Dream Big: A True Story of Courage and Determination- Dave McGillivray's Marathon Story

Dave McGillivray is and endurance sports icon throughout New England. Currently he is best known for being the race director of the Boston Marathon. There is more to his story, however. In 1978, I first heard about Dave during his 3000 mile run across the United States for the Jimmy Fund Charity that finished in Fenway Park before a Red Sox game. In 1983 he introduced Ironman triathlons to athletes in New England and put on the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon. I was one of the athletes who dreamed to take on this new challenge and pioneered the sport of triathlon in New England. If you look at Dave being interviewed right before the race begins in this video of the race, you will see a real skinny guy standing next to him. That is me! Dave became a tremendous race director which eventually led to him becoming the race director of the world famous Boston Marathon.



Dave has told his story many times and you can read about the many challenges he has overcome in his book The Last Pick: The Boston Marathon's Race Director's Road to Success. When Dave titles his book "The Last Pick" he is referencing a most difficult part of his childhood.  You see, Dave was a great athlete who dreamed of being a professional athlete some day, however he had one problem, he was too small. He was always the last pick for pickup games at recess and coaches didn't want such a small player on his team.

Dave tells this story for children in his new book Dream Big: A True Story of Courage and Determination. He tells about his dream to be a professional athlete and his dismay at being too short to play on teams. He eventually decides to try running and finds out that he is good at it. His grandfather encourages him in his endeavors, but dies before ever seeing Dave finish the Boston Marathon. Dave started a streak of running Boston for many years before becoming its race director. He couldn't run the race once he was in charge of everything about it, so he decided to run the race later at night after all the runners were finished and his race directing duties were over. He calls it the Midnight Run. He continues with this streak every year till this day. I know, I ran it with him in the year 2000, when my school district would not let me take a personal day to run the marathon which I had qualified for. You can see us finish in this news video.

Dave just finished with his race directing duties for the 2000 Boston Marathon
 and I just finished a full day of teaching as we shook hands before starting out
on the Boston Marathon Midnight Run.

Dave's new book is a picture book for kids and I wasn't sure how if would go over with my fifth graders this year when I decided to read it to them. They did not know my history with Dave McGillivray either, but they did know about the marathon and one of my many boy's fathers  had run the race in the past (last year I had 14 boys and 5 girls in my class). When I started reading the first page and Dave wrote, "I dreamed of being an athlete, a professional athlete. I'd shoot hoops for the Celtics, play second base for the Red Sox and score touchdowns for the Patriots," the boys in my class started shouting out, "That's me...that's what I want to do!" I knew right away they were thoroughly hooked on the story. They enjoyed hearing about Dave's determination and his love for his grandfather and the fact that he is buried at a spot near the 21 mile mark of the race. When Dave passes the spot each year, he smiles and gives a wave to his grandfather. At that point, I tell them I know this is true,because that is exactly what he did when I ran the Midnight Run with him! My kids were even more excited to hear that I knew Dave and had run with him.

This was a great book to read to my fifth graders as it talks about following your passion, doing the hard work, and having the determination to reach your goals. My students felt that Dave was once a child like them that faces problems that they can't fully control, but he turned into a hero, by finding his own way to fulfill his dreams.

I recently produced a 20 card Boom Learning  review activity for this story. Teachers can use these to monitor the understanding of students who read the book. Students enjoy using the Boom Cards to practice their reading comprehension. You can find them here:  
Dream Big: A True Story of Courage and Determination no prep Digital BOOM CARDS.

Here is more information on Dave's other achievements.

One thing that I appreciated about this book is the call to action at the end. Young readers are encouraged to pursue their own "Dream Big" Marathon. They can run 26 miles in smaller workouts, read 26 books, or produce 26 acts of kindness. Here is the website for the challenge. Children who complete all three challenges can even get a medal from Dave.

Boom Learning Cards: Teaching Grade 5 Eureka Engage NY Math Unit 1

I have had a lot of fun creating digital Boom Learning cards for my fifth grade students to supplement the Eureka Engage NY math Unit 1 program. Boom Cards have a great future for classroom learning as students can work on digital task cards on their browsers, whether on a phone, iPad, computer, or Chromebook. The Boom Cards are self-checking and students can repeat a deck repeatedly for more practice or to gain mastery. Each time a student plays, 20 Boom Cards are randomized from an assigned deck. Students get instant feedback as they play. Teachers can check the student responses for each play unless they are playing FastPlay in which students can just practice without scoring.

I created 15 different Boom Card decks to go along with Eurekak Math Unit one. They can be practiced at anytime throughout the year to reinforce skills. Each of the decks relate to the concept of place value in some way. These are problems similar to the problems in Eureka Math, but they are not limited to it. They can be used with any math program studying place value. My students showed greatly improved mastery of concepts after working with these Boom Cards.

To make the Boom Decks fun. Each deck is centered on capturing a monster. There is a random card that pops up in each deck identifying the monster, but I have included printable reward cards for each monster. I give my students the reward card after they have answered all 20 questions correctly (teachers can check on the Boom Learning website. This provide motivation to master a deck. My fifth graders love collecting the cards and coloring them in. Some have set up books to in order to collect and organize them.  Others even make their own monster cards.

You can purchase each deck separately or you can purchase the whole bundle of 15 Boom Card decks at a greatly reduced cost.

I am giving away one deck  on Metric Conversions for free. You can try out this deck as well as play a short preview of each deck by clicking on the Teacher Pay Teachers preview for each of the decks.

Here are the TPT links to the 15 Individual Products in this bundle. Each link has a product preview.

Multiplying Decimals by 10, 100, and 1000

Dividing Decimals by 10, 100, and 1000

Using Exponential Form and Standard Form

Metric System Conversions (gram, kilgrams, meters, and centimeters

FREE Metric System Conversions (meters, centimeters, and millimeters 

Metric System Conversions:

Writing Decimals in Standard Form

Comparing Decimals and Place Value

Arrange Decimals in Order.

Adding Decimals

Subtracting Decimals.

Adding and Subtracting Decimals

Multiplying Decimals

Dividing Decimals

Rounding Decimals

Here is the complete bundle at a greatly reduced price

Check out all the different reward cards!

Boom Cards play on modern browsers (released in the last three years) on interactive whiteboards, computers and tablets. Boom Cards apps are also available. Not sure your browser is modern enough? Try a free Boom Cards deck first. When you redeem your purchase, Boom Learning opens an account for you if you do not already have one. For TPT customers new to Boom Cards, Boom Learning will give you, for one year, a free account that lets you track student progress for up to 80 students. At the end of that year, you may renew or choose not to renew. If you do not renew, you will be able to continue using Boom Cards with the Fast Play feature. Fast Play does not track individual progress.