The King Effect

In 1975, while I was a college student, a friend named King brought a color TV to our house to try it out on our outdoor antenna.  (Yes, there was a time when most people had black-and-white TVs because color TVs were too expensive.  It was rather like the HD and 3-D TV situation now.)  After spending an afternoon watching color TV in our living room, my husband and I went out and bought our first color TV the next weekend.

It is 36 years since then.  When we were camping in West Virginia over the past 2 weeks, we visited our friend King, his wife, and daughter at their home.  They had an air conditioning unit that we liked.  Well, the "King effect" happened again.  Upon returning home to 95+ degrees Fahrenheit with very high humidity, we went out and bought an AC unit similar to the one that King and his family had.  My made-up excuse: my husband being 68 deserved air conditioning at home before he got older.

What makes it being cheap?

One of my brothers said that my husband and I are cheap because we camp so much when we travel.  That's an interesting opinion from someone who prefers to ride a motorcycle instead of a car.  Who is the cheap person here and what makes that person's actions "cheap"? 

Sometimes when my preference of camping causes problems for my brother's plans (in this case carrying something big to store in our house ... along with all my mother's other stuff), he will try to spin his words to make us look bad.  Most of the people I know, myself included, will do this at one time or another.

When it comes to my brother's love of motorcycling and our lack of interest in same, he doesn't think he's being cheap but efficient.  This is the other side of the concept presented above: spinning one's words to make ourselves look good.  Again, most people I know, myself included, do it at one time or another.

So do we actually camp out to save money?  Sometimes yes, but the fact is that we really like camping.  We find hotel/motel rooms and hallways, etc. to be very claustrophobic in nature.  When we camp, we have privacy (no maids, etc.), we have lots of space to set our stuff out, and we can enjoy our day at our speed.  We don't have to follow a hotel schedule about housekeeping and breakfast, etc. hours.  There's no television to distract us.  The neighbors can be friendly or we just ignore them.  The only bad part is the fact that we find ourselves in various stores, cafes, etc. in order to use the internet.  I am too cheap to buy a broadband card.

Working on the house

I've been preparing my kitchen in anticipation of scraping the ceiling.  We plan on putting up a tin or fake-tin ceiling this summer.  I will finish taking down everything on the cabinet tops today, my husband will wash clothes this evening, and I will cover the lower cabinets and appliances tomorrow and start scraping.  My father would probably tell me that I take too long to do these things.  I think he would be right, but I like to do quiet things in the heat and humidity of the afternoon.

My younger brother, however, seems to think I do a lot in the summer.  He skyped me yesterday and made a comment about how busy I am when school's out (I don't remember his exact words, just the gist of what I got from them.).  I do know that I hate doing the work, but I love the results, so I do it.  Plus summer can be a waste if one does nothing useful.  Besides, it's either do physical labor or exercise by walking down the greenway.  Right now the physical labor is winning.  Going up and down the step ladder for a couple of hours each day is great for my leg muscles.

I'm also trying to finish my Moodle site for the first quarter of a math class.  I know that I will either have a study hall or a different math subject this fall, and I want to be ready in case the latter happens.  I also need to do the same for both my Intro CS class and my Honors CS class.  One thing I learned this past year is that I need to insure that my CS students cannot find the answers to their problems on the internet.  For some reason, they don't think they're cheating when they do that.

Opportunity knocks!

My son and I went to the school yesterday morning so that I could have an accounts payable "bill" signed and faxed to our host's office.  It should have taken all of 5 minutes, but it took closer to an hour.  The business manager was on the phone, so we had to wait.  A teacher borrowed my son to help him with computer hardware problems in his classroom while waiting.  I taught a new teacher the basics of using his homework website.  Then I got the paper signed and faxed.  Son was still working in the one classroom, so I spent some time talking with a graduate I taught a few years back.  Son was still working, so I spoke with a teacher about setting him up with a Moodle account for testing purposes.  Son finally returned, but he had not been able to fix the problem.  Funny thing is that the school pays for 2 full time tech people, one being my son's boss who was out yesterday, but the faculty call on my son whenever they have a problem and he's at the school because they have had no success with getting help from the other tech person.

