Re-Evaluating the Situation

Well, This week I had my last full-class-period observation by an administrator as part of my teacher evaluation. Since my teaching goals this year related to AP Computer Science, that was the class in which I was observed. It went great. I had a good time, the kids got to do an activity that hopefully gave them better insight into the topic at hand (sorting algorithms) and the administrator posted encouraging comments. Sorting (and searching) is the last topic left to cover before the national exam. We have a mock AP exam April 24 that is their actual final exam in the class. That's right, the final exam in APCS is 4 weeks away. The national exam is 2 weeks after that. (Since the score for that exam doesn't arrive until July, it cannot be included in the student's course grade). Holy Smokes! The end is in sight.
A couple weeks ago my principal came to my classroom and showed me an advertisement for an astronomy teacher position at Pine View. He wanted me to read it and see if there was anything they might have overlooked. I couldn't find anything. It was pretty thorough. He said they were going to advertise in some national journals and astronomy organizations for my replacement, since astronomy teachers are hard to find. They are hard to find, in part, because there are very few positions for them. According to Larry Krumenaker, the editor of The Classroom Astronomer, a magazine for K-12 astronomy educators, fewer than 5% of high schools offer any astronomy course. My situation is exacerbated by the fact that I teach astronomy with a dual enrollment option, so students can get college credit. That requires an advanced degree in astronomy. Most of the few high school astronomy teachers have degrees in some other field and even fewer have an advanced degree in the field. I am a little concerned that the program I have built at Pine View might not endure for long. It is out of my hands, but it concerns me nevertheless.
In other news, the Pine View History Club is sponsoring a school wide simulation on the Renaissance April 7. They sought teachers to portray significant individuals and I chose Galileo Galilei. I have a week or so to work on it. Should be fun. I'll post a report after the event.
This past Thursday, I had my astronomy classes meet in Starlab. Now, my wife, Bonnie, often asks me how my day was and whenever I say we had Starlab that day, she knows it was a good day. I can't help myself. Sitting in the dome under the stars, listening to great music, learning about the sky, is a great way to spend a period. It is definitely one of the aspects of my job I will miss. There are only 2 more Starlab days left.


The big announcement I have will come in 2 weeks. Really. Stay tuned.

Odds and Ends

This week started as a normal week (I know, define normal) but ended as a very 'different' one. All my classes were pretty typical, except for astronomy, where we are talking about pretty unusual things that form at the end of the life of a high mass star. Things like neutron stars, pulsars and stellar mass black holes. This is just one more reason why I love teaching astronomy. This stuff is crazy. As an example, a neutron star is so dense that if you took one teaspoon of it, it would weigh (have the mass of) a mountain.  I used the terms 'wild, wacky, weird and wonderful' when talking about these things.

The week ended by me doing something that I dislike doing very much. Friday, I missed a day of school. I really don't like to do that. I feel that the students signed up to take these courses with me and I am the one most prepared to teach it. But I had to schedule a medical procedure that required me to miss an entire day. You see, several years ago I was diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus. I have suffered from acid indigestion (heartburn) for decades. Rolaids were with me at all times. After the Barrett's diagnosis, I was prescribed pantoprazole and it has made a tremendous difference. Barrett's is also know to be pre-cancerous. Now when I heard the doctor say that, I became more than a little concerned. But is really means that it is not certain that it will result in cancer, but it needs to be monitored. Hence the missed school day. The procedure I had was a colonoscopy. The procedure itself requires anesthesia, so it doesn't hurt a bit. The preparation that I had to do the day before was the unpleasant part. I will leave it to your searching the Internet if you want more details.

In other news, Friday was a new moon, a total solar eclipse and the vernal equinox. That was a big deal for northern Europe. We had the equinox (the astronomical start of spring), but not the eclipse. Reports are that much of England was clouded out. (Twitter rang with the tag #anticlimax) Ireland got reasonable views of a partial eclipse, but only those people in the Faroe Islands and Svalbard got to see the total eclipse from land. A total solar eclipse is a truly spectacular sight. More on that at a later date.

The end of the week came today. After doing some yard work, Bonnie and I went to the Sarasota County Fair. We go every year and enjoy it very much. In fact, in my opinion, if you live in Sarasota County and have never been to the fair, you need to go. It is part of the local culture and has many things to recommend it. There are the carnival rides (Nadia loves these), the midway with its games of skill and chance, the animals, the shows, and the food. There isn't much in the way of exotic fair food here, but plenty of good eats. Ears of corn, steak and cheese, fresh lemonade, Amish doughnuts, fried vegetables, frozen bananas, bar-b-q, Suncoast Church Strawberry shortcake booth, and elephant ears to name a few. This is a great place to people watch. A real melting pot of humanity. There is Crackerland (old time Florida) with its forge and wrought iron items being made and its music shows, the Old West gunfight, the Rosaire Pig Races, the bear show, magic show, musical acts and more.

Next Wednesday, March 25, marks the end of 3rd quarter, so my next post will be made during my final quarter of teaching. Oh and it won't be much longer until my big announcement. Stay tuned.

Spring Break

There is no school this week. I find that spring break is the least standard of all holidays taken by schools in the USA. Ours is a little earlier than some. Some wait until Easter Week, some a little sooner. Every school district has a formula or history that dictates when it happens. In any event, ours is this week.
Just before break, our grade level team (grades 11 and 12) had our regular meeting and we got to discuss some student awards to be presented at the end of the year ceremony.. The school has its own awards to recognize students who distinguished themselves in a variety of ways during the year. (Yes, I realize that the year isn't quite 3/4 over, but we have a pretty good feel for the students by now). In addition, colleges have adopted a way of promoting themselves while giving an award. They give a book to a worthy junior. The particular student is chosen by the faculty. That was our job last week and we had a bunch of then to figure out. This is a great time of faculty interaction. The greatest benefit for me is as follows: since the high school classes have around 200 students, it is not possible for a given teacher to know all students in a class. That means the decision must be reached by consensus using the input of a given student's teachers. In so doing, I learn about some great students that I have never taught (and will never teach). I also get to share info about some of my students that other teachers have not had. In this exercise, it really comes home, what great kids we have at Pine View. For the school awards, in particular, this is a problem. There are few awards and many deserving students. We do our very best to chose the best, most representative students as recipients of these awards, but inevitably, some who should be recognized aren't.
There are some things that are a fact of life at schools

The Saturday, March 7, Bonnie and I took our granddaughter camping for 5 nights. Several years ago we purchased an Aliner trailer to go camping with her. It has been a great investment. And I must say that Florida state parks are generally of very high quality. We have now camped at 9 different state parks and one county park. We have gone to several of these more than one time. This time we camped at Anastasia State Park near St. Augustine. We camped with some friends, so it was a great time. The first night was cold, plain and simple, dipping into the 40s. We had a big fire to ward off the chill and a little heater in the trailer that kept us nice and warm for sleeping. Sunday, the beach was nice, with some big (for us Gulf Coasters) surf. There was a motorcycle event in the area that included 5 parks, ours was one. So there were tents, displays and music that afternoon. We left and explored the town a bit in the afternoon. St. Augustine is celebrating 450 years as a town. During our time at the park we biked, kayaked and explored a terrific nature trail. We also had smores every night. (Nadia does not think it is camping without smores.)

Just before break I changed my school password for the last time. For the past several years we have had to change our password every 90 days. More final events to come. I can feel the end of the year rushing towards me.

I am getting closer to making that big announcement I keep mentioning. Stay tuned.