An Unwise Man Looks at Turning 50

Oh no!! Goodbye 40's -- Hello AARP!!!

So here I am -- sitting in my correctional center classroom at 6:35 in the morning, planning what will be the last day that I spend as someone in his 40’s. And it is a bit nerve wracking, but gives great reason to take pause for a few minutes.

Here’s what is scariest. Like many people, when I turned 40, there was a feeling that perhaps my life was now half over. At 50, that fraction has jumped to 2/3. How did that happen in a decade that felt like it took three years to finish?

As I look back on my first half-century, it is hard not to notice the ironic twists that have made up my life so far.

Here’s a good example. My wife Elizabeth and I have been married for almost 12 years. It’s a well-known fact that we don’t have any children, as measured by the endless number of times I am asked, “Don’t you wish you had kids?”

Selfie taken today - the last day
of my 40's. At least I learned how
to take a selfie during this decade!

I have an answer. We’re both teachers. For the purpose of my personal argument, I started scribbling numbers last night. Between coaching cross-country and track (at five different schools) for 17 years, I estimated that there have been about 800 young athletes who have called me “Coach.” Granted, some of these “youngsters” are now well into their 40’s! As far as teaching for 12-13 years, among the middle school, high school, alternative, college and current correctional classes under my watch, the number of students probably exceeds 2,500. Heck, during my nine years at Centura College, I got new students every five weeks, and had as many as 160 at a time. Adding on the students that I have tutored, or administered SOL tests to at home, or any other variation of educational experiences, my sum total comes up to almost 3,500 young men and women under my guidance. Do I still miss not having kids????  

Sometimes, but not often.

But under the title of teacher or coach is only one way that people have known me. For most of my teenage years, I was “that runner.” The persona in my 20’s was probably “that guy that works at the Post Office.” In my early thirties, I was probably more of “that guy that sings,” late 30’s – “that real estate agent.” Even now, there are a few people that think of me as “that sports writer.” I’m very thankful for the last one.

The funny moments in life come when my colleagues from one generation become aware of the other “Jims” that exist. For example, I lived in Alexandria, VA from birth (obviously 1965) to 2003 and many people there have no idea that I started writing and have about 400 bylines, this blog, and the co-author title on a book. By contrast, many people in the Newport News/Tidewater area don’t know that I ran cross-country and track in high school and college (Division I, even!). I don’t blame them. I weigh about 207 now, roughly 60 pounds over my old “fighting” weight.

Looking back, there have also been some awkwardly memorable moments. Here are some quick ones. Back in 1989, I was listening to Sam Kinison on the Howard Stern radio show. Stern had just expanded his show back to the Washington, D.C. area, and I was an avid listener, especially since my job at the Merrifield P.O. ended at 6:30 AM. On one eventful morning, Kinison showed up to the show BOMBED!! Just “Light ‘em up” drunk! Since we had a fax machine in the house (home business), I sent a fax to the N.Y. studio of WXRK-FM and wrote that “I’m getting drunk just listening to Sam!” It was fairly true, and sure enough, five minutes later, Robin Quivers read the fax over the air. Kinison was beside himself.

"(Andrew) ”Dice” Clay sent that!! That was Dice!! OH!! OH!! OH-H-H-H!!!!"

It was a noteworthy enough event to garner inclusion into Stern’s “Private Parts” book. Look it up – I forget the page number, but it’s there.

Three years before that, at a business leadership seminar at New York University, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting former President Gerald Ford during the 1 PM hour, then the distinction of getting CBS News’ veteran journalist Mike Wallace in an argument with one of Wall Street’s most famous lawyers, Marshall Manley, because of something I asked during a Q&A two hours later. Perhaps the other significant event of this day was being followed to the bathroom by three Secret Service agents during lunch (Ford was speaking).

For the record, the question had to do with Janet Cooke of the Washington Post winning a Pulitzer Prize from a fabricated story. Manley didn’t think the journalism question was appropriate for the forum, and Wallace did. They verbally sparred for a couple of minutes over it.

I’ll end with a third, and it gets back to running. After my 1982 cross-country season with Wagner College, we finally arrived at the end of the season, and the chance to stay out real late and party on a Friday night because, for once, we weren’t going to have a Saturday meet. Given my penchant for keeping the saloon owners of Staten Island open as late as possible, I burned all of my midnight oil, and staggered back to my room from Brandy’s Place around 3 AM, totally unaware that four hours later, there would be an intrusive knock on the door.