Meantime, I finally took my serger sewing machine to a repair shop.  It's been broken but usable for more than 10 years, but I was always leery of leaving it with anyone to fix it.  The last time I left a sewing machine to be repaired (in another state), it really wasn't, so "once bit, twice shy" am I.  I hope these people do a good job because I need a reliable repair place for my other sewing machine ... the one that has the problem that was never fixed. 

In regards to both the one tech person at the school and the repair shop that never repaired my machine, I wish people would understand that life is far more than earning money.  One's life has to have meaning as in doing the best one can do for others, like fixing machines or solving computer problems.  Perhaps it's my religious view, but I believe that we all need to help each other whenever possible and appropriate.  No one was ever put on this earth "to make money", no matter how much he/she wants to believe that.

If I'm not being paid for the summer, why am I still working?

Frankly, I cringe when people talk about teachers having "summer vacation".  It's not true.  Teachers are 10 month employees who are not paid for the other 2 months of the year.  Vacation is paid time off, so teachers do not have summer vacation.  They have unpaid time off.

I note this because I am still working on school stuff.  I am currently creating new websites for new faculty as they get hired.  Today I go back to the school to arrange payment for the host company of our teachers' homework sites.  Of course, I am still working on lesson plans for the fall, but I know I'd do that anyhow.  I think my father did a very good job of instilling in me the need to do everything as well as I can.  Hmm.  Is that a good thing or not?  Time to think on it.

Early Summer Thoughts

It's been more than 2 years since I last posted. I was surprised to find that my blog was still available; I take that as a good sign. This summer is different from the past 2 summers. My family moved my mother to a nursing home near me, and I spent the past 2 years seeing her at least twice a week. She died mid-January this year, and now I have a summer with more time to work on my personal interests than I have had in 3 years. One would think I could come up with lots to do, but I haven't.

I've had 2 summers of having to find time for myself and my interests and other things like working on our house. Visiting my mother on a regular basis and planning things for her gave me structure to my life whenever school was out. The same was true for whenever school was in session, but my school work took precedence in structure -- I just made sure that I had 2 times set aside each week to spend with my mother during the school year.

New Year's Resolutions

I remember (even if it's a false memory) my mother saying that what one did on New Year's Day, one would do all year, so I try very hard to do things each January 1 that I want to do throughout the year. That's really how I deal with my resolutions. School resolutions I make every summer based upon what worked and what didn't work during the prior school year. So what am I doing today?

1) I am back to exercising. I got out of the habit in late October when I had a cold. Illness does that to me. I kept on trying to start up again, but lethargy is so much easier. I actually started working out on weekends and continued during Christmas break, but my lack of practice/exercise definitely showed up. Hence, I already exercised today. By the way, for those couch potatoes and teachers who already have no time to exercise, let me tell you a secret: exercise is one of the best panaceas around. I sleep better, I have more energy to do any and all work including grading papers (my anathema), I do everything faster, and I do not have as much trouble with depression over time. Better than any pill available. Teachers, find the time to exercise, and you will have more time available for everything else!

2) Talking about procrastination, I will get those projects graded today! I plan to be teaching all year, so I need to do some teaching activities today. I also have a few quizzes and tests to grade plus the always-popular make up work.

3) There are other things I'll be doing, but they are the home things involving my husband and my adult son, so I will not include them here.

Happy New Year!

Breaktime chores

I am about to write 2 recommendations for students that must be postmarked before January 1, 2009. I would say that I'm procrastinating, but recommendations require some serious thinking, at least for me, since I want to be honest and positive at the same time. In these 2 students' cases it's not a problem because they are good students who do well in their work. One I've had for 2 years, the other I've only had for this year. The latter asked me for a recommendation mainly because he is applying to my alma mater, and he thought it wouldn't hurt to get one from an alumna. I agree, especially since I've worked to get any student to look at my alma mater over my years of teaching, and he's the first one I hooked. It helps that about half of his family also went to the same university, but I like to think that I am such a good influence that he was drawn to that school. Now, if I can only convince the admissions people that he's a keeper.

After that I get to start grading projects that were due on the last day before Christmas break. I'm glad that I have such specific rubrics since they keep me honest and actually make it easy for me to grade them. I figure that will keep me busy for the remainder of this morning.

