Tag: school

March Madness

And by March Madness I don’t mean basketball… Instead, I mean our mad weather. Our county (and many others around us) is under a Winter Storm Warning starting tonight at 10pm and lasting until Monday morning. They’re currently predicting 5-7″ of snow for the storm (which is an improvement upon earlier predictions of 8+”). However, we’re in that odd transitional time between Winter and Spring when models have a hell of a time making good predictions as it is (and then compound them with the climate change we’ve been unleashing on our planet and I’m just shocked that they get anything remotely correct!) so I’m not holding my breath yet for (yet ANOTHER) day off on Monday.

So far we’ve missed 9 days this year. I’m rather pleased that I had gotten my chemistry classes a week ahead of last year’s because that extra time has helped me be only about a week behind after all of this weather. (I’m more worried about chemistry than physics because of the college curriculum and their college-supplied final exam.) In physics I’ve dumped a couple of projects/labs to keep close to my usual timeline. And Advanced Problems is always an evolving course as it is. (I’ve added in some forensics lessons this year and removed a couple of other projects because of that.)

I am one of the few people I know who isn’t actually sick and tired of snow. This next storm might finally put me over the edge (though I doubt it – unless the power goes out or something). However, I really miss taking long walks and riding my bike on the bike paths. So yeah, I’ll be just fine with winter making its departure felt. My weight-loss regimen has been affected by the weather too. Less exercise, more snacking because I’m at home instead of at work… I’ve yet to get as low as I was before Thanksgiving. (I was soooo close to being under 200lb back then too. Now I’m just happy to stay under 210.)

So Winter, I know you’re around for another 20 days or so, but I’m OK with you leaving early so that I can get some walks and rides in soon! But if you do decide to dump 5-7″ on us tomorrow, please leave the electricity alone, OK? 😉

Happy Mole Day!

In the US, it’s between 6:02am and 6:02pm and the date is 10/23/13, so that means it’s Mole Day! 6.02×1023 is the number of things (atoms, molecules, elephants, moles) in 1 mole of that material. Think of a dozen (12 things) on speed. Lots & lots of speed!

To celebrate the day, my chemistry students got to take a quiz on stoichiometry (using balanced equations to determine amounts of material – using molar mass, among other things). Lucky kids! Physics, OTOH, tested their platforms for the Egg Drop competition.

Each year, I alternate platform and carriage. Last year was carriage (put the egg in the carrier and drop it) so this year is platform (drop the naked egg onto the platform). The band director rents a scissor lift each year for marching band, and he’s been kind enough to let us use it since the loss of the second & third floors of the school building. So we test from three heights – 1m above the platform, ~4m above the ground, and ~8m above the ground (which nearly maxes out the lift).

To win the competition, the dropped egg has to survive all three drops onto the platform (though everyone gets 1 redo per height) AND be the shortest off the ground. The previous record was 11.5cm tall. This year, the FOURTH place team beat that.

The students had some very imaginative ideas. One pair brought a wonderful handmade trampoline that performed well (and would have been a contender in prior years). The winning team (whose platform was only 6.5cm tall!) made theirs with lemon cake, vanilla pudding, and fruit-flavored marshmallows. Heh. It was terrific watching it land from the highest drop. A splat & a crater in the pudding, but it was just fine. (To prove it, the young lady licked the pudding off of the egg. Heh.)

We had a tie for 3rd place (both were 10.5cm) so the tie-breaker is always a vote from the class on best appearance. Any other year, I suspect the box o’ bras would have won (“well, they’re known for their support” claimed one of the teammates) EXCEPT they tied the team who made theirs out of Twinkies – and then shared the (thankfully un-egged) Twinkies with the class. Heh.

Today was probably the coldest day we’ve had the Egg Drop contest on – and there was snow on the ground on my way in to school today. But despite the chill, we had fun outside watching the eggs fall and, for the most part, survive.

Summer’s Nearly Here!

Wow – time is still going Warp Speed. Tomorrow is the last day for students. Friday’s the last day for teachers. judiang is flying in Friday and we’re going to spend a week at the Lake. elsaf will be joining us for part of it too. YAY! Friends together again!

This weekend is the Troy Strawberry Festival. Currently the weather is looking… wet. But 50% chance does mean it might not rain just as likely as it might… Here’s hoping!

