I sent an email to the ACS about all those strange typos in the Middle School Chemistry curriculum, and it turns out that it's pdf-viewer specific. After a brief email exchange, I decided to try it in the different PDF viewers I had available, and what do I find? The PDFs look perfect in Google Chrome and Adobe Acrobat, but are full of errors in Microsoft Edge.
Par for the course, unfortunately. Microsoft apps are such appalling bloat-ware at this point, and their online versions are so ham-strung you can't even make a table of contents! I don't even want to talk about the fun I had setting up OneNote Class Notebooks for my students over the weekend...
Anyway, it was fun trying to identify exactly where the problem was, and even better being able to pinpoint something. And the ACS guys were great to work with, too.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Sunday, February 18, 2018
here's how long weekends go
Friday, I left school at a decent hour for once. There was no staff meeting, and I pushed myself to leave because I had to drive up to Tempe to pick up DS1. Dinner with all my boys was nice, a lovely salmon with tomato and basil off my very own little basil plant (I haven't killed it yet!). Since it's Lent, DH and I don't do date night on Friday. After dinner, in front of the tv... lesson planning, specifically finding videos to support my lessons. The vastness of the internet becomes apparent during such searches.
Saturday: up early to do errands and pick up our family portrait, finally. There was some delay getting the frame, but it's gorgeous. Of course it's not on the wall yet. We'll see how long that takes! Then... more lesson planning and prep. They are not the same thing. It's great finding things for my students to do, but nothing is ever exactly the way I want it to be, so I end up substantially editing or completely retyping things. The ACS's Middle School Chemistry curriculum is awesome but so full of typos I would never give it to a student. The errors are all the same, dropped letters. It's odd, but I can't give 8th graders work that asks them to use fat toothpicks instead of flat ones. You see the problem. [UPDATE: The dropped-letter problem only occurs in Microsoft Edge; the pdf documents are perfect in Chrome or Acrobat. Weird but true, and they're looking into it.] I've already typed up 2, 10-page lab packets and have one to go. The students love them, and most importantly, are learning with them, but it's really quite time consuming.
Saturday afternoon: vigil Mass, where I am in the regular corps of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist now. I'm over my nerves, finally, but I do get twinges every so often of wanting to take a Mass off. It's a different experience when you're working. There is no time for contemplation.
Saturday evening: a quick dinner out with DH and DS1, as DS2's friends were coming over to celebrate his birthday and they were eating pizza (of course). After dinner: five more hours of lesson prep: typing up the second of those 10-page lab packets, and ordering needed supplies for it, among other things. It's like I sit down, and then I look up and it's 12:30 AM and no wonder my eyes feel like sandpaper.
Sunday: DS2 impressed me greatly by making his friends French toast (his special recipe with pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract) and bacon for breakfast. I juiced the last of the oranges and everyone was happy. Then I puttered around and cleaned up the kitchen, then made breakfast for DH and I. Since then, it's been puttering either around the house or online. I haven't done a single productive thing today for school! I have been doing a lot of recreational online shopping, though, since at this time of year, most everyone steeply discounts their already marked-down merchandise. "An extra 60% off sale prices" is very tempting, but I mostly limited myself to things I needed. It's true I don't need those earrings I paid $6 for, and the kimono-style blouse was real splurge at $18, but still, $11 for a really nice sweater feels like an accomplishment.
The plan is to do some grading after dinner. Tomorrow I'm having an eye exam early, so I won't be able to do any reading or anything until the dilating solution wears off. By the end of the day I'll be feeling that beginning-of-the-work-week pressure, and getting annoyed with myself that I didn't buckle down and work Sunday so that Monday could just be a nice day.
I'm feeling defensive over my day off, and then feeling silly for feeling that way. No one else is saying I should've worked today. This is the kind of nonsense that goes on in my head on a regular basis.
It's been a nice day.
Saturday: up early to do errands and pick up our family portrait, finally. There was some delay getting the frame, but it's gorgeous. Of course it's not on the wall yet. We'll see how long that takes! Then... more lesson planning and prep. They are not the same thing. It's great finding things for my students to do, but nothing is ever exactly the way I want it to be, so I end up substantially editing or completely retyping things. The ACS's Middle School Chemistry curriculum is awesome but so full of typos I would never give it to a student. The errors are all the same, dropped letters. It's odd, but I can't give 8th graders work that asks them to use fat toothpicks instead of flat ones. You see the problem. [UPDATE: The dropped-letter problem only occurs in Microsoft Edge; the pdf documents are perfect in Chrome or Acrobat. Weird but true, and they're looking into it.] I've already typed up 2, 10-page lab packets and have one to go. The students love them, and most importantly, are learning with them, but it's really quite time consuming.
Saturday afternoon: vigil Mass, where I am in the regular corps of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist now. I'm over my nerves, finally, but I do get twinges every so often of wanting to take a Mass off. It's a different experience when you're working. There is no time for contemplation.
Saturday evening: a quick dinner out with DH and DS1, as DS2's friends were coming over to celebrate his birthday and they were eating pizza (of course). After dinner: five more hours of lesson prep: typing up the second of those 10-page lab packets, and ordering needed supplies for it, among other things. It's like I sit down, and then I look up and it's 12:30 AM and no wonder my eyes feel like sandpaper.
Sunday: DS2 impressed me greatly by making his friends French toast (his special recipe with pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract) and bacon for breakfast. I juiced the last of the oranges and everyone was happy. Then I puttered around and cleaned up the kitchen, then made breakfast for DH and I. Since then, it's been puttering either around the house or online. I haven't done a single productive thing today for school! I have been doing a lot of recreational online shopping, though, since at this time of year, most everyone steeply discounts their already marked-down merchandise. "An extra 60% off sale prices" is very tempting, but I mostly limited myself to things I needed. It's true I don't need those earrings I paid $6 for, and the kimono-style blouse was real splurge at $18, but still, $11 for a really nice sweater feels like an accomplishment.
The plan is to do some grading after dinner. Tomorrow I'm having an eye exam early, so I won't be able to do any reading or anything until the dilating solution wears off. By the end of the day I'll be feeling that beginning-of-the-work-week pressure, and getting annoyed with myself that I didn't buckle down and work Sunday so that Monday could just be a nice day.
I'm feeling defensive over my day off, and then feeling silly for feeling that way. No one else is saying I should've worked today. This is the kind of nonsense that goes on in my head on a regular basis.
It's been a nice day.
Thursday, February 08, 2018
a moment
About 4:30 this afternoon, I was setting up the science lab for tomorrow's adventure in chemistry, because we have Mass in the morning and therefore I don't have the prep hour I do all the other days.
We've been in the lab every day this week, using a modified version of this awesome Middle School Chemistry curriculum from the American Chemical Society. This is the most hands-on chemistry I've ever been able to teach. I have the space, I have the resources, I have the time, and I have the complete support of my administration.
So yeah, I was on campus pretty late, but it was with a smile on my face.
I love my job.
We've been in the lab every day this week, using a modified version of this awesome Middle School Chemistry curriculum from the American Chemical Society. This is the most hands-on chemistry I've ever been able to teach. I have the space, I have the resources, I have the time, and I have the complete support of my administration.
So yeah, I was on campus pretty late, but it was with a smile on my face.
I love my job.
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