It all starts again tomorrow!

Today ends my summer vacation. I went to 2 office supply teacher appreciation events yesterday and picked up some stuff for my classroom. While waiting in line for the first store to open another teacher and I were lamenting the end of freedom for another year. Then a teacher behind us said that she could not wait for school to start up again because her father died at the beginning of summer break which made it a bad time for her. Sometimes reality sucks.

I planned to go to the school on Friday, but I ended up donating blood instead. I had wanted to see if my room was finally put back together because I have not had access to my computer nor my bookshelves due to painting and working on the carpet. I still have so much to do to get ready. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything is in place when I return there tomorrow afternoon.

The faculty and staff must be at an OSHA training session in a building near my home tomorrow morning so I will not waste gas to go to the school until after lunch. Our principal has this thing about wearing "business casual" whenever we are at some inservice, etc. situation involving other schools, but I plan to wear jeans and a shirt because OSHA training sometimes requires CPR practice and the like. Besides, the principal has not put out his usual warning of his dress expectations. I've already checked my school email for the day, so he's out of luck if he thinks I'll check it again before tomorrow. "My mama never raised no fools!"

Last week of "freedom"

I have been busy getting ready for next week when the faculty and staff prepare for the students returning on August 25. Up north many schools do not start before Labor Day, but down here, people have trouble keeping the public schools from starting earlier, like early August which happened for a few years here. I guess that's why we have state legislatures, to insure that the public schools, which the private schools follow, have sane school calendars. Although it would be nice to be an 11-month employee rather than a 10-month employee, both public and private schools could not afford the increase in teacher pay. Reality check, folks.

My husband claims that I'm an overachiever, which may be true, but I need to have a sense of accomplishment and readiness when summer break is over. So, I finished the 2 items of clothing I made, I am hemming my new dress pants, and I am cleaning out my closet and drawers of no-longer-worn clothes to give to charity. Plus I was at the school yesterday to work on my classroom and train any new teachers available on their homework web pages. (One down, 5 or so to go.)

This year will be better, though, since I dropped the department chairmanship. I still don't know if the principal convinced anyone into the slot, but it's not my problem anymore. I just need to work on my teaching, the school's instructional technology, and the junior class (I'm their moderator ... and why are we called "moderators" rather than "sponsors" in our school?). I may actually be able to work on decreasing my weight and my cholesterol this year! That would definitely make my doctor happy.

Updating

I found myself with a cooler day and a desire to update my profile. It started out with explaining where I got the name "the Yoda of Math" and went on from there. I will admit that it was a little cheap of me to use a picture of me walking through the woods from the back, but I was tired of not having a picture and I liked that one.

I am currently involved in one problem with not having air conditioning. Not only is it hard to deal with the 95+ degrees Fahrenheit, but mosquitoes will find a way into the house. My husband doesn't care because they do not like him, but they see me and think "dinner time, ladies!". We really don't have that much space for them to get in, but it is enough to add irritation to my life. I guess one must always have something about which to complain. Now, back to my sewing!

Sewing Days

We may be close to "dog days", but I call them sewing days for me. We have no air conditioning in our house, so when the heat goes over 94 degrees Fahrenheit, one can only do so much and that much cannot involve a lot of movement. Hence, I get the urge to sew.

I got my muslin out and ironed it last night in front of a large fan. It's hanging on the banister waiting to be pinned and cut out. I found my favorite shirt pattern, so now I'm ready to take both to the dining table and begin. I'll probably get to it tonight with fans going strong. I also found the muslin dress I made as a try-on for my daughter's wedding gown (I made said gown, too.) 3 years ago. I tore the seams out, and I'm now using it to patch the back of our favorite comforter. "Wash it, fix it, wear it out. Make it last or do without." Those WW II people knew of which they were speaking.

Successful Thursday, lazy Friday

In the afternoon on Thursday, I replaced the screen on the fire escape screen door. Getting the trim off was not as hard as my husband expected; the fact that I did it and not he contributed to his opinion, of course. As I expected there was no spline keeping the original screen in place, so I felt confident that I didn't need any either. It took a while to get all the nails and brads out. Then my husband helped me start to put up the new screening, minus spline as explained above. While I was standing on the ladder, I found that I could easily touch the overhang on the eaves, so I measured it: the overhang on our eaves is just a tad over 25 inches. No wonder gutter people shudder when they look at our house.

