Bring it ON!

 So far we have not had snow, nor hail, nor torrential rain...I LIKE this Spring.  If Summer decided to be a bit like this Spring, I'd be totally cool with that.

I can't believe it is Friday again!  Thank goodness.

I've had a rough couple of weeks with one of my classes.  I've been making attempts to create a better environment for this class, hoping that these changes will make them less likely to act like assholes.  The other day there were three conversations that started when I opened my mouth to explain an assignment.  To say I was livid would be an understatement.  I screamed, I shouted, I cajoled, and I bargained.  They remained unapologetic pricks.  Yesterday they sat with their heads down for ten minutes.  I think they are getting the idea that I don't like it when they talk while I do.  Today was much better, and I am getting an idea of who responds to direct confrontation and who responds to guilt, and who responds to coercion.  It's a pain in the butt, but it seems to be working.

I was told by one of my classes today that one of my classes thinks I'm mean, one thinks I'm nice, and the one I just wrote about hates me and thinks I hate them.  All I had to do was mention putting their heads down and they shut up today.  I'd say that's progress, not hate.

Of course, I have heard other teachers wish that we could shock them into submission.  You know, like have an array of buttons corresponding to the electrodes on the kids bottoms.  Yeah, we still dream.

I haven't taken any photos this week, except for these pear photos.  I've been fairly busy.  I DID see someone run over by a car today.  Well, I think they got hit moments before I entered the intersection.  I pulled my phone out, but noticed others on their phones and decided flooding the emergency dispatch was not a good idea.  I was pleased when the dog-catcher pulled over and put his lights on: I knew a professional was on the scene.  Well, his truck had flashing lights.  That counts, right?  

I have read a few books recently.  I read the entire "Magic Bites" series by Ilona Andrews.  I wanted to read "When Thunder Rolled" again, but chose the follow on novel instead.  "Palace Cobra," is not a bad one, but I really enjoyed "When Thunder Rolled" better.  I bought "Plutonium" today.

So far it's really a good book.  Reminds me a little of one I read earlier this year.  "The Disappearing Spoon," a book on elements.  My favorite story was of two Nobel Prize winners in the early days of WWII.  They had their golden prizes, but did not want to the Nazis to take them and melt them down as part of the Nazi plunder of Europe.  So these gentlemen put their prizes in Aqua Regia, a solution that dissolves gold.  They put the solution on a shelf and then left the country.  The beakers were still in the exact place they had left them at the end of the war.  The Nobel Committee took the precipitated gold and stuck it into two new prizes.  Awesome, huh?

After this week, bring on the weekend!!