On high winds and their effects

Today we have a National Weather Service high wind warning.  While walking my dogs I was knocked around pretty good.  I found that I couldn't always move the direction I wanted.  My dogs weren't happy with the weather either but they seemed less effected by the wind than I was.  Could it be because they were closer to the ground than I was?  The other problem I experienced was the snow blowing in the wind.  With wind blowing that fast the falling snow wasn't really falling, it was blinding.  I couldn't see that well and I just had to trust that I knew where I was and what was around me.  That wasn't too hard since I've walked my dogs around that block almost daily.

While walking the dogs in the blinding wind, tossed to and fro I had an epiphany of sorts.

Ephesians 4 7-16 NIV:
 ⁷But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why it says:
   "When he ascended on high,  he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." ⁹(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? ¹⁰He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

 ¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
 
¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The wind in the spiritual sense in this case is capable of blinding us, and blowing us to an fro away from the truth.  The only way we are able to withstand this wind is to know who we are in Christ so that when the wind does come, and we can't see, we really don't need to see.  Since we know where we are and what is around us.  We do this through the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit.

Yet not us, but Christ in us.

Additional work without the additional pay

I'm sure everyone with a job can relate to this, so I thought I'd post it.

The school where I teach is moving to an all electronic system.  Over Christmas break the online registration system went live and now students register for their own classes.  Our drop/add schedule change process is still paper.

They just added a student notification system.  This is a way for the computer to send early warning letters to students who are in academic trouble.  I honestly don't mind, but the process is an amazing pain.  Its clear that they didn't involve a professor when they designed the system.

So now I have to do this on top of my other duties and of course no extra pay was awarded for the extra work.

Oh well, I can't complain too much, I could be unemployed after all.

Should employers buy all the work supplies needed for the job?

We all know teachers who spend their own money to buy things for the classroom because the school doesn't have a budget for the items.  Yea you can deduct some of this expense on your taxes but that's not really payback.

As I write this entry, I'm waiting for a computer hard drive to format because my wife is taking our computer to her work because the one on her desk is so terrible that she can't get any work done, and it takes thirty minutes for the thing to even start up.  It was built for Windows 98 and is running Windows XP SP3.  The word suck does not adequately describe how bad it is.

So anyway, I wonder if I send her boss a bill for the lease of my computer equipment if he'll pay for it?

Not likely, but it sounded good.

On facebook and high school graduating classmates

I have to say from the outset that I didn't like high school very much.  As an adult I found a very good reason for this.  After I was diagnosed with diabetes I was later diagnosed with something called diabetic depression.  It seems that for some people diabetes can aggravate a mild undiagnosed clinical depression and I found myself sleeping all the time and generally I was very hard to live with.  I didn't even like myself very much.

A few days ago someone I knew from school looked me up and send me a friend request.

As a matter of context, I never considered that any of the folks I went to school with were my friends simply because we weren't that close.  Some of that lack of closeness was me being mildly depressed and awkward, but the rest, I assume, stemmed from the fact that my father was an assistant superintendent of public schools at the school where I went.  Who among us wants to rouse rabble and cause trouble in front of witnesses that can not be trusted to keep their mouth shut?  (ie: me)

Anyway one of my classmates looked me up on facebook and asked me if I was the Rance that he went to high school with.  I said I was.  Then the facebook friend suggestion process runs wild suggesting to all of his friends that they might know me, and imagine that, some of them do.  I've already been in contact with three members of my high school class in as many days.

Given the fact that I graduated with just over 100 in my class, these three people and myself make up about 4% of the high school class.

Grading for grammar

All graduate level homework is graded for content spelling and grammar.  I have a new professor this semester that I have never had before.  He's docked me for what he called minor grammar mistakes that didn't impact the flow of the paper I wrote.

In all my graduate work so far, none of my professors (except this one) have even noticed a grammar mistake on my part.  I couldn't decide if this new prof was a better grammarian than the rest, or if I somehow mysteriously wrote worse than normal just for this prof.

I think I've decided that this prof is actually just a little more picky.  Which is fine, it gives me something to strive for.

Wow, what a day!!!

Yesterday (1/11/10) was the first day of school at CCC where I teach.  It was a tough first day.

Ten minutes into my lecture I got a knock on the door and found out that my classroom had been assigned incorrectly.  We had to move to a new room.

The lab that I teach has 8 waitlisted students and so in order to fit them all, I had to move the room that that class meets in as well.

Oh the joys of the first day of school.

Glad that's over.

Making early decisions without all the data

This morning I got an email from my boss asking me if I wanted to let my class run or have it cancelled.

There were 9 students enrolled in my class then, and that is less than the number required to run the class.

I knew that the two self-paced Math labs we teach had long waiting lists and if I canceled my lecture class these 9 students wouldn't have a place to go and would be behind a semester getting their courses completed.

I sent my boss a return email telling her to run the class.  Running a class with less than the minimum number of students enrolled has a negative impact on my pay check.  The good news is that by the end of the day the class made 10 and I get a full pay check.

It's late, or is it early?

Its about 12:30 AM Friday, January 8, 2010

I can't sleep.

Today was an interesting day,  I found out just how crazy owning a home can be.  I hate mortgage lenders.  The mortgage itself isn't so bad.  What's more I don't know anyone who can buy a house and pay cash for it.  But the lenders are tough.

I'm almost finished getting ready for the semester to start on Monday the 11th.  I'm excited about the semester.  I have some of the same students again.  It's helpful to have some idea of what to expect.  I'm trying very hard to understand Math anxiety and help my students get over it.

If anyone has hints, I'm all ears.

Belleview University started today 4 Jan., 2010

My graduate work continues as Bellevue University has started up from its Christmas break today.  Since most online classes actually run with a Tuesday to Monday week, or even a Wednesday to Tuesday week, nothing much happened today.

My enrollment for my class at CCC is up to 7.  We have to have 10 to run a class.  But the enrollment was only 6 before the Christmas break, so its good news that enrollment is up.  Only 3 more to run the class.  Classes don't start till the 11th so I have a little less than a week to find out if the class is going to run.

CCC got new carpet in many of the rooms over the break.  The common hallways and most of the offices got new carpet, CCC's offices opened today, and I couldnt resist a quick peek at the new floor.  It looks very nice.

CCC-Kearney really needs a new campus.  The old bowling alley that we are in is simply too small to have enough classrooms to offer all the classes that CCC has the student demand for.  I have no idea where a bigger building would be available, but I'm hopeful that CCC can figure something out soon.

If CCC makes a building commitment in short order, they will finish the new place about the time I finish my Masters degree.  Would be nice if I got to stay on and just switch departments.

Happy new year everyone!

Almost there

Its 2:16 PM on Jan 2, and I only have one more paper to write and I'll be caught up just in time for school to start again.  I love school, but its a means to an end.  I want to teach professionally at the college/university level.  In order to do that, I need a PhD.  But the Masters I'm working on now will likely get me a job so I can finish the PhD.

I didn't mention it in my last blog, but I'm a disabled veteran of the US Army.  I'm going back to school with the help of the VA's VocRehab program. Thanks to them I can afford to keep my house, work part time, and go to school.