The Ice Bucket goes gobal

“Feeeeeeeeeze.”

-        Mr. Freeze, Batman and Robin

Not being in America didn’t stop my Facebook newsfeed from blowing up with Ice Bucket Challenge videos. I think this movement is awesome- it definitely made me do some research on ALS and donate It’s amazing to see such a viral trend have such a positive effect I got nominated for it and decided to get a little creative with my video.

My plan was to create the video with my students teaching me about ALS and how to contribute. A lot of videos I watched didn’t really talk about what the disease does. My students didn’t know what it was either, so I thought teaching a lesson about it could hit two birds with one stone. It sort of worked. The crux of the lesson was this flow chart that read,“ALS-> No medicine -> donate money-> research-> make medicine -> No ALS. “

They were able to understand what ALS was and the need for research, which I was pretty impressed about. However, they couldn’t quite get the connection between finding a cure and dumping a bucket of ice water on your head. Cultural differences I guess.

I was able to shoot the video and the students were able to describe ALS fairly well. However, the student camerawork was SO BAD. It’s not really their fault, they probably don’t have a lot of experience taking video, but most of the time the camera would focus on random things while people were talking. Oh well, that part of the video didn’t make the final cut.

I ended up doing the rest of the challenge on the soccer field to loud applause by my students. People everywhere think getting soaked with ice water is funny.

What’s even more amazing is that the Ice Bucket Challenge is starting to go international. My co-workers from England and Australia had heard of people doing it before I did it in class. I was in the grocery store yesterday and saw a video montage of Thai people dumping buckets of ice water on their heads. Nice job internet.

The end of August has arrived, which means it’s fantasy football draft time. While this is best done among friends in a Buffalo Wild Wings, the 12-hour time difference has taken that off the table for me. Instead I’ve had at 6:00 AM wake-up before work, a draft during school hours (thanks ESPN Iphone app), and a brutal Sunday morning awakening at 4:00 AM. I’ve raised three trophies in the past and I’m hoping the sacrifice of sleep pays off.

So what else is new? With my time here quickly drawing to a close, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my year here and think I’ve picked up a few life lessons on the way. I’ve written a few reflections and might upload them as my last few posts. I don’t think I’m very good at deep and profound writing, but if that jackass from The Wolf of Wall Street can do it, I might give it shot.

Mark