Rob Murphy

Spent the day driving from San Diego to Salt Lake. Jogged some at every rest area with Abby to stay awake.

4.25 miles on the treadmill. 1 mile of stair climbing.

Off the get the Christmas tree now. 

Today I attempted to teach the Civil War in one 90 minute class period. 

I failed. Even with a nifty video I have called "The Civil War in Four Minutes". 

Short run sandwiched between the time I got home from work and Abby's violin recital. 

AM: 2.25 windy miles around the Alta track. Just keeping the gut at bay.

PM: Ran another 4.5 miles mostly on the track.

I got the annoying news this afternoon that I will have a student teacher next semester. This is a chore I usually avoid because I teach a lot of AP classes and they don't generally let student teachers teach those subjects.

The main problem with having a student teacher is that teaching is a profession, like many others, where there is the by-the-book way of doing things and then there's the way everyone actually does it. Having a student teacher mostly requires you to be a "good example". 

Eight miles averaging about 7:45 pace on the treadmill.

You know who I really love? The Black Keys. I know they have been around a while but I just can't get enough of them lately. Driving to and from work I usually shuffle through lots of CD's but lately it's just The Black Keys. They have an album from a couple years ago called "Brothers" that I especially like. I love the Black Keys. Their videos are wickedly awesome too. All people should waste an hour or two just watching Black Keys videos on Youtube. 

AM: three easy miles on the track plus a couple faster striders.

Just sitting here in class today feeling sad. You know, no one can do any job well if they don't believe that what they are doing is really important but on days like today it's hard.

Why does this sort of thing happen so often in this country and seemingly never in most other countries? Surely it is a symptom of something? 

PM: 4.25 MILES OF ELIPTICKLINNG 

5.5 miles on the treadmill. More or less continuous snow today.

Fun day at Abby's swim meet. She won the 100 breast stroke, set a PR in the 100 back and got her but kicked in the 50 fly. Then we had the WFFM Christmas party in the evening/