Random Things

There has been so much going on recently that I wanted to update my blog to include it all. Instead of writing a novel though, I will summarize some fun bits (and ignore all the difficult bits).

First and foremost, I was involved in a Harry Potter themed play about parent/teacher conferences. Yup. I was Lucius Malfoy and my lovely wife Narcissa (Gren) and I visited Professor Trelawney, the Divinations teacher (wonderful props like cups with skeleton hands, a crystal ball, quills, and a Hogwarts banner). Narcissa and I were terribly upset to find out that our sweet little Drakey-pooh wasn't at the top of the class. Of course, we didn't feel it necessary to inform the professor that he was allergic to tea leaves. Next, I was Hermione Granger and my mother and I met with Professor McGonegall. Much less excited and fewer cool props (though we still had the robes, hats, and quills). It was the "good" example for how a conference should be. Anyhow, wish I had gotten it on tape though that would have been terribly embarrassing. Funny though.

Also, I have been working on my website for MI Matters. The program got in the news! We are all famous now. You can get my autograph for only $5 at a special signing here at Starbucks.

In Educational Psychology, we did some role-playing and I was a teacher who had tenure and lots of experience teaching AP classes successfully. I think I did a fairly good job trying to show where my character would be coming from (against merit based pay, any significant changes to the status quo, team-teaching, but for someone else to do something about the kids who were not motivated in school). I started out kind of making it into a bit of a caricature, but ended up really taking on the role as a person. It was hard to stay in character and not to agree with the impassioned speech about the upsides of team-teaching though. Christi is an eloquent speaker!

I talked after class with the teacher and I think I really get her point about choices. We have so many, especially at this point in our careers. There are pluses and minuses about whatever we decide to do and we will all have to think very carefully about our futures and where we want to go. Some students are interested in teaching in Washington, D.C. where they have a new merit-based pay system and they can make tons of money while really doing something to help students who really need it. Seems like a win-win to me, but I am not sure I would be able to be successful in such an environment.

Which reminds me. I got to visit another school system with Jessica, Dan, and Cristi (though she wasn't there that day). It turns out that kids are kids, though their school had a bunch more mohawks and heavy-metal-esque clothing than where I teach. It was such an eye-opener and all the classes had huge differences from each other and were different from my own classroom. I LOVE their science area though. There is a long hallway sort of thing that works as offices and storage and lunch areas for all the science teachers. I bet it helps them be a stronger and more coherent department since they see each other and have a shared space away from the students. Anyhow, I could totally see myself working at W.M. school. Good times!

In other news, I am working on finishing overdue assignments, planning my webinar (on QuizStar, an awesome site), and working on my unit plan for next semester where I will be teaching all the classes for 3 weeks(ish) when I implement it. And of course there is the Evil Math class. Last week was all about a model where all lines are in a half plane, and they are perpendicular to the half plane, either straight or half circles. Yup, a half circle can be a line. An infinitely long line. And you can draw the whole thing. Uh-huh. Are you confused? Because I am confused. Hopefully it will make more sense by the final.

Okay, enough. Time to work on those overdue assignments. Sigh. I am a quick typist and a slooooooow writer. What's up with that?