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.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, June 20, 2011
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.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Overachiever
My husband says that he did not realize what an overachiever was until he married me. He is always trying to get me to slow down. My personal opinion is that I can do more but I am too lazy to actually do more. (My father used to say, "Good enough never is." I think that idea really stuck in my heart and soul.) Anyhow, I am now in the midst of overachievement. I volunteered to teach some teacher renewal classes on using certain technology in one's classroom. I planned on doing these classes in small groups after school. We have an upcoming inservice day, however, and the principal did not have any renewal classes planned. Hence, I am taking my small group ideas and making them into a big group idea (the principal's, not mine). Overachievement.
Over this weekend I have to write up the basic concept and plan so the superintendent can approve the renewal credits. I'll send my write-up to the principal, (God bless email!) who will make any changes he deems necessary before he sends it on to the superintendent. So much for this weekend. Next weekend I will be putting the finishing touches on my 2 1/2 hour lesson since the inservice day is Monday, Feb. 16, i.e. Presidents' Day. Do I have everything ready? No, but I will have the write-up done this morning and in the principal's email. I have been planning my lesson all week, but it will take this week to finish the plan prior to putting all the technology into action. Plus I'm still teaching 6 classes a day including grading, etc. Overachievement. No wonder my husband always tells me not to volunteer.
Over this weekend I have to write up the basic concept and plan so the superintendent can approve the renewal credits. I'll send my write-up to the principal, (God bless email!) who will make any changes he deems necessary before he sends it on to the superintendent. So much for this weekend. Next weekend I will be putting the finishing touches on my 2 1/2 hour lesson since the inservice day is Monday, Feb. 16, i.e. Presidents' Day. Do I have everything ready? No, but I will have the write-up done this morning and in the principal's email. I have been planning my lesson all week, but it will take this week to finish the plan prior to putting all the technology into action. Plus I'm still teaching 6 classes a day including grading, etc. Overachievement. No wonder my husband always tells me not to volunteer.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Snow Day!
I always liked snow days when I was a student. In my last year of college the governor even closed my school for a blizzard; that was the only time during my first degree stint in which I had a snow day. I guess it was fair since there were no snow days when I was a high school senior, the only year of my 1-12 schooling that I had no snow days to be off. Anyhow, today is an official snow day at my school, and that is the theme of today's blog.
Tom Batiuk put it right in his comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" when he had the teachers more enthused about a snow day than the students. Most teachers at my school really enjoy the occasional snow day -- the operant word being "occasional". Too many snow days makes education a difficult task because the students lose their focus. Back to the topic.
When I taught in the public schools, only teachers who had enough years in the public schools to have more "vacation" days than the school year allotted could stay home on snow days. Since I did not have those extra days, I had to risk my neck getting to the school at the normal start time. For those of you in private industry, like I was for 14 years, schools are unforgiving. If you're in private industry and know that you may have trouble getting to work, you call in and make adjustments. In the public school system, you basically cannot do that; you must be at the school at the usual start time -- when I was teaching in the public schools, my high schools started between 7:15 and 7:45 a.m. depending upon the system. It's a bit perilous driving into school when: (1) you are ahead of a lot of the snow plows in your area; and (2) there may not be anyone to open up the school for you (Yes, Virginia, most teachers do not have keys to their own places of work.). Thank God, that in my non-public school the faculty do not have to come to the school on snow days. The principal believes that we are professional enough to do our work at home. Considering how much of our work is on the internet, it's much easier to do schoolwork at home. (In fact, I have suggested that we have school on the internet on snow days when there are a lot of them. My suggestion has not been taken up as of yet.)
When I moved from the Pittsburgh area to the Southeast, I thought that people holed up when it snowed because they simply did not have enough experience driving in the snow. That's a little true (I had never lived in an area before where people did not know what studded tires were.). What's really true, though, is the fact that most snow down here is wet. Cars slide on the wet snow because it gives no traction. Then, it gets really cold, and that wet snow becomes ice with no cold, dry snow in between. Ice storms are an occasional problem here, too, with the loss of electricity. Of course, we do get the cold, dry snow also, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Hence, on our presidential inauguration day, I will be sitting at home watching the inauguration while grading papers. I hope that my students will be watching the inauguration, also, but that's an iffy hope. We had the okay from the principal to have our classroom monitors tuned to the inauguration prior to this week, but I would have missed much of it because the monitor faces the students and not the teacher. My suggestion for the future: either make every presidential inauguration Tuesday a school "holiday" or have a special school function to take it in by all students and staff. Just an idea.
Tom Batiuk put it right in his comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" when he had the teachers more enthused about a snow day than the students. Most teachers at my school really enjoy the occasional snow day -- the operant word being "occasional". Too many snow days makes education a difficult task because the students lose their focus. Back to the topic.
When I taught in the public schools, only teachers who had enough years in the public schools to have more "vacation" days than the school year allotted could stay home on snow days. Since I did not have those extra days, I had to risk my neck getting to the school at the normal start time. For those of you in private industry, like I was for 14 years, schools are unforgiving. If you're in private industry and know that you may have trouble getting to work, you call in and make adjustments. In the public school system, you basically cannot do that; you must be at the school at the usual start time -- when I was teaching in the public schools, my high schools started between 7:15 and 7:45 a.m. depending upon the system. It's a bit perilous driving into school when: (1) you are ahead of a lot of the snow plows in your area; and (2) there may not be anyone to open up the school for you (Yes, Virginia, most teachers do not have keys to their own places of work.). Thank God, that in my non-public school the faculty do not have to come to the school on snow days. The principal believes that we are professional enough to do our work at home. Considering how much of our work is on the internet, it's much easier to do schoolwork at home. (In fact, I have suggested that we have school on the internet on snow days when there are a lot of them. My suggestion has not been taken up as of yet.)
When I moved from the Pittsburgh area to the Southeast, I thought that people holed up when it snowed because they simply did not have enough experience driving in the snow. That's a little true (I had never lived in an area before where people did not know what studded tires were.). What's really true, though, is the fact that most snow down here is wet. Cars slide on the wet snow because it gives no traction. Then, it gets really cold, and that wet snow becomes ice with no cold, dry snow in between. Ice storms are an occasional problem here, too, with the loss of electricity. Of course, we do get the cold, dry snow also, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Hence, on our presidential inauguration day, I will be sitting at home watching the inauguration while grading papers. I hope that my students will be watching the inauguration, also, but that's an iffy hope. We had the okay from the principal to have our classroom monitors tuned to the inauguration prior to this week, but I would have missed much of it because the monitor faces the students and not the teacher. My suggestion for the future: either make every presidential inauguration Tuesday a school "holiday" or have a special school function to take it in by all students and staff. Just an idea.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Boredom attacks!
I just finished giving the first semester exams this past Friday, so I've been very busy. However, I did notice something about myself when I was doing the exam review for my 3 functions and modeling classes: I discovered that I was bored. I make my math exam reviews as animated PowerPoint slide shows and tweak them from one year to the next; hence, there was nothing new in them for me. Plus the said 3 classes I teach in a row (periods 2, 3, and 4 to be precise), so I guess that going over the same stuff in the same way 3 times in a row just bored me silly. I am thinking this over because I realized that I've probably been unconsciously bored all along. It's definitely time to put some spice into my teaching!
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