I think I’ve mentioned this on Twitter already, but I have made the plunge into Crazy Cat Lady-hood. I purchased a Pet Stroller for the kitties. I’m in the acclimatizing process now – letting them sit in it, trying the hood up & zipped. No movement yet. Once my vacation week with the girls is done, my *plan* is to go for walks early each morning with the kitties. My thinking is this: (a) It’ll be cooler in the morning and (b) hopefully not as many people can gawp at the Crazy Cat Lady.

I’ll also be re-upping to WeightWatchers once the vacation is over and start attending the Friday morning meetings. It does work for me (albeit slowly) and I’ve not been all that good at keeping to the program without the meetings. Though I’ll miss the ladies from work.

Here’s hoping the pool at mom & dad’s association will be reopening this summer. Last I heard from mom, the patio furniture wasn’t out yet, but there did seem to be people working on the water, at least. Cross fingers! The ActiveLink that I have from WeightWatchers is water-proof.

Oh, mom and I have started riding bikes this summer. We had a 7 mile ride on Saturday followed by another 4.5 mile ride on Monday. Wonder if I can talk mom into another run tomorrow evening? Want my butt to get acclimatized (just like my cats).

Anyhoo, hope that this summer (or winter, for you antipodeans) is a great one for all of you! If the two classes that I’m taking this summer don’t kill me, I’ll probably be stronger for it! 🙂

Hooray for Miami County Foundation!

The Miami County Foundation (MCF) is a local (to me) agency which does everything it can to donate money/scholarships to nonprofits/students. Their nonprofit grants are awarded twice a year with grant deadlines in August and February. I had previously written (and received) two grants from them in the past.

Sadly, the last time I had received a grant, they didn’t have much money to award, so they asked if I’d be able to use even just a portion of what I requested. I said sure! I had written a grant to buy 12 electronic balances for the chemistry lab. They were able to give me funds to buy 2. Believe me, it helped. And when we kitted up the new laboratory a year later, I got 4 more electronic balances, which works rather well for us.

Well, a couple of days before the grant applications were due this time around, MCF informed us that they had had a windfall and would be able to really help nonprofits this time around. So I scurried to write up another proposal, this time for 4 new Vernier LabQuests and some probeware to go with them and to suppliment my existing equipment. Yesterday I got the good news – I got the grant (and all of it this time around)! I had the requisition written and submitted within half an hour of receiving the e-mail. 🙂

The acceptance ceremony will be in November and our superintendent wants those of us who received a grant (we had 4 groups in the school who did, including new band uniforms for the marching band – oooooh!) and I’ll be happy to attend. (And that’s saying something, knowing how much I dislike having a sub in my room. Heh.)

So THANK YOU to Miami County Foundation for looking after the nonprofits in your county! And thank you for supporting chemistry and physics education!

31 Days – 31 Books (day 20): morning edition

Sadly, today is the last day of the conference. We’ve got a couple of sessions, then it ends at 12:30. Mom and I will head to Jaleo (a Spanish tapas place) for lunch and then go to the Artomatic art show across the street from our hotel. 9 floors of art, music, performance by local artists or somesuch. Should be good! Figured I’d better write this up in the morning since I have to work tomorrow (last week of school!)

Day20 – Book that you read at school

Speaking of school… We read quite a few books at school, but today I’ll mention A Separate Peace by John Knowles. We read this my senior year in a class called British Literature. And while we were reading it (it was very good), I asked our teacher why we were reading it in a British Lit class since it was written by an American. Turns out she’d thought it was British because of the boy’s school location. Heh heh. (Guess she wasn’t reading for details…)

The rest of the 31 days:

Day1 – Book you are reading right now
Day2 – The book you want to read next
Day3 – Your favourite Book
Day4 – Book you hate
Day5 – A Book you can read again and again
Day6 – A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day7 – Book that reminds you of someone
Day8 – Book that reminds you on a certain place
Day9 – The first book you ever read
Day10 – Book from your favourite author
Day11 – Book you once loved and now hate
Day12 – Book that a friend recommended
Day13 – Book that makes you laugh
Day14 – Book from your childhood
Day15 – 4. book from the left on your shelf
Day16 – 9. book from the right on your shelf
Day17 – Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day18 – Book with the most beautiful cover
Day19 – Book, that you ever wanted to read
Day21 – most stupid book you read at school
Day22 – Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day23 – Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day24 – Book where nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day25 – A book where the main character is almost like you
Day26 – Book you would read to your children
Day27 – A book where the main character is your idol
Day28 – Thanks God this book was made into a movie
Day29 – Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day30 – First erotic book you ever read
Day31 – Book series you are collecting

Come back, November! All is forgiven!

