Excited

Yes, that smartboard made me excited about teaching - which is a first for a long time. Granted, yesterday and today have been semi-hellacious, with homecoming activities which pre-empt my last class of the day, and kids leaving class because they are on this team, or that, or part of the homecoming court, or in the band, cheer squad, etc.

But took my planning time and created two flipcharts (think of a powerpoint presentation) with warmup questions, homework review, new concept presentations, checks for understanding and finally homework. Very smooth for a first try, spending less than an hour creating. Our IT lady was pretty impressed, and I know things will get easier as I learn to imbed videos, include animation of various things. Best part is, I can do all the pre-class work on the laptop and try it all out.

Meanwhile, got an email about an upcoming (Jan 22 and 29) session at a local university where I will be teaching refresher math for students about to take the GRE/GMAT. Money is pretty good, 4.5 hours each Saturday morning. And in related news, got a call that I am eligible to sell more blood for research purposes (at $50 a pint), and a strange call from maybe a recruiter who saw my resume. Back during the job search I had it posted on Monster.com and other places, which usually resulted in calls that were scams. "Hey, come in for an interview which is really a sort of group presentation and if you fall for our pitch we will charge you money to get the training to go to the next level." This one kind of checks out - they are a career college that prepares medical technicians. Either they want me to teach, or they want me to enroll. Worth a call, I suppose.

Quite tired tonight - walked to library to return books, then past the grocery for dinner pizza. Not exactly shin splints, but my lower shins and ankles feel a bit put-upon. Worth crawling into bed early, doing some reading and hoping that my vivid dreams give me a break. Dreams lately have had to do with New York (haven't been back there since we relocated, no real desire - I think the dreams have to do with job related stress), and last night it was Australia crossed with Jurassic Park except the fauna was from the Pliocene. Bizarre stuff.