Busy, filled days this past week, and more ahead.
Torrential rains last night brought some welcome relief to a few weeks of very dry days; browning yards seeing changes in color this morning. Nice to see some green return to Greenville, for sure.
My need to get in about 8 more hours in the yard cleaning out a long-neglected area may have to wait until next week, though, as I’m very much feeling time pressing in as the start of classes is only a few weeks away.
Thankfully, it seems that the poison ivy reaction i got in cleaning the yard last weekend may be subsiding (thank you prednisone). As we’re looking forward to a dive this Sunday, and I really don’t want to spend a hot day in a wetsuit with p.i. beneath, I hope this trend continues. We’re excited to get out on a boat and dive with a new group, as it’s been since Kau’i (March) that we’ve done so. We did get in a few trips to the quarry a few weeks ago, just Pattie and I, but this will be the sort of trip we really like. It’s on a small boat–a 6-pack, as they say–on what they call an ‘inshore’ dive which, i believe, means about an hour from shore. The offshore dives go out considerably further; am sure we’ll do those in due time, but want to start with half-day, rather than full-day, to get to know these folks. W’ve a really good feeling about them so far–the folks who run these charters–and look forward to meeting their ‘regulars’ this weekend.
As Jackson approaches the big 1st Birthday milestone next week, we sent along a stepstool-table/desk, and just got these pictures of him posed appropriately… Wish we could get them down here for good!
Yesterday felt like getting over a serious hump in the design of one of my classes. Have now recorded a little video-presentation using powerpoint and posting on the LMS, have created a quiz, a few discussions, and learned to used the grading system. Progress in getting comfortable with the system’s capabilities, and increasingly focusing on the organization of, and presentation of materials. If all goes well, by the end of today I’ll have the first 3-4 ‘classes’ complete. So much of the class is ‘flipped,’ i.e., the teaching materials are online, ready for students to engage at their own pace, that this is really an interesting change in approach. If the plan holds (ha!) our synchronous meeting times will be spent working on assignments together, answering questions, etc. The best laid plans…