Back to the screening ... I used a marking roller from my sewing supplies to push the screening into what grooves there were. There were not grooves across all of the wood. Did I mention that this was an old wooden screen door? I stapled gunned the heck out of it. That screen ain't going nowhere anytime soon. I trimmed the excess with one of my new utility knives. Lastly, for me, I replaced the trim; I think my dad would probably have gotten new trim, but I'm not that perfect in my home rehabbing skills ... yet. My husband painted over the trim after dark. I think everyone should paint after dark, it's so hard to tell how the new paint makes you realize that the whole door needs painted. It is nice, though. My sewing room is getting a friendlier, homier feeling as I continue to fix it up, and this just adds to the charm. Now, I need to work on making the fire escape landing look and feel like a balcony. Hmm. Next summer.

I did finish making my jumper that night by sewing the hem. One new jumper for the fall. Next to make is a tailored shirt. I can never have too many of them.

Summer Preparation

What is it about teachers that we spend part of our unpaid summer "vacation" preparing for the next school year? I understand that I am teaching a new-to-me subject, so I need to do some serious prep work, but I ran into the Latin teacher today when I dropped in at the high school, and she was creating new tests, worksheets, etc. for new textbooks. I sometimes wonder why we don't just require that we will never teach new subjects nor use new textbooks in our situations; it would certainly make the summer freer for us. Oh, well. I just need to keep in mind that time spent well now means more free time outside of school in the next year.

I've been finishing up my jumper, but I ended up doing more hand stitching than the pattern suggests. I find that as I get older, I want things done better. Maybe my father was right: "Good enough never is."

Teacher Time Saved

On Friday I had my annual physical. I make sure that I get physicals, medical tests, etc. taken care of in the summer because it is such a hassle taking time off school as far as using a substitute goes. Since I teach math, there are very few substitutes I can get who can actually teach a lesson, so I have to create generic lesson plans that usually involve a lot of worksheets. I find that to be such a waste of teachable time. So much for the idea of teachers being out whenever they feel like it. Maybe I should have taken on history or some such subject. ;-)

I've been catching up on newspapers; I'm currently in the middle of March. I find it so amusing that politicians and others put the onus of students' learning on the teachers exclusively. It's like putting the dental health of patients entirely on the dentists' shoulders and ditto for doctors. As long as we have a cultural view that it is okay for students to do badly in science and math, we will never have major success in those areas across the board. Of course, we do have a president who takes pride in being a "C" student. That man shows me just what value a Harvard MBA does not have. End of sermon. I have some sewing to do.

Cheap Traveling

I have been out for about 2 weeks because my husband and I were camping up north while visiting my mother, other relatives, and some friends. We camp because we like it, but it doesn't hurt that it is cheap, especially since my husband gets the senior citizen discount of 10% off the cost. Actually, the hard work of camping is setting up and taking down our campsite. The rest of the time is pretty easy, and we can slow down so quickly.

No television? No problem. I read Truth plus jokes by Al Franken, 2006, and Rome Wasn't Burnt in One Day by Joe Scarborough, 2004. I find it interesting to see what others say about our political history when it is still rather recent. Aside: Franken's book was not as good as his book Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I also read a few of Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer mysteries. In the way of e-books, since we have a tent ... on the ground ... with air mattresses and sleeping bags, I read Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Boroughs, Othello by William Shakespeare, and I started The Republic by Plato. It's much easier to read an e-book in a tent than reading a bound book by flashlight. I did not take any school stuff with me because I know that I will never touch it and that it will wear on my brain.

While we were visiting my mother, I worked on the tablecloth that I am embroidering for my daughter and son-in-law. Note to self: never again agree to embroider anything with so many satin stitches in it. It looks more beautiful as I finish each section, but it takes hours to do! Being a person who needs to move while talking, etc., I find knitting, stitching, working crosswords, etc. helps me center on the conversation. Okay. I do not listen so well when I work crosswords, but the rest is true. I wonder if I would have been labelled ADD when I was a student if I were in school now.