Wednesday, November 25, 2009

How They're the Same

I've kind of been off the grid lately-save following a few conversations via Twitter- due to  the birth of my son.  Thanks again to everyone for all the well wishes.  Mommy and baby are doing great.  Sleep is a precious commodity but I am blessed to be able to take a few days off to enjoy the adjustment to our little one.  I always seem to compare my approach to teaching with my approach to parenting and vice versa.  Here's the top 10:

10.  The clientele will expose your bad habits. 

9.  You can read as many "how to" books as you want, but nothing prepares you for your first real life encounter.

8.  They like it when you act goofy.

7.  Sometimes you just have to wing it. 

6.  They get grumpy before lunch time.

5.  They get sleepy after lunch time.

4. You're gonna lose some sleep.

3. Working at one makes you better at the other.

2.  Balance is crucial.

1.  If it stinks, change it.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It Could Be Worse

Man, I am horrible right now.  No, not the tell-people-that-I'm-bad-so-they-tell-me-I'm-good kind of horrible.  I mean really horrible. I am way behind in planning, grading and have way too many ideas and no way to implement them.  Or if I do try to implement them, they're half-baked.  It may have a little to do with a certain visitor we are expecting.  But at the end of the day I have been feeling way scattered.  It's not a good feeling but I know it'll pass.  I have been doing this long enough to know better.

There, I said it!  Let the healing begin.

Jose Strikes Again

During the warm up today, I asked the question:

When does the absolute value of r equal r?

I liked the way the students handled themselves during the discussion so I took out my phone and recorded the following. After a little prodding, Jose jumped in.  I'm thinking of changing his name to Q.E.D.





Monday, November 2, 2009

Thanks, G-Docs

For the past two years I have had a classroom Voicethread account.  It has been really difficult to set up the accounts for the students, though.  So much so, that I have put it on the back-burner until today.  I saw that I could import multiple accounts as long as I had a Name, UserName, Email and Password in a .csv I could import. 

Piece of cake.  I set up a Google Form, embedded it on our wiki and had the kids fill it out.  Done.  Now I'm gonna eat lunch.