It does seem that I have some amount of finite bandwidth for my life activities, as evidenced by the fact that whenever the various rivulets of my life increase their flow, this particular stream trickles down to almost nothing. Recently, for instance, things around here have been pretty static. Pretty much, you just get an instagram photo here and there. Here is a brief discussion of what I have been doing while not maintaining this blog:
- I was taking three grad classes, the last three of my sequence for an administrative certificate, prior to an internship, which will begin toward the end of the summer. I wrote eight papers in eight weeks, and was rewarded with A’s for my effort (which outside of the papers, mostly consisted of me spouting off about something or other on the discussion forums of the three courses). These courses did very little to persuade me that I might ever want to use this certificate for its supposed purpose, but I’m too far in now to get out.
- I was assistant-advising our school’s FIRST Robotics team. Build season has been going on since mid-January, and it ended yesterday, with an unspectacular finish toward the bottom of the pack at the local regional competition.
- I was involved in negotiating a modification of our current contract in our district, chiefly to prevent fourteen of the folks who I work with at the high school (and another ten or so around the district) from being excessed due to the Governor’s idiotic tax cap and restrictions to state aide. This involved a seemingly endless series of meetings to discuss possible options, followed by several contentious meetings moving from the executive board of the union to the entire membership, and finally culminating in a vote (for approval) this past friday.
- I was at a BOE meeting every Tuesday night for the last four weeks, with another four to go before budget season is over.
- I was applying for two different grants for my classroom, and receiving one. The other is still being finalized.
- I was filling out the application forms for two different recognitions that I was asked to apply for, both of which are very nice, but neither of which are necessary for validation of my worth as an educator.
- I was writing a curriculum module for AP Biology that integrates visual arts in to the overall course at a few key moments. In fact, I’m still writing it, and will be doing so for the next six weeks.
- I was writing a new course audit for my AP Biology course, to submit prior to the change in the course that begins next year. It was approved within 72 hours of being submitted.
- I have been migrating my chemistry slideware presentations to sliderocket to increase student utility and accessibility.
- I was starting to play with a new camera that my father just purchased for myself and BH.
- I have been successfully not focusing on what is going to happen at the end of this current school year.
That’s a pretty good synopsis. But now that (some) of that is resolved, I have some time back, and a lot to talk about, so hopefully, this particular spigot will start to open again.