Good Habits

I actually came back and turned on the computer before I called it a night. Writing here has become a necessary habit.

The day was pretty good. A more than dear friend gave me advice about my problem student, and I implemented an easier to track method of discipline. Pretty much ignored his antics, but moved him to a seat where he really has to try to talk to people, instead of being sneaky.

In all my classes I did a free-form review, using questions from the book but with a twist. I let the students volunteer to answer a question, and if they got it right, they got to pick a letter for a hangman/whee of fortune type game. If they got it wrong, I didn't correct or comment, just called on another student. The catch was, I only gave them 60 seconds. Stopwatches are wonderful. In one of my classes the kids figured out scientific notation without me doing a thing - they learned from each other. A proud moment for everybody.

And a nice twist, discussing this with my eldest, she commented she wished she had math teachers with creativity in her school (a private catholic high school). Then she mentioned that I was probably doing more good where I was. Quite a mature observation, and again, I was proud.

Only disturbing part of the day (aside from the poorly parsed sign at a fast food restaurant touting "Hot Ham Drink, Fries $4.99) was in my online game community. I don't write about them much here to keep the geek/nerd quotient down. Anyhow, I had been a part of the core team, but lately I have been being left out. Talked with the leader tonight, and it stems from the less than state of the art nature of my computer. In short, things happen and I see them a second or two later than others...which means if I am on fire, I am dead before I see the fire. It bums me out, but he wants to help me upgrade ( a positive thing). I just feel the same way I do when I have to deal with a mechanic. I use the machine/car, but beyond getting it to do what I want, I don't pay a hell of a lot of attention to the internal mechanics, and when pushed, I am embarrassed by my lack of knowledge. Looks like I will be learning, as I can't spend to get an up to date system, but will have to replace some outdated things, especially the video card, which may create a domino effect in which I have to then replace or upgrade RAM and possible a power supply.

Or, I can enjoy life the way I have been lately, with DVDs and non-gaming entertainment. But then I lose a core group of "friends" who I interact with daily.