Bored

I'm sitting at Swell's computer at her desk at school bored out of my mind. I'm sitting at her computer because, if you'll recall, mine is out of service. I'm on her computer because she is out shopping with the optometry TAs. Shopping for - I have no idea. She just likes to go with them. One of the girls wanted to buy a new pair of shoes so I guess she's just tagging along but will probably come back laden with stuff. I have no problem with her buying stuff but she'll soon realize that the new stuff will be taking the place of some old stuff. She can't bring it all back.

We will have more room in our suitcases on the way home so she can fit in some new stuff (we've dumped the majority of our books and all of our paper notes) but she won't be able to fit it all in as we bought some souvenirs in Egypt and South Africa that have to come home with us.

"Why don't you find something to do?", you might ask.

Well I did find some stuff to do. I've graded the two finals I've given. Spent hours typing up what score the students got on their practical final. I broke down the potential points for each small sub-section and then wrote what they got on each subsection with the hope that they will realize what they need to work on. In case they don't figure that out I wrote what they needed to work on.

Class average on the only written final I've given was 69% with a high of 77%. Grades for that class for the entire year reveal that NOBODY FAILED! So happy about that. Passing is 65% and one student ended up with 65.8%. Sweet.

I also wrote an abstract and submitted it for a congress being held in London. I'm trying to change my focus so I wrote it on the difficulties that people who want to work in public health optometry face - i.e. funding. It was a max. 300 word abstract. I haven't written the paper yet but the abstracts were due today. So I started, finished and submitted it today. I'm crazy. What is crazier is that the congress isn't until April 2008. What gives with that? They really need people to submit their stuff 11 months before the conference? As if. Stupid if you ask me. I could see 4 months in advance but nearly a year?

edited to add So I just got an email back from the group that I submitted my abstract to. I've copied it here because I find it absolutely hilarious that they have the nerve to ask for information 11 months prior to the conference and allow this to slip through:

"***** staff members are out of the office from April 23 - 27, 2007 attending the ******* Meeting in Mexico City. Please note that emails will be answered upon their return to the office."

Ummmm.... okay you expect me to have my stuff together 11 months in advance and you can't even remember to turn off your email away message for over two weeks?

End edit

I'm expecting my paper back from the journal I submitted to soon. I was told through the grapevine that the journal wanted the paper back from the reviewers on May 15 - today - so they'll forward it to me for revision sometime after that. That will give me something to do but all my notes are on my computer so I don't know how much I'll be able to work on that without my own computer. Hopefully there isn't a tight deadline.

So basically we're just waiting out our last week and a bit here. We can't really start packing because most of the stuff is clothes. We've packed our warm stuff already because its been unnaturally hot lately.

I can tell you that I hate making up exams. I'm not very good at it. I think I ask good questions but I'm not smart enough to read the question through a student's eyes. They read things bizarrely sometimes - taking the question to a realm I never even considered.

When I was a student I didn't read into questions as much as many of these students do. I think there are a few in every class in every school in the world. They read the question and then consider if the teacher implied that the situation was occurring on Jupiter after a solar flare because if it was the answer would change dramatically!

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!

Oh, I also made up my final, final today. For this class I'm giving them 6 "essay" questions and letting them pick the four that they want to do. If they answer all of them I'll just have them pick the four they want me to grade. It will be interesting.

It's fun to read their answers as English is not a terribly easy language to master especially when their first language is Arabic. Swell only gives multiple choice because she finds it easier to grade. She's missing out on some good entertainment. (I, of course, only grade them on the content not the structure of the answer).

We received word from Swell's Tata that her Mama arrived safely in Romania yesterday (our time), today (your time) but as I write this today it is tomorrow here (your time) and yesterday where most of you are (our time) so by the time you read it she may not have left Portland yet. Clear?

Anyway, I'm just wasting time now until it is time to go home so I'll leave you with a picture.




Haven't cut my hair since before Christmas. Countdown to next hair cut...

...10 days