I have decided that November is the shortest month of the year. I know that February has more fewer days, but it takes FOREVER to get through. And November is over nearly as soon as it began. Quite remarkable.

Was noting with my students today that any countdowns going on in the HS are “Days until Christmas Break” where any countdowns going on in the Elementary are “Days until Christmas!” Yup, Santa’s more important that vacation to the little ones. But to the high schoolers (and teachers) it’s all about the break. 😉

Speaking of the break – We’ve got 11 more school days until 2012. Wow… And 3 of those days are exam days. I’m very pleased with the extended break, but, alas, Amy and Rachel won’t be getting in until my break is nearly done – the 29th. And they go back after I return to work. It’ll be great to see ’em again. I’ve only seen Amy once since last Christmas and haven’t seen Rachel SINCE last Christmas. Too long between sisterly visits!

Originally we were scheduled to return to school on the 2nd of January, which made me sad because my birthday parade will be on the 2nd since the 1st is Sunday. But because Jan 2nd is a federal holiday, the school board decided to make that a day off as well. Make up day being the Tuesday after Memorial day. I can live with that!

ETA: Thanks scalderwood for the correction. Whoops!

As Summer Fades Away

The end of my summer vacation was quite boisterous.

It all started when my friend Erik (my best friend in elementary) called to say he had time to come and visit. This was Monday, the 15th. This was significant since Erik has been living in the Czech Republic for many years now. He and his daughter, plus his sister (who currently lives in Paris) and her son stopped in for a few hours. The kids loved the toys in my house (actually, so did Erik and his sis, heh). Alas, the time I got to spend with them was brief, but it was lovely to see them again and to meet their kids. They’ve both since returned to their respective countries and spouses.

Then last Thursday (wow, a week ago now?) was our first day of work – a day to work in our rooms. I’d actually been going in and working an hour or two (or more) each day for the previous two weeks, so this was more like an extended day like that. Friday were meetings in the morning followed by more work time. But then I was ready to head off to meet up with my folks and then we went to the airport to pick up my sister!

Yup, my little sis managed to get away briefly for a visit last weekend. We had a lovely time. Friday night was dinner at Club 55. Saturday morning we went to the farmer’s markets, then most of the rest of the day was spent preparing for our party that night.

Saturday evening, the folks along with friends of ours, hosted a party at their club house. Dad invited “the usual lot” who often went to O’Brian’s to see Rick Fannin perform. Since O’Brian’s went out of business, however, we’d not been seeing him much. So Dad and Moe hired Rick to come and play at the Club House. In addition to “the usual lot” the folks invited folks from their gated community. Amy was the bartender and we had plenty of beer, wine, and margarita mix. Rick was, as usual, wonderful and the villagers really enjoyed him – as much as “the usual lot.” 🙂

Sunday was a bit more relaxed and we wound up watching the third Millennium movie (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) by the evening. (At least, I think that was Sunday.) I had to work again Monday, but returned to the folks’ for another evening with Amy (and the folks). We played cards that night with one of mom’s best friends. It was great getting to play pinocle.

Tuesday was the first day of school, which was a good one. Big classes this year, which is pretty wonderful. (Physics is full – that’s pretty nifty!) Since it was the first day of school, Tradition says we must go out to Frisch’s for supper. Amy was excited to be joining us for this tradition. 🙂 I stayed up late both Monday and Tuesday to get my quota of Amy. Heh.

Wednesday I drove to school so that I could bug out as soon as teachers were allowed and head to Troy. Then we piled into the car and took Amy back to the airport. *sniff* We embarrassed her mightily as she went through security and she waved to us before zipping off to her gate. She got home safe und sound and is hopefully having a lovely time with her girlfriend and their cat, Curtis. 🙂

So now I’m relaxing in my library with soft music playing and Lucy sleeping on top of the comfy chair. Dunno where Linus is now, but we spent some quality scritching time after work while I vegged at my PC. Overall, a wonderful end to the summer and a great start to the school year. Yay!

