Mixed Messages

1. The weather has cleared: Sunny and 60F today.


2. The internet is still down at home, so I have to come to my office to check my email.


3. My test had a fabulous distribution. Mean and median right on the C/C+ border. And it passed my informal benchmarks: at least one person got a perfect score, the dumb kid who tries hard got a C, and the people who haven't been coming to class or doing the work got most of the Fs.


4. My phone is now down to 9 minutes of talk time per battery charge.


5. In a fit of whimsy I spread wildflower seed all over the back yard this morning. I had meant to grow grass this year.


6. My craft projects are growing exponentially: I am in the middle of one crochet, two sewing, and three knitting projects. And I've bought the supplies to start more.


7. Despite having written a title and abstract, I have no idea what I'm going to talk about at my job talk (next week).


8. Tomorrow a colleague, Professor Oscar Madison, is going to observe my class for my retention review. We have very different educational philosophies. When arranging when to observe to my class, he said he should come on a day when I would be "teaching" by which he meant "lecturing for 50 minutes." He wasn't pleased to hear that I never give a 50 minute lecture.


9. I have a brilliant activity planned in my pre-service teacher class tomorrow. It's based on a fifth grade activity from "Everyday Math." They're given a picture and they have to describe it in words. Then someone who hasn't seen the picture has to draw it based on the description.