I am grateful…

…for the support of friends and family through all the ups and downs and changes in my life, especially this year.

…for babies and children who remind us all that life is precious and joyful.

…for doctors who work with me and who fight harder on my behalf when I grow weary.

…for medicine that is improving my health this very minute.

…for teaching, for students who challenge me and push my buttons and for students who whisper to me that they are glad to be in my class.

…for new job opportunities on the horizon.

…for wonderful adventures in travel and opportunities to meet friends.

…for the roof over my head and the food in the cupboards.

…and for the security of knowing that there is a most gracious God who walks with me every step of the way, to the end of the age.

Happy Thanksgiving to my dear friends and family!

This Thanksgiving is certainly a welcome break from teaching and I’m a day early in writing about it. 

Attendance was low in my classes this week (less than half of the students came), but I gave a long and detailed lecture on Savings formulas as we began the financial math unit, our final unit of the semester.  One class was very crabby about being there and a little uncooperative, but the other was as eager as usual and worked quickly to finish the day’s problems.  Two classes with two distinct personalities, it’s been an interesting semester.

And now we get to rest, to slow down for a few days, to not worry about lesson prep or grading.  My colleagues and I have been weary this month as the semester grows long.  When we said as much to the department head over lunch, I expected him to be a cheerleader (We can do it!  Just hang in there a bit longer!  A break is coming!) but instead he expressed more weariness than all of us combined!  We need the break.  We all work hard, we care a lot about our students, we care a lot about each other, and we’ll be ready to take on the rest of the semester again on Monday.

But now we rest.

Inquiring minds (and you know who you are!) want to know… what will I wear with my dress for the Ball?

Ummmm, how about hightop sneakers and a cowboy hat?  JUST KIDDING!

Shoes… I have patent leather shoes (which will hardly be visible with that long dress).  They are comfortable for dancing!

Jewelry… This is a challenge.  The necklace I wear every day isn’t going to work with that dress (the chain is too long, and it just doesn’t look right with the dress anyway).  What would probably look good are diamonds or pearls, neither of which I have.  If I go without a necklace, I will probably wear gold hoop earrings.  But then…I have to wear my medic alert bracelet which is stainless steel.  Sigh… Let’s change the subject… *laughs*

Hair things… My aunt is treating me to a hairstylist appointment.  I have really pretty hair combs that are black with lots of sparkles, and they looked fabulous in my hair on the only other occasion I’ve had my hair done this century.  So those are a possibility.

Purse… There will be no cute little clutch purse because I have to bring my electrolyte drink, so I may just carry my usual bag (with the water bottle holder) and stick it under the table. 

Make-up… Yeah right, like I even know how to put on make-up!  If my aunt wants to try to make me up, more power to her.

Am I missing anything? 

Oh, Camera… That’s my most important accessory!  I will bring at least one of my digital cameras to the event, to be sure to capture the fancyness!

I am running out of steam for NaBloPoMo *huff, puff* which further proves to me that my blogging days are numbered.  But I have a very important question:

Do you think I’m qualified to identify crustacean zooplankton?

LOL!

One of my favorite jokes is “Why is 6 afraid of 7?”  Because 7 8 9!

My cousin’s little boy is very into jokes this month, but he doesn’t like that punchline.  At age 4, the better punchline is:

Because 7 is BIGGER! (said with a booming voice!)

And then he asked me, “Why is 1 afraid of 3?”

You guessed it.  Because 3 is BIGGER!

The joke is more generalizable with his punchline, I suppose. 

I’ve got nothing today, so I’m sending you elsewhere. 

1)  I think everyone should get a chance to do something totally, off the hook AMAZING in their lifetime.  If you haven’t read my old friend Rob’s post about Schuyler’s adventures in the air, it is so totally worth the read:

http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/2009/11/flygirl-realized.html

2)  And a precious post from Danielle (of 6 Year Med) that will break your heart.

http://6yearmed.blogspot.com/2009/11/all-of-my-days.html

Found a gorgeous red dress for the Ball that I’m going to in December!

Today may have been my favorite day of the semester so far.  And it’s funny because I was nervous about today.

One of the requirements for the course that I’m teaching is that we teach the students skills in estimation.  When my colleagues and I had meetings earlier in the semester to discuss what estimation looks like, one of them asked a good question, “What math are they learning by making educated guesses?”  I still don’t have a good answer to that.  My best answer is that they are learning “number sense” which is part of the K-12 standards but not something we talk about much in college education.  And how do you teach number sense?  So I put off talking about estimation until the last unit, and even then, I didn’t finalize my plans for the day until this morning.  And then I just crossed my fingers.

I told the students that estimation is squishy, convenient math.  We don’t worry too much about precision (“it’s just an estimate”) and we don’t get too serious about the facts.  We round things to even numbers and make a lot of assumptions.  A few of my students resisted this loudly — often saying “…but how am I supposed to know where to start?!” — but most of them jumped on board the estimation bandwagon and had fun with it!  And the main reason this was one of my favorite days was because some of the students who are kind of struggling this semester had a lot of fun today and were able to contribute a lot to their group’s work during class.  This wasn’t a day about how well you can apply formulas, it was a day to explore and guess and pull on real world knowledge.  I had them estimate how many times their heart beats in a year, how long it would take to drive to California, and how much a movie theater makes on one Friday night.  And at the end of class, they got to turn in one problem for extra credit.  They love extra credit!

So it was a day of good cheer, a day to have some fun with numbers without being too serious about it, and a day when everyone was on a level playing field in many ways.  It was a good day.

Way back in April, I went to DC and though I shared several sets of photos back then, there was one more story with pictures that I wanted to share.

The first day of my conference, I took the subway by myself to get back to the hotel.  It was 4:30 p.m., the beginning of rush hour, and the subways were crazy busy.  I was getting off at one of the busiest places in DC — Union Station — someplace I hadn’t been yet on the trip, though it was supposedly close to my hotel.  When I got off the subway, there were signs pointing to certain escalators leading to certain streets, but I didn’t know street names and just got swept up in the crowd of people.  I got outside and had no clue where I was!  And I was set to meet up with friends to head up into Maryland for dinner, so time was of the essence.

Ever the photographer, and quite impressed with Union Station, I stopped in my lostness and took these pictures.

I wandered across a street and found a real cherry blossom tree (not the “other” pink trees, which someone has since suggested were dogwood).

I finally spotted the Capitol Dome, and from there, I could find my way back to the hotel.  This was my view when I was safely back at the hotel.  I still can’t believe we were this close to the Capitol Building for all those days.  Amazing times!

And when Julie picked me up at the hotel for dinner, and we walked to Union Station, I found out it really was only two blocks away, if you know where you’re going — not the many block hike that I had taken by myself earlier.