It’s the last week before the Christmas break, and things have been a little hectic here. I’m involved in my school’s reaccreditation process, and we have a looming deadline for the Visiting Committee’s visit in April at the end of the week. I’m a nominee for the Edublog Awards, and as much as I’d like to pretend that they don’t weigh on my mind, they do. What to say, what to say…?
The holiday season is also on my mind, and finishing out the spending process on my Flexible Spending Account (FSA) before the money runs out on December 31.
And of course, many students have been off the wall the past few days. They had a timed essay on Friday, but it wasn’t the familiar (and hated?) 20-minute sandglass. Someone pushed it off my desk and smashed it last Thursday. And someone else smashed a figurine model of one of the Chi’n dynasty terra cotta warriors that was on my desk too.
I am not one to mourn the loss of things, usually. So the terra cotta warrior is easy to let go. But tools, particularly useful and elegant teaching tools, are hard things to give up. I bought this one at TJ Maxx for $11, and the others that I’ve seen are too large (1hr+ time) or too expensive ($150). So I’m on the lookout for a new sandglass of under a half-hour. And yes, I know, I could just google it (in fact, I did… the one closest to what I want is 30 minutes and $110, instead of 20 minutes and $15)
