Monday, April 27, 2009

Math Competition

A while ago, I posted that our Math Club that I am trying to get going decided they wanted to host a local math competition, to which I was told there was no way I could pull it off. This said competition was this past Saturday, and it went surprisingly well. My students did work hard, and they did submit questions to me with answers, but the problem was, many were just not that difficult.

Now a week ago, I had only 1 team that had entered the competition. I panicked...what do I do??? Then I got an email saying another team was sending 2 teams. Ok, so now we are up to 3. I sent an email out to many schools who told me they wanted to come. And I got 2 more teams. So the competition ran with 5 teams, which for the first year, isn't so bad.

I think it was pretty successful, other than the fact that I was spending Thursday and Friday nights at my computer coming up with questions. The bad thing was, I did this so last minute, that I was doing my solutions late Friday night, and I had a few incorrect answers. Yikes, I am no math teacher right! Luckily, some of the other teachers were doing the problems and a few challenged my answers. I think on the total of 61 questions, I had 2 incorrect.

We will probably do it again next year, with some modification and I think we can have twice as many teams come, so that will be great.

I am feeling better, I think I am finally over my sickness...I went for two walk/runs last week. Only running a total of 10 min each time, which was rough, and went for a 22 min run yesterday. It was not the best feeling, but what do I expect after a 3 week hiatus of being sick and stressed out.

Only 3 more days of class....then final exams, semester is almost over!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Still Sick

Still alive but still sick...on another round of meds and feeling better but still have to sleep propped up on pillows or I cough all night long and just keep coughing and coughing all day...

The Thirteenth Tale...one of the best books I have read in a really long time. Extremely interesting and great writing style!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Detrained

I think I have run a total of 2 times in the past two weeks. Things got hectic, then we were in Detroit. We came back and next thing I know I am crazy sick with 101 degree fever. I am on some meds but I am severely tired and coughing up tons of stuff. Together, this does not make for good training. I was planning on doing a 5K before our trip but that will not be happening. Oh well. Looks like just more getting out of shape.

Finished a couple more books: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett which was pretty good. The story of a a terrorist group crashing in on birthday party trying to kidnap the president of Argentina who decides not to attend the party at the last minute. The story is mainly about all the different relationships that form between the different people that are there. It was good for me but not great.

We listened to Away by Amy Bloom to and from Detroit. It is the story of a girl who loses her family and travels to US to find work. Then she hears that her daughter might be alive and it goes through the journey of her trying to make her way to Siberia where she might be. The story becomes basically a collection of other stories of her travels and the people she meets. It was interesting and a decent read.

I am currently reading The Thirteenth Tale which is really good so far. I am thoroughly liking this somewhat mystery novel.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Thieves in Detroit

A summary of the strangest weekend I might have ever had:

Friday afternoon: drove 11 hours to MI, arrived at 11:37pm. Left my school bag in my car parked in my parents driveway. Bag contained purse.

Saturday morning: 7:45am I go out to the car...car has been broken into. Bag with school stuff (aka school laptop) and purse are gone. File a police report.

Sat evening: attend final four games...Go Tar Heels!!!

Sun morning: MI police recover my bags!! Minus the school laptop, brand new cell phone, money and TI-89 Calculator. My quizzes I was going to grade are still there...so my students will not receive all A's. And thank you to the thieves you left my purse which had my wallet, 2 pairs of sunglasses, and 2 inhalers. I at least don't have to get all new cards for grocery stores and libraries and my drivers license.

Sun evening: the craziest game of cards with my family...my sister was in the rarest of all forms!

Mon: pack all our stuff in the car to drive home after the game. Watch UNC win the national championship game!! Yeah!!! Kind of a blowout, but fun to be a UNC fan!!
We walk back to our car to find stuff from our trunk all over the ground by our car. What the heck...another car break in! Is my car screaming "come to me"??? This time the GPS is stolen but nothing else. They left our stuff on the ground for us to pick up.

At least no broken windows right?

Who has this kind of luck to have your car broken into twice in 3 days. I am not so upset about anything except the laptop...the school laptop, with all of my work for all of my classes on it. The rest of the "stuff" is replaceable.

Why hadn't I backed up my files over the past year???? :)

I am avoiding Michigan at all costs. No more visiting the family for a while until the economy turns around!