“JIM!!!!,” yelled the voice through my dormitory barrier. “Get up! We need a fifth man!” The open Metropolitan Championships were going to be held that day at the fabled Van Cortlandt Park, and in spite of my intention not to run in this “optional” meet, I was now about to be kicked into play. To add insult to injury, this race would be a 10K (6.2 miles), as opposed to the regular five-mile college races.

There was a large gathering at the starting line, but I stumbled to a spot in the second row center. And why not? If I was going to go down in flames, I was going to go LARGE! As we readied to start, an old man on a megaphone began to make an announcement.

“We are honored and pleased to have one of the all-time greatest distance runners with us today. He was a standout at Villanova, and in his career has distinguished himself as one of our great milers. I would like to introduce the current world record holder in the mile.. EAMONN COGHLAN!!”

In 1982, Eamonn Coghlan, of Ireland, was the only runner in history to have broken the 3:50 mile indoors. I watched his races with admiration and awe, jumping up and down in my parents' kitchen when he broke the world indoor record. He was my running hero.

Feverishly, I looked around to see where Coghlan was. Nothing on the left, and nothing on the right. So it was surprising when I noticed that the runner two feet in front of me started waving to the crowd. In a moment of surrealism, I shook my hero’s hand, wished him luck, and waited for the gun to go off.

Our harrier duel was a short one. I managed to stay with Coghlan for about 100-meters, but ended up losing by about five minutes! In fairness, he beat everyone by well over a minute. Hell, I was just happy to place about 55^th out of over 400 runners considering the condition that my condition was in.

Fortunately, it has been events like this that made me want to sit down and write about them. So, as I turn 50 tomorrow, I can finally, finally say that I know what I want to be when I grow up!! And, if you have made it this far, thank you for allowing me to indulge! CHEERS!

From “The Boys of Ewald Park” – What do we call our neighborhood?

There are many names for the geographical area of Alexandria that surrounds Ewald Park. On the old city maps, it was called Tarleton or Wakefield. But I don’t know too many neighborhood folks of our generation that ever used those terms. Ours were more along the lines of L.A. (Lower Alexandria), or the Block.

But, when I go back to the 1970’s, some questions remain. Growing up, I recall everything south of Duke St. being called the Southside, whether it was our area, or even on the eastern end of town, in the neighborhood that encircled Lee Elementary School, where a lot of our friends from the Eugene Simpson baseball team lived. By contrast, the Northside was reserved for Del Ray, Arlandria, and especially the public housing units that made up the north end of Old Town along Rte. 1.

For the sake of argument, here is Wikipedia’s definition of Lower Alexandria. Since I wrote the original submission, it’s hard for me to disagree with this.

“South of the Duke Street corridor, Lower Alexandria is a collection of communities of small homes, row houses, townhomes along with commercial and retail real estate, including the Shops of Foxchase. The section between Wheeler Ave. and S. Jordan St. is also known as the "Block." In the 1960’s and 1970’s, this section of Alexandria was also known because of Shirley Duke, a complex of 2,214 low-priced rental apartments, which became the Foxchase development in the early 1980’s after five years of stagnancy. There are also areas of industrial businesses south of Duke Street, primarily off Wheeler Ave., South Pickett St., and South Van Dorn St. In the very southern part of this area is the Eisenhower Ave. corridor running parallel to the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495) and west of Telegraph Rd, which is primarily industrial and commercial in nature.“

But my questions have more to do with the geographical boundaries. If Duke Street borders L.A. to the north, then Shirley Duke or Duchess Gardens apartments wouldn’t have counted as part of the old neighborhood. Given that most of the kids who played at Ewald Park were from one of those two areas, should they be?

Francena McCorory and the Lyles Brothers Representing Virginia Track

This summer has turned into a wonderful season of warmth for Virginia track fans. I’m sitting here on a Friday night watching the USATF Outdoor Championships from historic Hayward Field in Oregon, and Francena McCorory has just won her semi-final race of the women’s 400-meters in a world-leading time of 49.85. Tomorrow’s final should be very intriguing. Sanya Richards-Ross, the defending 400 Olympic champion, didn’t make it to the final, but Allyson Felix, a dominating short sprinter with four Olympic gold medals, did. Felix, with sub-22 speed in the 200, is capable of breaking 49 in the quarter, and tomorrow’s winner may have to do just that to take the crown.

