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Show Page 10 OREM TIMES Thursday, December 4, 2008 NEWS AND IDEAS FROM CLASSROOMS AND EDUCATORS Orem Bern. School 10-year-old a fleet-footed phenom i i &&r.,., 4;Xri4-fc . - MARIO RUIZDaily Herald 10-year-old Brandon Hoffmann runs Zaps around the play area at Orem Elementary to make 10 miles by the end of Monday. Michael Rigert MCTH CO-iT SWF At least twice a day, a lanky 10-year-old Orem boy in a red soccer jersey and green shorts runs dozeas and dozens of quarter-mile laps around his classmates during lunch or recess on the playing field at Orem Elementary School. And though his friends aren't yet chanting. "Run, Brandon, Run," they might as well be. Fifth-grade teacher Lynn Walker said her student, Brandon Bran-don I loffmann, recorded 852 quarter-mile laps in October, or 213 miles. In a holiday- and field-trip shortened November, he still managed 4)1 laps, or just under 12.1 miles. Rain or shine, snow or sweltering swel-tering temperatures, Hoffman runs during lunch hour, recess and often, even before school starts, she said. "He's always running. It's incredible," in-credible," she said. "He's never winded." Hoffmann, the second youngest of four boys of John and Lynn Hoffman, said he got motivated to run when Walker challenged her class to be the tops from week-to-week during Orem Elementary's participation in the Gold Medal Schools program. Students track their running or walking walk-ing and report it daily to their teacher. But before this fall, he'd never nev-er really run that much. "I just felt like running one day," he said. He estimates he's tallied 500 to 700 miles since September, and averages 10 to 12 miles each day at school. His goal for the year is to run the coast- to-coast distance from San Francisco to New York City, or roughly 3,000 miles. At his fastest, he's logged 6.25 miles in one stint, or between be-tween 45 seconds and 1 minute per lap. "I just wanted (my class) to win this year and wanted to get in shape," Hoffmann said. "My goal is to one day be an Olympic athlete." During last month's Family Fun Run at the school for the Make A Wish Foundation of Utah, he clocked a 2020 minute 5k race, besting many adults who participated, said Orem Elementary teacher-on-special-assignment Jon Mohlman, who taught Hoffmann last year. "He ran a 5k in sub-seven minute miles," he said. Yet Mohlman, who watched as Hoffmann grew taller and thinner over the past year, isn't at all surprised by his former student's achievements in running. The boy regularly scored straight As in class, and when Mohlman dared his class to outdo him in solving timed multiplication tables last year, Hoffman quietly said he could do it. One month later he topped his teacher. "He gets challenged to do something and he wants to do it," Mohlman said. "A lot of kids talk about goals but he does them. He can see the bigger big-ger picture." Mohlman said the' entire school was inspired last year when their principal, Brad Da-vies, Da-vies, embarked on a personal life-changing running regimen and lost more than 100 pounds in the process. Even teachers are getting into the school's fitnesc kick and several walk or run laps before school or during their lunch break, he said. Classes at Orem Elementary compete against one another to accumulate the highest amount of lap totals each week. For bragging rights, the top three classes get the honor of having a pair running shoes spray painted gold, silver or bronze on display in their classroom. For the first couple of months, Walker said, everyone in her class attempted to outrun out-run Hoffman but soon gave up. "Now second is the new first place," she said. "Nobody has the stick-to-it-ness. His goal is to be in the Olympics. I told him he had to send me tickets." More importantly, Walker said, her students, both boys and girls, have looked to Hoffmann Hoff-mann as a leader and example. "He's so fun and they love him," she said. "He's like the Pied Piper of the school. He's going to do great things." bruin Tiana Cole Breaks from school can be both wonderful and terrible at the same time. It reminds me of a snare in the sense that yes, you do get a few days off from school, but that doesn't necessarily mean you get a "break" from school. Somehow, teachers manage man-age to slip a week's worth of homework into our backpacks before we leave for the long weekend. I certainly found a load of homework waiting for me when I opened my backpack after returning from California. Cali-fornia. With the week gone, however, the question for me then was when would I get it all done? Such is the danger for a procrastinator with a longer than normal weekend. With Thanksgiving come and gone, the focus is now on the winter holiday season. Some of us are still working through our leftover-turkey sandwiches. Already there are Christmas trees and lights going go-ing up in our neighborhoods. Maybe my family is just slow, but we typically don't get around to putting our tree and decorations up until a week or two before Christmas. Sometimes, Some-times, we don't even bother to take down our lights at all; they've been seen gracing our rain gutter in mid-July. The winter break is just around the corner, less than three short weeks away. But within that amount of time, the number of activities and assignments as-signments that are expected to be attended and completed is insane. I would say that this is the busiest time of the year, but it seems as though life just gets busier with every passing day. Still, there are rehearsals and concerts and games and projects, all being crammed into these last few weeks before be-fore the end of the 2008 portion of the school year. With so much to do, you can count on some of the schoolwork being given in the form of homework home-work over the break, so plan ahead for it now. Think of it as our teachers' present to us. Happy break, indeed. A SPECIAL VISIT JJFX uil x --W -3ssi f V 1 1T - ,f't?,S V MARIO RUIZDaily Herald Colonial pilgrim Edward Winslow traveled to Orem Elementary from 1627 to spend a day teaching students about the early days of the Plymouth Colonies. Winslow, who was so deep in his character that he would not disclose his modern-day name, was one of several characters from Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts visiting the Alpine School District as part of a project headed by Sara Hacken of Lakeridge Jr. High. WilcoxLaw PLLC Jason S.Wilcox General Business Law Commercial Law Real Estate Law Foreclosure Law Wills & Estates Contract Law Construction Law Trial and Appellate Civil Litigation Trust Experience Call For An Appointment 801.367.7955 jwilcoxwilcoxlawpllc.com v.: L t ) Need Some Extra. 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