Accomplishments

Friday started out with an ego boost. Biking pre-dawn means I see little traffic, let alone bike traffic. But today I saw another biker, with a similar red rear-strobe. When I turned in behind him he was about 100 yards in front of me. I didn't sprint or try to catch up, but my natural pace was bringing me closer. As we went over the interstate, which involves a decent hill, I could tell he was in a much lower gear than me - he pedaled about 3 times for every one of my slow and massive thrusts. At the top he slowed, and I kept on (I had to get to work). As I passed I noticed he was in much better shape, with corded arms, a light racing bike with ultra skinny tires, logo jersey etc. Like a dirty pickup truck passing a sports car.

Friday is usually an assessment day, so there was a quiz waiting. When did kids stop looking at all the pages of a handout? I use all the sides of the paper, back and front, and this quiz went all 4. Granted, the last three pages had one problem per page, but still I had kids who missed the final problem because they never turned the page. On the good hand, I checked their homework while they did the quiz, and then graded it during my planning period, which was oddly not filled with an unannounced emergency.

Saturday was a nice sunny, hot day. The mid-town area has an artsy neighborhood named for the two streets that form the axes - Cooper Young. This weekend is the annual festival, which brings out local artists as well as the usual booths and such that are attracted to street fairs. Went with my art teacher buddy, Heather. Didn't buy anything, though. A few things were tempting. Then came home after a few hours in the sun and mowed the lawn, knowing Ike might stop by. And as if the lawn wasn't enough, I then re-arranged our storage room, which most people would call a garage, even though we can't put a car in it - there is a carport next to it. For you northerners, a carport is a roof over a driveway. Anyhow, turned the place into a reasonably organized room that can actually be used, without throwing anything out. Only casualty is my leg - took a 1.5 inch gash from some sharp leftover ceramic tiles.

Today, more educational fun. Our school decided to scrap the online communication system they had been using (teacherweb) and subscribed us to Teacherease, which is online grades. The downside, even though they knew they would be doing this for months, we only got access last week. Which means grades for the past 5 weeks have to be entered (and not just grades, but setting up classes and assignments - good thing this has a 'copy' feature) before the end of the coming week.

I do feel like I am on top of the organization part. My grades are all in now, they are also in my gradebook in writing. My desk is clear of any filing (this year I am keeping each student's work in a folder, pending parent visits), and the room is pretty close to where I would like it. Once this grading period starts, I am going to introduce some new wrinkles to my classes that should help a bit. Wow, one sixth of the way and I am not uncomfortable yet. This is a good thing, I think.