Francena will run for the 400-meter USATF
Championship on Saturday. She will need to beat
her best time of 49.48 and defeat Allyson Felix to win.

And that’s part of the reason why I love this sport.

The other reason why I love track, and running in general, is that there is a closeness, a proximity, that this sport allows, something that may not be seen in others.

Francena is a local star, a legend here on the Peninsula. She was starring at Bethel High years ago, when I was coaching at Denbigh, a district rival. While our boys had some success at the district level and even got as high as 4^th in States, Bethel dominated the girls scene, mainly because of the young woman who opened up leads that 18-wheelers could drive through.

But my local ties also reach to the northern end of the Commonwealth. Hours earlier, at Hayward Field, Noah Lyles, a rising 12^th grader at T.C. Williams, in my hometown of Alexandria, VA, won the junior 100-meters in a state record time of 10.14. Noah, and his twin brother Josephus, have dominated Virginia high school sprinting for a couple of years now, and are now taking their talents to a whole new level. They had the opportunity to race in Cuba last week, and I think that’s a good example of where their speedy legs are taking them this summer. Other parts of the world will be seeing both of them soon.

Noah and Josephus Lyles - Remember THESE Titans
from T.C. Williams!

Several months ago, I got to meet the Lyles twins, just before the indoor state meet. After Nolan Jez, the webmaster for Milestat.com, made the introduction, I listened to them for a couple of minutes and heard a few things that piqued my interest. (You play ball at the Courts, then walk down to 7-11?) I had to ask the question – what part of Alexandria are you guys from? It turned out my instincts were correct. They are from the old neighborhood – literally a stone’s throw (seriously, 40 yards) from where I lived as a kid.

There is a wonderful common denominator, one that is shared by Francena and the Lyles brothers. They are great people. After T.C. won the state indoor title, both of the Lyles brothers spoke of the impetus gained from their two-miler’s points toward the end of the meet. (You guys did OK too, right?). I have seen Francena take endless pictures with young children at a few meets. She even taught me how to take a selfie when I requested a picture. Great snapshot – even I looked decent!

And here’s the point – if Francena and the Lyles brothers are examples of our track and field stars for now and the near future, I think that our sport is in great shape. There are others, and I'll tell you their stories soon.

Improving Your Writing: Asking the Right Questions

Although I have strayed from educational topics, and concentrated more on the sports posts, there are some aspects of learning that remain near and dear to me. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend  a class at James Madison University - one dealing with the grading and teaching of the new GED Extended Response questions. These will take the place of the essay, which was part of the exam from 2002-2014. It's a different type of writing, but one which requires knowledge of three skills - comparing and contrasting two different viewpoints (Language Arts), knowledge of an enduring topic and the ability to add prior knowledge (Social Studies), and the ability to write a short experiment or identify and explain the elements of an existing one (Science). Currently, there is not an extended response for Math, but it is forthcoming.

As I thought about developing a teaching method for my GED students, the one element that continues to flow through my brain is that students (at all levels) need to develop the ability to ask the right questions. Here's a little something I recently wrote for a class on Teaching Writing to Transfer (to other subjects).

           As a fledgling college English instructor and current author and journalist, one of the writing and transfer topics to which I have paid the most attention in recent years is questioning.

            In theory, having the ability to develop proper questions about a topic is a key function to master. It forms the backbone needed to engage in the writing process. As a researcher, having the ability to ask the proper questions about one’s topic is necessary, as it helps the writer to find the information that is most pertinent to support the hypotheses. In a persuasive essay, foreseeing the questions that detractors may ask, and formulating the answers to support one’s argument is an essential part of building a successful platform.

            There are several ways to examine the topic of questioning. In journalism, for example, young reporters learn of the five W’S (Who, What, When, Where, Why) and H (How?) and the importance of answering as many of these questions as possible in a lead (lede) paragraph of less than 40 words. While finding the answers is important, the five W’s and H form the simple baseline to a story after the writer has answered those questions. However, for the audience that reads newspapers and magazines, these answers, written at a seventh-grade reading level, are sufficient for this genre and audience.

            However, there are other genres, as well as other types of audiences. While thousands of people may read a newspaper article, at times, the instructions for an assignment note that the project is intended to be viewed by an audience of one. Therefore, the line of questioning will be altered to meet the needs of the audience.

