On the road again!

Welcome to the Outreach blog as I travel the Commonwealth teaching students about Thoroughbreds and the Kentucky Derby Museum.

The first week of outreach is in the books! I visited Mercer County Primary School twice and North Middle School in Henderson. Mercer County Primary is such a large school, we divided the outreach trip into two days and I taught "Mathin' Around the Track" eight times. As much as I love that program, it wouldn't bother me to not teach it for awhile. Both days at the school were great. During question and answer time, the kids kept asking how old you have to be to be a jockey. This happened after EVERY program! So maybe we have a bunch of future jockeys coming from Mercer County. And if your in Harrodsburg, stop by Cloud's Country Cooking...nothing fancy but the burger hit the spot after all of those math programs. I have to say I was a little apprehensive about the trip to North Middle School in Henderson. It was another large school (850 students or so) and I was to see each grade. That's about 285 middle school students per session in the gym! It was also their last day before a four day Labor Day weekend - so I was thinking it might be a little crazy.  

But I was wrong - The kids were attentive, polite and enthusiastic. My favorite group was the eighth graders who did the "Odds in Everday Life" program. It's a great feeling while you're teaching a program and all 285 kids are engaged and into it and laughing at my stupid jokes. And they didn't know this - but when I opened up the kit while they were filing in - some of my props were missing. I had to adapt the program accordingly but I must say experience comes in handy once in awhile!