Our Stool Problem - A Brief History

As you may have noticed, we have a seating problem in the 7/8 science lab. 

Look down. What color is the stool are you sitting on?

If it’s a grey, metal stool, it was here when I arrived at Bartlett eight years ago. At that point, we had 24 grey, metal stools  - exactly the right number. 

Unfortunately, many of them were broken. 

In the Fall of 2016, I worked out a deal with the welding shop at the Voke and they repaired about eight of them.

Since then, I have been repairing them myself. Look down at the grey stools - you may notice nuts and bolts holding the legs on. That’s my work. I continue to repair the ones that break…but there is a limit to what I can do.

Unfortunately, about six years ago, an ambitious custodian threw away about four of these stools that I had not yet had a chance to repair.  Also, one of the teachers that taught in this room while I was assigned to room 22 threw even more of them away.

If you are sitting on a white stool, you can thank my neighbor. She found four white stools on the side of the road in a pile of household items that were being discarded. She grabbed them and then gave them to me for the lab.

If you are sitting on a black stool, you can thank DonorsChoose and the people who support teachers. DonorsChoose is a non-profit organization that connects teachers who need supplies with people who want to support them. All the black stools were donated to us. We did lose one of those this year when it fell over and cracked. My repair was a failure and I had to discard it. 

If you're sitting at a lab bench in a standard desk chair, you are experiencing our problem: We don’t have enough stools any more. Some students who want to sit at the lab benches end up sitting in a standard desk chair and those are way too low to be used at the lab benches. 

This is a ridiculous problem to have.  

At a minimum, you ALL deserve a chance to sit at the lab benches on an appropriately sized chair or stool.  <sigh>

Nobody Wants to Look a Fool

I am a poor speller. 

There, I said it. 

There’s no hiding it now

I don’t know why, but I just do not have the knack for spelling. I know people who just seem to have an innate sense on how words are put together. I do not. I memorize words, look them up or get them wrong. 

Several years ago, I realized my poor penmanship is a result of my poor spelling. It came to me one day, that when I could not spell a word, I would smush the wrong letters together to hide my inability to spell. 

I still catch myself doing this sometimes. I think it’s such a deeply engrained habit, that I may never be able to stop. 

Yes, I know there are ways to learn how to spell. In high school I misspelled the word “necessary" on a paper and the teacher made me write it correctly 100 times. What a pain! But, I do know how to spell “necessary,” now.

A new pizza shop opened near me and for the life of me, I can not spell “Mediterranean” as in Mediterranean Pizza.

But, technology to the rescue! 

I’ve looked up the Mediterranean Pizza website or phone number so often (And that’s a whole different problem!), my phone and iPad just suggest it to me after typing the first three letters.

I now have so many ways of getting the spelling right, I don’t have to resort to hiding misspelled words - I just fix them!

“Hey Siri, spell Mediterranean.” I might say.

Or, I’ll google it. I often say “Half my google searches are for spelling” and it’s true.

If I’m typing, like now, the document will autocorrect my spelling or if I’m so far off that even the computer can’t figure out what I’m trying to write, it will at least give me a heads-up so I can google it.

Doing high quality work is important and spelling words correctly is part of that. Nobody wants to look a fool and spelling words correctly helps avoid that.

Reaching Out

One of my favorite things about the internet and social media is the ability to reach out to people who once would have been unreachable. 

Here’s what I’m talking about: Over the past several years I have made it a point to reach out to the people who’s videos I use in the classroom. I tell them how I use them and thank them for creating such great content. I have thanked The Amoeba Sisters, Danica McKellar, and Mary Poffenroth (The Punnett Square lady). 

Here’s the cool thing - they all have acknowledged my tweets and emails and seem to appreciate the thanks.

The internet and social media have made this much easier than it ever was. I frequently interact with scientists, writers on twitter. I’m amazed at how many of them are really quite accessible. 

Next time you come into my room, take a look at the little posters on the window of the books I

am reading or have read. You will notice once called I. Asimov. I am reading his memoir right now. He is considered one of the most important science fiction writers of all time. But, he wrote over 500 books on hundreds of different topics - fiction, non-fiction - you name it. 

A long time ago, I was doing a lot of freelance writing and wrote a letter to him asking for his advice on how to make writing my full-time job. I was stunned, when his reply showed up in my mailbox (This was long before email, the internet or social media existed).

I guess my message is, don’t be afraid to reach out to people - even if they are “important” or “famous,” you might be surprised.

PS While researching my own twitter account for this post, I noticed that the lead singer for one of my all-time favorite bands follows me!  Go figure.