Weston teacher biking across country as lesson to students
Friday, June 12th, 2009A Weston middle school teacher is biking from California back east, sending dispatches from historic sites and showing his students that careful planning pays off.
But unlike the early settlers, he doesn’t have to wait for the Pony Express to send word home about his discoveries.
Giraldo, who expects to be ”somewhere in the Great Plains” when he turns 46 later this month, is equipped with gadgets like a Global Positioning System transmitter, a panoramic camera and a solar panel to charge his gear.
The former businessman who transitioned to teaching in 2004, said he wants to show his students the value of setting big goals and preparing to meet them.
”As a teacher, it is invaluable, the fact that I can tell a student this is something really enormous,” he said. “It can be done. Let me show you. Let me do it. And take that and incorporate it into your lives.”
Giraldo, who teaches eighth-grade U.S. history, flew to San Francisco on June 5 with his bike and started the journey the next day at the Golden Gate Bridge. His path will take him over part of the old Pony Express trail, through part of the Oregon Trail, to St. Louis, and eventually to Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement.
He’ll hit St. Augustine on the way back south and then return to Weston by, he hopes, Aug. 16. His plan is to travel between 70 and 75 miles a day.
Followers can track the progress of his 5,000-mile, 70-day trip on his website, www.tourofdiscovery.com, and check out photos, which he is loading daily. Already, he has posted photos of local sights, wildlife, signs that warn of a ”rough road,” bike trails, himself in his biking gear and the trike parked next to horses, taco trucks and other larger vehicles.
He will also post blog items on the site each week and has a Facebook group dedicated to the trip.