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Andy Grenhart

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(*Music*) (*Music*) (*Music*) (*Music*) (*Music*) (*Music*) (*People start cheering*) (*Cheering*) (*Cheering dies down gradually*) "Be Well." Everybody close your eyes for me. Picture yourself at your local swimming pool, or an outdoor pool you may have been to. Your lying in a pool chair. Relaxed. You're smiling. 'Cause, school is finally out. You can feel the warm summer sun on your skin. The breeze comes over you, and get an intense smell of chlorine, sunscreen, and fresh cut grass. The Lifeguard blows their whistle to stop kids from running on the pool deck. The family next you battles with getting a final coat of sunscreen on. Goggles assembled, prepped and ready for their morning swim lesson. May you open your eyes. This is where my teaching begin. Teaching swimming at my local swimming pool. I'm sure most of you may prefer to sit next to a pool right now. Maybe with a margarita in hand, even though it's 8:30 in the morning. Or maybe riding your mountain bike on the trails of Durango, or spending time with your family and your loved ones. If it was up to me, I'd be on the high-water the Animas river right now. But we're all here for a better reason, nest increase our love and knowledge of education and to be well. "Be well?" you may ask. What that means for me is doing what you love and loving what you do. Taking care of myself so I can pass that care and love onto students and the people around me. When I was asked to get this talk, on cultivating a calling, I thought to myself of all the great reasons why I teach. Kids are fun. PE is Fun. The feeling I get when receiving countless thank you's from parents, students and athletes. The expression on his child's face when they learn something new. Summers off, holidays off, and let's not forget about the incredible pay. But most of all, it feels good in my heart. But then I thought a little bit longer, what really cultivated the calling for me as a teacher. Moving to Durango in 2006, enriched my life in the outdoors and strengthened my career as a teacher and Coach. I continued to teach swim lessons throughout my college career. I tought snowboarding at Purgatory for the last nine winters. I've coached Middle School volleyball, basketball, and football. Youth Lacrosse for 2 years. High School lacrosse for the last 5 years. In 2008, I became a raft guide on the Animas River. The past five summers I've raft guides. After graduating Fort Lewis College with a K-12 physical education degree, I substituted for about a year-and-a-half and I just finished up my third year teaching. The last two of been at Ignacio teaching PE. (*Some of the audience members cheer a bit*) So let me get bac- (*chuckles slightly*) (*Finishes*) So let me get back to that story of what really cultivated the calling for me. January 14th, 2003, scrawny 14-year-old boy walks into the doctor's office with his mother. This boy was me. (*Voice starts to shake get a bit*) We were looking for answers of the symptoms I had been experiencing. Constant urination, weight, loss, weight I didn't have to lose. Unquenchable thirst, lethargic, blurred vision, and a loss of personality. Patiently waiting in the exam room. We were desperate for an answer. After a urine test and a blood glucose test, the doctor was quite certain he had found the reason. The doctor walked in and said "your ketones in it, and your blood sugar is 550. You should be between a 70 and a 130 range, and the ketones in your urine indicates Ketoacidosis. (*Silence for a moment*) (*Continues*) We strongly believe you have diabetes." (*Silence for a moment*) At first I was-- my first thought was "wait hold on. I thought that people got diabetes." I just lost 25 pounds since my last checkup. How could this happen to me? I am healthy. My mom started crying and so did I. But I didn't know why. I knew my life was going to take a drastic turn. But had no idea what I was in for. They contacted the Barbara Davis Center for juvenile diabetes and told us we are on and that we would be on our way. We left the doctor's office in Aurora and drove straight there. My dad met us there. We were greeted by a friendly desk employee. They put us into a waiting room after taking my; vitals, another urine test, and then another blue coast-- blood glucose test. And damn, those finger pricks hurt. The cheerful PA walked in and said "don't worry you're about to feel so much better." She drew up a small vial of insulin in a syringe, and gave me my first shot of insulin. (*Silent for a brief moment*) Then she started teaching us about the disease I'll live with for the rest of my life. After about fifteen minutes, she was right. I felt like a new person. My parents said I looked like a new boy. For the next weekm we went to the Barbara Davis Center and learned all about type 1 diabetes. Nutrition, injections, blood glucose testing, high and low blood sugars, the do's and the don'ts. This was such a profound experience for me. A teenager that knew 'everything'. Little did I know how vulnerable I really was. I learned a lot about my body. I learn to understand my feelings about having the disease, taking responsibility for my actions, testing my blood sugar 3 to 5 times a day. Taking 3 to 5 insulin shots a day. Watching what I ate and increase my overall awareness of my health. This was a major challenge for me and my family. I was challenged physically right off the bat. With; injections, those damn finger pricks, and the way low and high blood sugars made me feel. I was challenged emotionally, with the reason with a question of why me, and a constant stress of the disease. Socially, it was hard to just be a teenager. This change in my life didn't happen overnight, though. But after the next few years, after my diagnosis. I had, one: finally started maturing