Vancouver Olympic Games
Hey, Canada (Vancouver) won the bid for the Winter Olympic Games in 2010 this morning. That's pretty cool. I love watching the Winter Olympics Games.
I don't tend to be a big sports fan (unless you count hiking as a sport), but I've always had a weakness for watching the Olympic Games. John always sighs with resignation and hands over the TV remote during those two week periods. He pretty much knows where the dial is going to be.
I almost always do a media unit with my class during the Olympics, too. I spend a week discussing the origins of the Games, the symbols, the significance and then for the next two weeks we do activities based on the Games themselves, following them on TV, newspapers and the Internet. It's always a unit that the students really get into. It always amazes me how knowledgeable they become on the events, how they are able to quote back to me chapter and verse of what happened at the Games the night before.
Olympic units are always interesting, too, in that they are so unpredictable. Drug abuse became a big focus of discussion when Canadian runner Ben Johnson lost his gold medal to steroids a few Games back. Olympic judging became a major topic during my last Olympic unit when the skating scandal surrounding Canadian skaters Sale and Pelletier became the talk of the Games. And it always sobers me when I see documentaries about the 1972 Olympics to imagine what it might have been like to deal with something like that in the classroom.
But my 2010 Winter Olympic unit should now take on an extra level of excitement now. It's here in Canada, which should mean a lot of educational activities and events planned for students and the Great White North always seems to do better in the Winter Games than in the Summer Games :).
Question: What are your feelings on the Olympic Games? Do you think they are too political, corrupt and commercial to have any modern purpose? Do you think they preserve some of the sportsmanship, amateur ambition and international unity they say they symbolize? Do you support the Olympics or enjoy watching them on TV?
Exercise log- Walked 6 miles along the Humber Valley Heritage Trail in Bolton yesterday. Up to 233.5 miles on my Rivendell challenge. More than halfway there now!
I don't tend to be a big sports fan (unless you count hiking as a sport), but I've always had a weakness for watching the Olympic Games. John always sighs with resignation and hands over the TV remote during those two week periods. He pretty much knows where the dial is going to be.
I almost always do a media unit with my class during the Olympics, too. I spend a week discussing the origins of the Games, the symbols, the significance and then for the next two weeks we do activities based on the Games themselves, following them on TV, newspapers and the Internet. It's always a unit that the students really get into. It always amazes me how knowledgeable they become on the events, how they are able to quote back to me chapter and verse of what happened at the Games the night before.
Olympic units are always interesting, too, in that they are so unpredictable. Drug abuse became a big focus of discussion when Canadian runner Ben Johnson lost his gold medal to steroids a few Games back. Olympic judging became a major topic during my last Olympic unit when the skating scandal surrounding Canadian skaters Sale and Pelletier became the talk of the Games. And it always sobers me when I see documentaries about the 1972 Olympics to imagine what it might have been like to deal with something like that in the classroom.
But my 2010 Winter Olympic unit should now take on an extra level of excitement now. It's here in Canada, which should mean a lot of educational activities and events planned for students and the Great White North always seems to do better in the Winter Games than in the Summer Games :).
Question: What are your feelings on the Olympic Games? Do you think they are too political, corrupt and commercial to have any modern purpose? Do you think they preserve some of the sportsmanship, amateur ambition and international unity they say they symbolize? Do you support the Olympics or enjoy watching them on TV?
Exercise log- Walked 6 miles along the Humber Valley Heritage Trail in Bolton yesterday. Up to 233.5 miles on my Rivendell challenge. More than halfway there now!