Uthf

I don't know what it is about today, but I'm feeling like I'm functioning at about 50% or so. It's an odd sort of cloudy day. Odd because it's late July, and normally it is clear, sunny, and insanely hot. Those conditions appear to be coming in the next few days, so I'm not disappointed in this abnormal weather. Still, I think it's having an effect on me. I can't seem to get my thoughts fully in order. Well, it looks like it's going to be one of those days when I'm going to have lean on God's grace because my own aptitude just isn't there right now.

It's So Nice to Be Home!

After three weeks of hard work, and a Saturday of refereeing soccer games, I only have one thing to say: it feels really, really good to be home. Thanks be to God for such a great place to live!

Punished for Working Efficiently

A significant part of the class that I'm taking this week requires me to design an integrated thematic unit, which is a way of structuring a unit so that it is built around a conceptual theme that the class then examines in light of different disciplines. It is the sort of thing done frequently in elementary school, but never (with good reason) done in high school. As a high school teacher, it may seem odd that I'm in the class, but because of schedule problems, this was the only option for this year.
Designing the unit hasn't been hard. I have a nice, 7-block (about 3 week) unit designed on "Reading and Responding to the Book of Creation." It's part mathematics, part history, part apologetics, and part practical theology. Incidentally, most of what I've done will never be used in my classroom because it does not match with the reality of the nature of the material I have to teach and the way that I believe it should be taught. I'm trying to be as creative and outside-the-box as possible right now so that I can maybe come up with 1-2 good ideas for my real classroom.
Since it uses quite a bit of material that I already have planned and since this topic is one that I've already done a lot of thinking and reading about, it was very easy for me to design a unit that met the professor's criteria. So easy, in fact, that I could be done in the next hour or two if I really wanted to be. I don't really have any motivation to work, however. Since I've worked so quickly, my professor has threatened me with having to start work on another thematic unit. Since I don't like the concept of integrated thematic units at the high school level a whole lot in the first place (I disagree with many of the philosophical bases that this approach is based on), the last thing I want to do is start designing another unit. I can't help the fact that I picked a good topic and that I like to work efficiently at a task, especially one that I want to get done so I can move on to other things. But to punish me for working efficiently by then demanding more work from me is ridiculous.
So, tomorrow is going to be a highly inefficient day. Two hours of work is about to become five. I dislike being off-task to such a large degree, but if it's an option between a minor waste of time (slow work) and a major waste of time (designing another unit), I'll take the minor one any day.
I'm ready to be done with classes for the summer. Why can't they end on Thursday?

One Week Left

The marathon sprint (yes, I am aware that I just wrote an oxymoron) that is summer graduate courses at Dordt College is drawing to a close. Soon, I'll be done with round 2 of my Masters-degree coursework. And you couldn't pay me enough to stay around a minute longer than I have to; I'm ready to be home.
This week promises to be a lot of work, and I'm not particularly looking forward to that. Tonight, in fact, should be my shortest night. The rest of the week is going to be loaded with inefficient group work, a redundant statement. I'm not looking forward to doing it, but I am looking forward to getting it done. I just want to be home.

Why Can't I Write?

My class this week on Integrating Students with Special Needs has been interesting, even if a lot of it does not relate to my particular situation. One aspect, though, that has been unpleasant has been the activity to write a "social story." These stories try to use really simple language to try to explain to students with disabilities the proper way to behave. Sounds simple, right? Well, it should have been, but for some reason, I couldn't write the silly thing! The restrictions were quite onerous for me. (For one thing, I couldn't use words like "onerous.") Thankfully, my professor helped me figure out how to approach it. Still, I am amazed at how much trouble I had. [Sigh]. I guess no one of us can do everything.

Week 2 Begins

Week one of my 3 weeks at Dordt has finished. My class this past week went pretty well; it wasn't anywhere as difficult as I thought it was going to be. It still was work, of course, but the workload wasn't overwhelming. It's good to have that class done and out of the way.
My class this week is going to be a complete unknown. I know nothing about this professor, and I can't tell from her syllabus exactly how much work she will ask of us during the on-campus phase. Since she's a new professor, there are two possibilities: too much work or too little. I wouldn't mind the latter, myself, since from what I hear, my course in week 3 is the former.
It does not matter much, of course. It's by God's grace that I get any of this work done, anyway. We'll just have to see what happens.

Why Not Hydrogen-Fueled Planes?

I was pondering this idea the other day: as we see the price of oil skyrocket and dream of a hydrogen economy, why do we hear so much about implementing hydrogen as a fuel for automobiles and not as a fuel for planes? Given the infrastructure challenges facing hydrogen-powered cars, it would seem to me to make more since to roll out hydrogen-fueled airplanes, instead. There are fewer airports than there are gas stations, the refueling of planes is accomplished by more trained workers (a concern for self-serve hydrogen fueling stations), and switching to hydrogen-powered planes would significantly reduce our demand for oil. Yet, I haven't heard of any planes that run on hydrogen. An Internet search for hydrogen-powered airplanes turned up lots of environmentalist websites, no mainstream media sites, and a couple of research articles. Boeing, according to the one article that I read, seems to doubt the ability of hydrogen fuel cells to be the primary source of power for commercial aircraft. Whether this inability truly exists, or whether it's more of a "640K out to be enough for anybody" statement, remains to be seen. I'm all for switching to hydrogen power overall. So, to all mechanical and aerospace engineers out there, no nay-saying about this idea. Let's get those fuel cells and/or hydrogen engines functioning at a high enough level that we can drop oil as our main fuel source.

Tomorrow it begins

The first of 3 graduate classes that I am taking this summer begins its on-campus phase tomorrow. From my recent perusal of the class roster, there appear to be only 6 of us in class. That is a smaller class than the 10 or so that I had in each of my classes last year. A small class should make for a more enjoyable experience, however, since we'll each have plenty of time to interact with the professor and each other. I'm looking forward to the class, but I also have to admit to feeling a bit of trepidation at the start of this next class. Parker Palmer says that a teacher's biggest fear is being expose as a fake, and I can't help but wonder if that fear is at the core of the timorousness. It definitely will be a time for leaning on God's grace, and I look forward to seeing what God does in the coming week!

July and Hard Work

Wow, it's July! It seems like a long time and yet a short time since the latest class of seniors at Cair Paravel said their final farewell to the hallowed halls. Now, I've spent over a month on "vacation." I'm not quite ready for school to start, but neither am I ready for more time off. The routine has gotten, well, just that--routine. That will all change here in a few days when I start three weeks of all-out sprint academically, taking a graduate course a week for the next three weeks. I've already spent about a month in pre-campus work, but now it's time to take the classes themselves. If they're anything like last year's classes, I'll be very busy during the week and very bored on the weekends. Such is the way this program goes. At this point, though, it will be a welcome change of pace from what has become my summer routine.