digital photography class

These past few weeks I’ve been teaching summer classes where I work. It’s been really fun — each class was a week long, from 9-12. Our final week, I taught Intro to Digital Photography, meant to be an introductory class for Photoshop. Here is the work my kids have been learning, ranging from 4th grade to 8th grade. Go to “Students Learn Photoshop” under “News”: Countryside School. Direct Link here.

One million giraffes

There’s this guy trying to get one million hand-drawn pictures of giraffes by the year 2011. Who knows if he’ll make it; the Internet is a strange and large place. I just submitted mine, are you going to submit yours?

One million giraffes

house-hunting

We’ve been house-hunting for a couple weeks but haven’t found anything yet. There are a lot of old and strange houses in Urbana. Maybe we’ll get a condo. I’m kind of excited to buy — no more quarters for laundry!

I think the first week of summer school went well. I taught astronomy and gave kids their first starparty last night. They seemed just as thrilled and awed as we were when we were in high school at our first starparty — told them about planets, circumpolar constellations, the ecliptic, zodiac constellations, and Greek mythology. Next week I’ll be teaching another passion — Math and Art!

Kevin and I went sailing today. It was really nice out, though a bit gusty (in sailing, you want steady winds). At least we didn’t capsize. There were also a bunch of annoying motorboats out, who need to die.

Old

Oh, wow. My little brother is going to be married in a couple of weeks. And Kevin and Ernie just had their birthdays, and soon I’ll be 26, almost 30. We’re getting old. I think it really hit me when a 4th grader told me that he was born in 2000 during recess today. 2000 — that was when Y2K was freaking everyone out and we were in high school. And some day (very soon, actually) we’ll have to tell kids what it was like in 2000. And 2001: A Space Odyssey will be a comedy show, to them.

The scariest thing about being an adult is waking up and realizing your high school is running your world.

spring and mandalas

Spring (and Spring Break) is here! We planted some blackberries, chives, tulips, and wildflowers on Saturday. When we went to the greenhouse, there was a “desert” room, and I saw people oogling at cactus plants. It’s kind of funny to think that those are considered exotic out here.

I had my kids do a mandala assignment in geometry. I think they turned out pretty well; there are some really artistic kids in that class. It amazes me that there are some Illustrator/Photoshop whizzes who are only 13. I’ll try posting them next chance I get to take some pictures or whatever.

More MathCounts News

My predictions for this year were fun to make; I’ll have to be more rigorous for next year when the time gets closer:

Our team finished 20 our of 88 teams competing at state. Two on our team finished in the top 25%, placing 37 and 60. Between all the kids who were past or present Countryside students, we made up the top 10% at State. So, I was very happy.

Uni finished 4th place — whoohoo! So they got a trophy.

The kid who got first in Chapter finished 9th in State. So he went up for Countdown Round but did not go to Nationals.

And now I’m ready for Spring Break!

more to-dos

Two more Saturdays of February. I can’t wait for March! Now the big news is that our MathCounts team is going to compete in State Finals on March 7. Yay! We’re very excited. I predict that Uni will finish with a trophy, and the kid who got first in Chapter will go to nationals.

Kevin and I watched The Prestige last night. It was very good but also kind of confusing. I like David Bowie as Tesla — didn’t realize it was him until after looking it up though. We’ve also been getting into 30 Rock, Tina Fey’s show.

Can’t wait for Spring Break!

to-dos

Lots going on this month. In Priya-esque style, here are my to-dos:

• Uni Recs (mostly done….cross off some day!)
• MathCounts Chapter Competition, this Sat We finished 2nd!
• AMC 10
• Open House
• NAIS Conference
• Progress Reports, due end of this month
• MCP Silver Level Status

Two more weeks of February — then it’ll be March and the winter and craziness will be gone! Yahoo!

another bad sense of humor post

Here is a link to the ad placement from hell. Yikes!

The Elder Wang

This is my middle school-humor post. Over Winter Break, I got a chance to reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was reminded of something that cycled around the Internet for a bit, about replacing the word “wand” with “wang” in the Harry Potter books, and I found a passage that works pretty well, which seems to explain why Voldemort was really after the Elder Wang….erm, Wand:

“‘As I was saying,’ continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers. ‘I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wang from one of you before I go to kill Potter.’

The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.

“‘No volunteers?’ said Voldemort. ‘Let’s see…Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wang anymore.’

Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight and his eyes were sunken and shallow. When he spoke, his voice was horse.

‘My Lord?’

“Your wang, Lucius, I require your wang.’

‘I…’

Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wang and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his eyes, examining it closely. [...]

‘Good,’ said Voldemort. He drew out his own wang and compared the lengths.”

I swear, the woman does it on purpose.