championship and we look forward to defending our 3 straight titles next year and keep Deans undefeated record going at Collegiate Track Nationals.

Nationals Day 2 of Racing

Morning Session was a complete washout with the rains continuing until about 1pm this afternoon. When we finally got the track what did it do. well it poured again. We sat under the tent for about another 30 minuets until it stopped raining and watched the track dry. We started the night off with the 200 meter sprints. Alex posted a 19.81 that got him 18th overall and I posted a 19.91 which wound me up 19th. The night however belonged to Sinead and the women. We kicked it all off with the Collegiate Team Pursuit (Italian Pursuit) with a very convincing win. Then the women followed that up with a win in the Womens Team Pursuit after watching most of the teams fall apart. Right after that Sinead came through again winning the Womens Points Race at the end of the night to cap off her 3rd title in the night.

Collegiate Team Pursuit Team

Sierra
Sinead
Alex
Rob
Bennet
David

Womens Team Pursuit

Sierra
Becca
Megan
Sinead

Nationals Day 1 of Racing

Morning Session

The day started out rather great. Becca set an early time for the 2k pursuit finishing 6th overall just missing the podium. Sinead finished up 2nd overall in the 2k pursuit in her first collegiate track nationals event. In the mens 3k pursuit Zach set a very fast time with a 3:44 that seemed to sit in the top 10 for some time. Rob went out and set a rather fast time as well. If you had told me that I would only have done a 3:51 in the 3k this year after doing a 3:58 last year I would have been very upset with that time. I had to take into considerations though that I have been doing a large amount of sprint workouts these past few weeks trying to get my 200 meter time low enough to get into the sprints tournament. So considering that I just found out that I was doing this event 2 days before nationals I was not too upset. I still want to send congrats to David for a very great pursuit 3:31 which wound up being the 2nd best time of the day (he will win that event one of these days). Overall I think that our standings in the 3k went David 2nd, Bennet 9th and Rob 10th and Zach slid in somewhere around 15th in the top 20 I think.


Evening Session

Not much to post here. We warmed up on the track, heard the national anthem, had a moment of silence for 9/11 and then the rain came. It has yet to stop and the evening session was canceled. Hope it stops sometime. We have some points to start making up. We figure that we are sitting in second right now behind Colorado State by about 20 points which we can make up rather easily in the team events were we will be strong.

Nationals Day One - Arrival

Ok so its not really day 1 yet but it was the travel day. The longeset and hardest day. Started out by hanging out at Jeff and Bennets place were we rocked out to some DJ Scooter, and rip your face off rock. It was really just an ordinary day for traveling by plane. Everyone wanting to know what is in those boxes that you carry and trying to get everyone through security. All went rather well. Started a new tradition with the bear scare dance everywhere we go now as well as watching Metalocolips (not sure if spelling is right) and Vlad the Impaler on the plane. Got checked into this sweet hotel in Colorado Springs and found out that I get to do the Individual Pursuit, Kilo, and the Sprints at Nationals. Day 2 should be exciting and look forward to the journey continuing.

Cell phones in school?

Should cell phones be allowed in school? It is bad enough that students have enough distractions in school but do they really need a phone going off in the middle of an exam. Yes you can make an argument that students can use smart phones to look up info on the web. I agree with some schools that are giving students phones to use in the school because this allows the students to have more freedom inside the school and also allows students to try and get more info from a teacher or classmate if they have a question about an assignment. This however should be left to this being the only use of these Samsung phones that are being given to high school students though.