402 OF 424

This last few weeks has been a real grind. Teaching, of course: finals, and the inevitable senior 'will they graduate?' crisis. And, seemingly every other day, more paperwork, more unexpected (and often unpleasant) details to resolve before the school year where 'modernization' of our rooms is concerned. Most drainingly, I've had a course that I simply had to complete for my Clear Credential.

Well, I didn't just complete the course. I did my best to bury it. Granted that is was an education course rather than, say, developmental biology, but there was a test every day, a graduate-level paper to write and hours of classroom observations to document in just a three-week time frame. In fact, I was behind from square one because they wanted 20 documented hours of special ed classes in action, and there was no way I was going to be able to give up 6-8 hours a week. So right off the back I knew I would not be able to earn those points. I still finished with 402 points, quite a bit more than I needed, as it turned out. I wish I could say that I knew that I would do that all along, but since there was quite a bit of subjectivity in the grading, I couldn't even be sure of my 'A' after the last day of instruction.....so it's actually a bit of a rush to see that I ended up where I did.

It's kind of funny, really. When I went through college the first time grades weren't that important to me. Now that I've had to do things the hard way, now that I've seen so many 'students' who think the world owes them a living.....let's just say that, now, the grade is really, really, really important to me.

LOCKDOWN!

Well, we spent more than half an hour on lockdown this morning. This was not a drill, so there was apparently a real concern for student and staff safety based on conduct reports. The lockdown has now been lifted, and we await an explanation from administration.

Fortunately for me, I was in the middle of my prep, so I had no students freaking out in the classroom to contend with. In these circumstances, they all typically try to whip out their cell phones and call mommy, overloading the local service providers and making life difficult in general for emergency personnel. So I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that.

Though, of course, all my doors were locked, as were the doors to my doors. There are no windows at floor level accessible, so I'm pretty well sequestered, and I keep a few makeshift weapons handy by either entrance. Call me paranoid, but growing up on military bases and knowing where all the bomb shelters were seems to have had an effect on my sensibilities. I just kind of think this goes with doing my job, and already having a sort of action plan in my hand in case the 'unthinkable' happens just strikes me as part of the job.

**************UPDATE:****************

It appears that the incident in question may have been a hoax involving possible self-injury on the part of a female student, rather than an actual assault (stabbing was alleged). Well, that would be a relief, but I'm also gratified that our system apparently worked in this case. I'm now off to a staff meeting to discuss our response to the situation. I'm happy with the way our administration is being proactive in handling this matter.

THE MAGIC WORD IS BEAUTY

• Blog about science!

• Write letters to the editor, and op-eds, about science!

• Write books about science! *
  

• Make movies about science!

• Support your local science teachers!

• Don't debate creationists in public, but do discuss things with them. Creationists are not all stupid. Many of them want to reason with you, and you may find many of them reasonable and able to consider a different point of view.

• Promote Cafe Scientifique and other forms of engagement with the general public!

These are all good pieces of advice, but he saved his 'magic trick' on how to communicate ideas in all these forums for the conclusion of his talk. It's worth sharing:



I took this on a Flip video recorder, and the uncompressed audio (other than an inadvertent chuckle from yours truly) is a little low. Turn your speakers up, and see if you don't start nodding your head in agreement.

* Gentle reader, I encourage you to urge PZ to follow his own advice here with some (gentle, remember?) teasing. He needs to write that book!

**And, since I'm urging you to urge him, that no doubt makes me.....wait for it...... PZ's Demiurge.