It’s Summah! YAY!

Yeterday was the last day of school – YAY! Today I went swimming for the first time of the season – YAY! Tomorrow we go to the Strawberry Festival – YAY!

Things are full of YAY right now. My new ebook reader arrived on Friday. I got a BeBook and am loving it so far. My laptop and my BeBook are a great combo. (Thanks for the rec, redstarrobot!) I’ve got a library book on it already and have filled it with all of the eBooks I’ve found/bought over the years (except the ones I got from eReader.com which won’t work with it, alas). I bought a 16GB SD card for it today, too. Doubt if I’ll ever fill it (could get well over 5000 books on that card).

Just watched the half-series finale for Doctor Who and it was full of YAY too. One of the zillions of theories that I had about a certain someone was actually right, as well. YAY! (OK, that means the other zillions weren’t right, but there ya go.)

I was actually done with my classroom BEFORE our day was over. And then they let us leave half an hour early if we were checked out. YAY!

I was a bit bummed last night when I got home and was going to play with my new BeBook, but my Internet was down. So I ran off to McDonald’s in Milton and fininshed setting it up so that I could read it back home. (The Internet was back today, YAY!)

My hot water heater had been down since Thursday and the plumber was finally able to get here today. The water heater was actually OK, but the light went out. I then had him fix my side outdoor faucet, which turned out to be more of a pain than he had anticipated, but he was successful. I’m hoping the house hasn’t blown up – I’ve been at my folks’ place most of today.

So YAY – a great start to my summer break!

First Day of School 2010

First day of school! New building! New laboratory!

Today was a good day. We had perfect attendance. The superintendent spoke to the student body impressing upon them the historical significance of the day. The HS principal presented rings to the State-Champion Softball Team (rock on!) and their coaches – who all got a standing ovation from the entire student body (and rightly so!) Then the HS split off from the Elementary and we were given the usual first day pep talk, followed by a not so usual tour of the new school building (broken up into groups).

My numbers for the year are a bit smaller than usual, but with an increased enrollment this year, I suspect the numbers will start to get back up to where they once were. 13 kids in period 1 chem, 15 in period 3 chem, 15 in physics, and 10 in advanced problems in science. This may change a little, but hopefully not too much!

This evening, as per tradition (and I do so likes me some tradition), the folks and I went out to Frisch’s Big Boy for supper. I had a Big Boy platter with onion rings & baked apples. Yum! And then the hot fudge cake (no cherry) for dessert. So, no surprise there.

Anyhoo, have a stonking great sinus jaw-ache (not headache, surprisingly) so I’m gonna medicate (let’s hear it for sinus pills, yay!) & then relax for the rest of the evening. Hope the rest of the year goes as nicely as today!

School starts WHEN?!?!?

Can I just say, for the record, that I’m glad I’m in the new building rather than the ’99 addition. The poor teachers who teach in there won’t have access to their rooms until next week. But I’ve been working in mine since we got back from Minnesota.

Thankfully, all of the boxes which I packed did find their way to my room. And today I discovered my record player in the media center when I was dropping off the 1000 paper cranes (which, sadly, may no longer have 1000) which I’d stored hung up over the summer (rather than see them stuffed into a storage box). So I may actually have all of my supplies! Yay! (Oh, there are things I can’t find, but I’m hopeful they’re around somewhere!)

Anyhoo, despite almost 2 weeks worth of unpacking & storing, I ain’t done yet. (Thankfully, neither are the other two science teachers, though they’re ahead of me!) It only dawned on me today to take photos of the mess I’ve got to sort out. So here are two slightly blurry, washed out photos of my lab as of this morning. (Cell phone cameras are nice, but not ideal…)


A long way to go...
A long way to go…

As can be seen in this shot, my lab isn’t ready yet for school. (But, it’s in better shape than it had been at the start of the week!)
Classroom side view
Classroom side view

There was a bit of this view in the other shot, but I wanted a shot that focused on just the classroom side. So, who was the bright gal who didn’t ask for bookshelves when designing this room? Oh, right, that would be ME.

Due to the waxing of our hallway tomorrow, I have a 3 day weekend. Yay! 😉