Over
the past several years, schoolteacher Carol
Goodrow (Fiskdale) has implemented and developed a unique Web site aimed
at attracting kids to running and ensuring recognition of their participation
and accomplishments. Like children themselves, Way Cool Running www.waycoolrunning.com
has grown by leaps and bounds, mushrooming from its humble origins as a
relatively small endeavor into an Internet site that has attracted national
attention through its stories, forums, race reports, and novel ways of drawing
kids to the activity.
Recently,
Way Cool Running was given a Diamond Award for the best Health, Nutrition
and Physical Education K-12 site by the Curriculum
Administrator Journal for the Year 2000. An excerpt from the
journal: "Way Cool Running....is an excellent example of a Web Site
developed by a teacher to share a personal interest for the educational
benefit of students."
This
was CA's second year of citing award-winning sites. This is serious
competition, as evidenced by the other web sites cited by Curriculum
Administrator including Binney & Smith (the Crayola Crayon people),
the New York Times, Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (yes, PBS),
and a number of colleges, high schools, and grade schools across the US.
Those of us who have visited the site have known this for a while. If you’re online and haven’t browsed around, check it out. Perhaps the most important thing you might do is send a note commenting on one of the kids’ stories or accomplishments. A “little” reinforcement goes a long way to a “little one”!