                                                                Objective

            As a correctional teacher, my concern was that the deletion of the essay from the 2014 GED test had de-emphasized essay writing as a required skill. In its place, the extended response has been installed to show students’ writing ability. In truth, the new response will require the student to write plenty of material, but not necessarily in the five-paragraph format that they learned.

                                                         Bloom’s Taxonomy

            One way to determine the level of questions, which need to be determined before engaging in a writing assignment, is to review Bloom’s Taxonomy. The Taxonomy addresses five levels of questioning. They are:

1.     Knowledge – having the ability to recall specifics and universals about a topic. Generally known as a rote recollection of the answers to questions addressed by the 5 W’s and H.

2.     Comprehension – having the ability to process knowledge in a manner that is not a verbatim response, which was learned previously.

3.     Application – being able to use abstractions in concrete situations. Depth of knowledge is introduced at this level.

4.     Analysis – the breakdown of a situation into its component parts.

5.     Synthesis and Evaluation – having the ability to put together elements and parts about a topic to form a whole, and then being able to make value judgments about the method.

Knowing one’s audience and understanding the depth of knowledge that is required to optimally plan and organize a writing assignment at the college level are the two components necessary to becoming a competent college writer.

With this concept in place, my objective is to explain the importance of developing questions when writing in the various genres that a college student should be adept with using. A good example of question writing ability came up in a reading, when “Whitney” was given an assignment to “select a critical article [from a shared class text on the Harry Potter series] and develop three questions about the article that encourage analysis and discussion. (Hassel and Giordano, 2009). This is a viable example of a college assignment, and typical of the critical knowledge which a college English student should possess when writing in different genres.

 The aim for teachers should be to discuss pedagogical strategies to help the college student become better with the questioning method as it is utilized in the writing process. To enhance one’s ability to form credible questions as a young writer is a skill that will transfer to other writing courses, including journalism, speechwriting, narrative and expository writing, as well as to answer extended essay response questions on standardized and formalized tests such as the GRE and a state bar exam.

                                                  Readings for the Teacher

            Presently, I am recommending at several articles on this subject. At present, this list includes:

1)    The Effects of Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Align Reading Instruction with the Virginia Standards of Learning Framework for English - Crews, C. F. Pro Quest LLC, 2010. A study that examined the effects of aligning the Virginia Standards of learning (SOL) framework with Bloom’s Taxonomy on Student Achievement.

2)    Repeatedly Answering Questions that Elicit Inquiry-Based Thinking Improves Writing- Radhakrishnan, P, Schimmack, U. & Lam, D. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 2011. Participants practice the skill of asking questions about a journal article. Inquiry improves writing by helping one learn more about the topic at hand.

3)    Brainstorming for Ideas – Mogahad, M. M. (2011). Teachers brainstorm words connected with the topic in class before setting the composition for homework. Does asking questions help to brainstorm?

4)    History Makers: A Questioning Approach to reading and Writing Biographies – Zarnowski, M. (2003). Adopts a questioning approach to studying history, getting writers involved in the process.

5)    The Logic of Question and Answer: Writing as Inquiry – Francoz, M.J. – College English (1979). Describes a technique which stresses critical thinking by stressing questioning methods, as students participate in a fictional interview.

6)    Classroom Environments of Respect for Questioning and Discussion – Robitaille, Y.P., Maldonado, N. (2015). Recent paper submitted at the Qualitative Report Annual Conference shows effective questioning techniques to develop critical thinking.

Reference

Hassel, H. and Giordano, J. B. (2009). Transfer institutions, transfer of knowledge: The

development of rhetorical adaptability and underprepared writers. TETYC, September

 2009. NCTE.

Re-Write The All-Time Lists because 5A/6A States Happened: Complete Recap

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Lex Gillette Breaks Own World Record in Long Jump

I have been negligent in taking this long to wish my friend and writing colleague (he wrote the foreword for our book!) Lex Gillette on his latest of many accomplishments.

Lex broke his own long jump world record for F11 classified (visually impaired) athletes of 6.73m (22ft. 1in.) with a leap of 6.77m (22ft. 2in.) on April 23, 2015 at a high performance meet held at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center.

Lex is based in San Diego and trains at the Chula Vista center as he prepares for the 2016 Rio Paralympics.