Today is March 3rd, and parts of the eastern United States are in single digits and covered with snow, so there is still time to use this profile!
This profile accompanies the article Educating Your Students, Part 4: Using Storytelling and Non-Cycling Examples in Your Profiles. It’s called “Storm-Stayed,” which is an adjective unique to maritime provinces and Ontario in Canada. It essentially means snowbound. It’s a classic storytelling profile, Christine’s expertise, that we have experienced in her Olympic Dreams and Hounds of Halloween profiles.
This one draws on the physical demands of some snow- and ice-related activities to create a coherent story that contains embedded references to cycling-related form and effort. In other words, Christine uses non-cycling activities that they may already be familiar with to get students to identify with the similar types of effort required on a bike.
She asks her students to remember the joy they felt as children when they found out school was cancelled for the day. She then takes you through a series of activities, including shoveling the snow, trudging uphill with a sled followed by flying downhill in control, then ice skating, playing hockey, a sleigh ride, walking on slippery ice, and walking home in deep snow.
The Challenge!
As Christine and I discuss in the audio, it may be that some of the snow and ice references are unfamiliar to you and to your students depending on where you live. The point of the accompanying article and this profile is to inspire you to be creative and come up with your own stories, or simply references to other activities that your students will recognize. In fact, we challenge you to do so and send in your profile to ICA! As Christine says, it would be especially interesting if someone can come up with references found in sunny, warm places on a beach. Who is up for the challenge?
By the way, ICA member Renee Shapurji shared an article on Christine’s Olympic Dreams profile page from the Wall Street Journal called The Dutch Key to Skating is Getting on a Bike. It’s the perfect addition to your explanation to your students in either of these profiles!
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