Day Seven Back

Yesterday was terrible - I thought those what was I thinking when I considered teaching thoughts. I said more than one this is going to be a long year and knew I was in for the very long haul. Except for my first block physics superstars who helped move the tables out of my room (no small task) and then calmly learned about SI and metric standards, the rest of my classes were yappy and needed policing but I would have go to the police academy if I wanted to wear a badge and carry a gun besides I almost had a paperwork meltdown a few times.

Ah but then I had sushi for supper and the guy next to me at the sushi bar was from San Francisco and he was actually very interested in my teaching job and my interests in physics and global warming and being green and being on the Earthwatch expedition and being informed and making a difference. I gave him my blog address that he put into his hackberry, and I left more enthusiastic and I got a new pond for my retreat center (the one I got all ready had a leak - another reason for the terrible day) on the way home and woke up with a better perspective.

In my morning time I thought about a circle of flowers around our school fountain. My students got the fountain going on two different occasions last year and collected a black widow spider for a pet at one point - I will tell that story another time. However we never really got the flowers around it growing so it is mostly weeds. Last Friday we got to school to devastating news; one of my students who graduated last year was killed in an auto accident during her first week on scholarship at USM. I thought a circle of flowers memorial would be a great way for our students and faculty to remember her and keep life growing in a circle of love. Everyone seemed to like the idea.

Also I was awaited at my door by a welcome surprise - Ms. Dickerson who was kind enough to keep Benita, our classroom bearded dragon, all summer had brought her back home. My jaw almost dropped when I looked at Benita - she had tripled in size. The students were coming in left and right to see her again. Students were all in a flurry bringing in pond supplies and seeing Benita - what a welcome change from a dreary drag on yesterday.

My classes were all introduced to Benita, bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps and learned all about why we use Latin names all around the world.