Fire Safety For Everyone

This is by far the BEST site I have ever seen for teaching children not only fire safety but home safety that everyone should be aware of. My favorite arcade game is Sparkyville! I was able to pass, can you?
http://www.sparky.org/


Fire Safety.gov is another great site that will help kids to learn about fire safety in a fun and exciting way. This link is U.S. Fire Administration for Kids.
http://www.firesafety.gov/kids/flash.shtm

Who can forget good old Smokey Bear. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. Not only does this site have campfire games, but it also teaches about safety in the forests.
http://www.smokeybear.com/kids/default.asp


Now for some sites for older people. The National Fire Protection Assosiation (NFPA), is a great site to find safety tips for adults as well as kids. If you are careful you might even find Sparky the fire dog.
http://www.nfpa.org/index.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1

Teaching Future Firefighters

Being a librarian is fun, but the adrenalin rushes are far and few between. Sure who wouldn’t freak out if the server crashes and all of your MARC records are lost, forever? Today I am posting about a bigger rush, firefighting! Any of you who know me know that my wife and I are members of the Livingston-Clifton Fire Department. Beyond that I also help instruct Entry Level Firefighters (ELFF’s) through South West Technical College. ELFF classes are the first two classes needed to join departments in the area.
The picture above is one of the last classes I helped with. (Click on the picture for a larger view)

The day started at 7a.m. The first thing we did was to smoke the house with burning hay in a big barrel. That provided limited visibility for the search and rescue that all the students had to perform.

Now when I say that the students had to rescue, I don’t mean they had to pull a fifty pound dummy out of the house. Most of the students were required to pull an instructor out of the house. Now I am one of the smaller instructors and weigh about $2.25 with out an extra 100lbs of gear, and when the students tried to pull me out, I would try to stay in the house. I figure if it happens in real life, why shouldn’t it happen in training.

After lunch we start the live fire training. We set up small piles of wood, (cribs as they are called in the fire service) in a dozen different locations in the house. We then light one and have a group of students come in and watch it build, then put it out before it gets too hot.

One of the last things we do before we let the house burn down is to let any student’s interested watch a rollover. A rollover is when the gasses at the top of the room combust and a line of fire rolls across the room. A video of a roll over can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6Jyh37V-w
Just remember that the flame you see rolling across the screen are only about 2-3 feet above the firefighters heads.

I welcome any and all comments, questions and concerns.

Special thanks to www.hamptonsfire.blogspot.com for the use of the Youtube video.

Useful Elementary Computer Links

In the Elementary classes that I teach on the computers we use several different web pages that I find useful. Here is a list of those pages and a brief description for each.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/
Yes it is British, but is has many fun and colorful educational games.

http://www.funbrain.com/
This site has games for grades 1st-5th. Math and Reading are the emphasis.

http://funschool.kaboose.com/
Many different games that are educational, but don’t tell the children that.

http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/games.html
Shockwave games that help Kindergarteners and 1st graders work on basic skills.

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/
This is a great resource to find elementary computer games for almost any subject.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/
Yes another British site, but this is a free online typing program that the children really enjoy.

http://www.primarygames.com/
OK so there might not be a lot of educational reasons for this site, but the games are safe for any child to play, and you do not have to worry about questionable pop-ups.
If you have links that you find helpful let me know, I am always looking for fun and educational sites for elementary students to explore.

Who am I?

In a simple answer I am Zack.

To elaborate on that I am the husband of Sarah, the mower of many lawns, the captain of Truck 5 for the Livingston Clifton Fire Department, and the District Librarian for the Mineral Point Unified School District.

I elaborate even further; I have been married to my wife for almost seven years. We were married on October 14th, 2000. We met in high school and realized that we were right for each other. Not that we didn’t try to get away from each other once or twice, but after a few breakups we got engaged then married, and have been happy ever since.

About the lawn mowing, during summer I mow lawns to keep busy and help out my grandmother and her older neighbor, plus a few other people who are on the way. I started mowing my Grandma’s lawn when my grandfather couldn’t do it anymore. I was going to college in Platteville and would stop over and mow it either between classes or after work in the summer. When one of my
Grandma’s neighbors passed, I started mowing that lawn as well. I have also mow four other lawns beside during the summer. I enjoy the work it is a great time to listen to books on my MP3 player, or to let my mind wander.

I have been fighting fires since I graduated High school. I first joined the Rewey fire department, and volunteered with them from 1997-2003. Sarah joined the department after we got married. (She said if she was going to be woken up at 2 a.m. and not be able to get back to sleep, she might as well be helping.) Sarah and I then bought a house in Livingston so we transferred our membership from Rewey to the Livingston-Clifton Fire Department. We enjoy the “family” feeling that the fire department provides, and the jokes or pranks around the firehouse that most of us get involved with on a monthly basis.

Finally the job that pays the bills, I am the District Librarian for the Mineral Point Unified School District. I was offered the position in September of 2006. I am currently taking classes to get my initial license, and will then work on my masters. I have two assistants that I would be lost without, since they have been in the district libraries for a combined total of 41 years. Along with running the libraries I also get the opportunity to teach the Elementary Computer Classes. In the computer lab we work on everything from mouse skills with the Kindergarteners to making animated ABC books with the 5th graders.

I thank you for visiting and hope that you find this site useful.