into a young adult, and two: realized the best thing to do, was the best decision was to take action into my own hands. I've never used diabetes as an excuse not to do something. But more so as motivation to do whatever it takes, in my life, to make me happy. Over the past 15 years, I manage my diabetes by staying positive and focusing and making a point that it's in my control. Something I constantly encourage my students to have. Control of their life. When I tell people I'm a PE teacher, the reaction is always "man that must be the best job ever. Do you play dodgeball with your kids?" (*Audience laughs a bit*) My reaction is all of my jobs with the best job ever. Raft guiding, teaching snowboarding, coaching. But teaching PE is the most important to me. (*Silence for a brief moment*) Teaching PE is more than just teaching playing games like dodgeball. In fact, the first physical education Colorado state standard is the only one that mentions physical activity, okay. It--the first one, is moving competence in understanding. Which is teaching students a wide variety of movements. Skills like throwing, catching, kicking, jogging, skipping, and a wide variety of exercises. The other ones are; physical and personal wellness, social and emotional wellness, prevention and risk. Many of the things that diabetes have taught me. Of course, I love to teach different games movements, physical skills and exercises. But at the end of the day, it's more than playing games like dodgeball. What's most important to me that students know how to treat each other with respect, fairness, and care. How to manage themselves with responsibility, integrity, and morality. And believing in them that they turn the power to take control of their life. And to be well on their own. This encompasses all students that walk into my gym. Whether it's little John that can barely dribble basketball and walk at the same time. Or Amy, that can do cartwheels across the entire gym and make a free throw as a first grader. But if we can make these kids understand that they have the power to take control of their life, that they will come out on top. (*Silence for a moment*) But we have to help them to get to that power--that position of power in their life. I'm not saying let's all give them diabetes. (*Audience chuckles for a moment*) But, by giving them challenges and helping them work through that is how we do it. I think I just explained School. It's not all about content though. It's about working through that content and helping them. So they can be, and feel, successful. (*Silence for a moment*) Somewhere along the lines, schools started taking away PE and recesses. The reasons are beyond me. That's a whole other can of worms I'm not going to get into right now. PE is not only a great place to teach students control their body in a emotions, but studies have shown that direct correlation between exercise, and increased test scores, decrease misbehavior, and increase in attendance. The 8th district served by the San Juan Boces were awarded the Take Ten Grant this year. You'll learn about that more today. (*Kids chattering*) The three components are extra recess equipment, to give students a higher quality of unstructured playtime. Second component is a physical activity leaders. Which help students be physically active in the classroom. As well as a box of equipment to do so. The third component, are the heroes with that 100 Mile Club. That help everyone run outside. This year, I was a hero at Ignacio Elementary School. The 100 Mile Club would meet 3 days a week, at 7:15 in the morning. They would check in, they would; run, walk, jog, as many laps as they could. And at the end, we would tract their progress. We would have graphs in the school so everyone can see. All teachers, parents, and students were welcome. Once you reach 25 miles you got an awesome, one-of-a-kind, Hundred Mile Club t-shirt and you got a sweet pencil. Kids love pencils. (*Audience laughs a little*) And then at 75 miles, you got a bracelet. And if you were so committed, that you reached a hundred miles you got a gold medal. We had four students at Ignacio Elementary School make the hundred mile mark. Our top student completed 159 miles. A first grader. There was another first grader and her grandmother that came nearly every single day. And at the end, they can completed a hundred miles on the final day. I'll call her Danielle. Now at first sight you may not think Danielle and her granddaughter, or Danielle and her grandmother, had the capability of completing such a task. But they did. Towards the end of the year, they were showing up before I was, and their commitment was clear. At the end I asked Daniel's grandmother what she thought of the program, and how has it affected her and her granddaughter and she said "Danielle feels a lot better about herself. She feels more focused in school and it's been really good for her weight loss. As for myself, my blood sugars have been lower and I feel like I have more energy throughout the day after we walk. Thank you, Mr. Greg Hunter. We cannot wait for next year." This was great for me to see the success of the program and to hear direct feedback from the participants. Next year, we have a few tweaks to make happen and we hope to have more numbers. Like Danielle and her grandmother, I want students to take care of themselves physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. Everyone I come in contact with for that matter. No matter what I'm doing, I want people to be well. But it's up to you to make the move. It's a conscious choice. Take care of yourself, so you can take care of others. Teaching the whole child to be well is not just my calling. It's all of yours. Teach yourself and your students to be well. Thank you. (*Applause*) (*Applause*) (*Music*) Captions by Charles B. Vigil

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