Are You Throwing Away Your Time?

Similarly, we are afraid some Mileage Club coordinators are making Mileage Club too difficult on themselves.  Our instant, drive-up society has pushed many coordinators into thinking they have to provide a daily counting of laps and mileage.  Counting, recording and entering each lap for each child each day is similar to my car illustration.   It’s just not necessary.

 
My students use the card system.  Each Mileage Club Card is worth 5 miles.  Each day at Mileage Club I am greeted by students showing me their cards, telling me the number of laps they completed that day and the total number of miles they have walked.  They know how they are doing.  We’ve done that and learned that it just takes too much time.  It makes the tally process much more cumbersome than it need be.  To keep kids moving we use two punchers/markers.  The kids keep their Cards in card files in the class room.  When a Card is completed they receive a Toe Token and drop their Card in a box.

I only deal Cards when they are completed.  I love it.  My time spent tallying Cards is minimal.  Awards other than Toe Tokens are provided once a week.   The kids are fine with that.  (Delayed gratification is okay.  Anticipation often makes the award sweeter.)  The youngest kids may not know exactly to the quarter mile where they stand every day, but they have a good idea, and they are okay with that.

Are you spending your time tallying miles?  I’d rather spend my time walking with my kids.

*I really do not fill my gas tank each day.  This was just an illustration.  I hope you got the point.