Almost Halfway There

According to my calculations, we’ve completed about 72 school days. We’re almost half way through the year.

It doesn’t seem possible, but by the end of January, we’ll be in the second half of the year and THAT’s gonna go soooo fast….you won’t believe it. 

Where are you now? Are you on track to meet your goals this year? 

If you’re on track, that’s great! Just keep doing what you’re doing.

If you’re not on track, the good news is, there’s still lots of time to get extra help and get your grades where you want them to be.

If you didn’t establish any goals, there’s still time to do so. 

I find it to be helpful to establish goals - for me, they are the things to aim for. 

I figure, if you don’t have a goal, you don’t have a direction. Without a direction, you tend to drift and let circumstances guide your life. It’s a very passive way of being and leaves you open to going in directions that you do not choose. 

For me, it’s better to put a stake in the future and figure out how I’m going to get there. I like to establish milestones - little goals along the way. Keeping my eye on that goal helps me avoid getting bumped off track and, more importantly, if I do end up off track, I can see how to adjust my path to get to the goal. 

Maybe your goal is to go to the vocational high school, or the LHS Latin Lyceum. If you don’t already know what it will take to get there, you should make an appointment with guidance and find out. 

Having a goal provides structure and direction to your life. That may sound boring or too grown-up for you, but having a goal doesn’t mean you can’t be a kid and have goofy fun, it just helps you get to the next step you want to take. It puts the control in your hands.

So, where are you? Are you on track? Need help setting goals? Need help getting back on track? Talk to your teachers. We’ve all done it and helped others. We can help you, too!

Doing My Happy Dance

I’m doing my happy dance.

I’m done, finished, completed. It’s a wrap.

I have fulfilled the requirements of the on-line course I have been taking since August.: DataStreme Atmospheric Studies

Here’s the course summary:

DataStreme Atmosphere is a 13-week course offered twice a year to selected participants nationwide. Directed towards middle-school teachers, but open to all K-12 teachers, DS Atmosphere is designed to enhance public understanding of the atmospheric portion of the Earth system and its interaction with people. The course utilizes electronically transmitted environmental data and learning materials, including text readings and related investigations. Created and sustained with major support from NOAA, the DS Atmosphere course has a strong leadership component and is designed to be the initial step in the training of Weather Resource Teachers across the nation. Successful participants will become their school’s representative as part of a national science education program conducted by the American Meteorological Society.

So, the whole time I’ve been teaching this school year, I’ve been a student as well. I had assignments, readings and home work to do. I’ve had projects to complete. 

This was a graduate-level science course about weather and the atmosphere - it was hard. The topic is ridiculously complex. The readings are dense. The chapters were long. The assessment process was tedious at best.

The assessment process consists of two projects:  A complete lesson plan; and a written plan of how I’m going to share my new understanding of weather and the atmosphere. 

Oh, and sixty quizzes. Yes, you read that correctly - sixty quizzes. 

Trust me, when I schedule a quiz, assign a reading or give out homework and hear the whole class groan, I feel your pain. I understand, but it’s for a reason.

There is simply not enough class time to learn all the things we need to learn, so we extend that learning time with additional work at home. We need to understand what you have and have not learned so we can move on or reteach a topic. 

But, think how good it will feel when you're done. 

Then, you can do your happy dance!

Perfect Circles

I can make perfect circles on the white board. 

Really, it’s my secret talent. 

It comes in handy when I teach phases of the moon, seasons, use venn diagrams etc.

I don’t know how to teach anyone to draw perfect circles, it’s just the way my shoulder works.

I suppose I’ve had this unique ability for my entire life but It went unrecognized until high school. 

One day, I was sitting in Mr. Borigine’s trigonometry class and I was making snarky comments about his inability to draw a circle (of course, the word “snarky” had yet to be invented, but that’s what my comments were - snarky). Even when he used a giant compass, his circles came out egg-shaped. 

I was feeling pretty full of myself. I was editor of the school newspaper, had recently founded the school astronomy club and was coming off a year of geometry where my average was a cool 104 (I almost always got the bonus question on the tests).

So here I was, sitting in the back row of math, feeling very confident and making fun of my teacher’s egg-like circles when he suddenly stands upright and slowly extends his arm towards me. He was holding a piece of chalk (white boards had also yet to be invented). “If you think you can do better, Mr. McKellar, please come draw us a circle,” he said with a sneer in his voice and a tilt of his head. 

Uh-oh, busted. 

Now I’ve got to draw an eggy circle and everyone, especially, Mr. Borigine, will laugh at me. 

Slowly, I rose from my seat, hoping the bell would save me from my impending doom.

No such luck. 

I took the chalk from his hand, as if it were kryptonite, and in a single swing of my arm and shoulder, drew a perfect circle on the board. 

There was dead silence in the room. Especially from me, because I was expecting to have completely humiliated my snarky self at that point. 

I had drawn a perfect circle on the blackboard. 

I was stunned, to say the least.

Mr. Borigine was stunned even more than I was. 

Finally, after a long pause, he said “Okay, McKellar draws the circles from now on.” 

And so it came to pass. When Mr. B needed a circle, he’d call on me. My magic shoulder and I would draw him a circle…and they were always perfect.