Sunday, April 13, 2008

Extreme Frustration

Ever feel like the world is plotting against you? This morning I sat down on the couch, ready to grade, and realized that my answer keys were at the high school, which is 30 minutes away. Since it would take more than an hour to recreate the keys, I decided that I would head to the HS and run by the hospital to see my dad on the way back. So far so good, right? I get home, start grading and make fairly decent progress over the course of the afternoon. About 5pm, I decide I had better start working on this week's lessons. It is now 9pm and I am still trying to print the paper that I started trying to print at 5. I am *so* pissed off at my printer right now. I have a huge HP LaserJet 5 with duplexer that is totally possessed by demons. Every time I try to print, it has different issues. What works well one day won't work at all the next day. The total inconsistency is about to drive me INSANE!!! (Note to self: I do love my hubby for finding this printer because when it works, it works well - the duplexer is awesome - but I swear it's possessed by demons!!!)

Both at the HS and the Uni tomorrow, I am teaching Chi-Square tests. At a workshop I attended last summer, we had done the VARK learning styles test and analyzed our data. So that's my plan tomorrow - if I can get the stinking thing to print. I plan to do a Goodness of Fit test to see if all learning styles are equally represented and then a test of homogeneity to see if there is a difference between males and females.

This week is going to be interesting. At the HS level, we start our End of Course tests and the Geometry test is 1 week away. I will not get through the Geometry curriculum before the tests and have to hope and pray that my students do okay on the material we have learned. The AP exam for Stat is only 3 weeks away, I have 2 chapters left to go and lots of praying there too.

*sigh* Now if only I could get the printer to print.....

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have just found your blog, and read it through from the start becoming more and more impressed. You DO work hard! Was that really your first holiday since 2003?

It would be fascinating to know the different experience of teaching statistics at HS and uni level: do you find that your uni students start out with about the same amount of knowledge?

I have been involved in the development of an interactive tutorial for teaching statistics to math-averse students, and would be very interested to know what you think of it, if you ever have a moment to look(!). You can download a free demo at http://www.conceptstew.co.uk/PAGES/demo.html

druin said...

Thanks Jill :)

I do expect a lot out of myself and I believe that when I stop growing as a teacher is the day I should throw in the towel. Hopefully that day is very far away! It's hard to find time to get away from town - usually we go to the lake for a weekend, but spring break was the first time we had taken a trip since 2003.

I will take a look at your demo sometime this weekend. Thanks so much for reading!!!