A Humpphh Week

Sometimes no matter how positive an outlook one tries to keep the world seems to conspire to test every aspect of one's mental resolve. It's been the second week of advising at SMC which is always a great time to meet with students out of class and catch up on what they've been up to. Here's a link to my advising webpage. I also have to clear them to register for courses for next semester, and make sure they are aware of their GPA requirements and the various other Vermont Department of Education teacher licensure requirements they need to follow. I can even advise my study abroad students via email such as Kaytlyn who is studying in Australia. The hmmpphh part is those few students who fail to show up to their advising meetings and the difficulty sometimes of getting all the various graduation and licensure requirements to fit in 4 years and 124 credits. In the end everything always works out with the requirements and I always give the no-shows a second chance.

The math ed and special education meeting I attended at the VT DOE on Monday was interesting. The Special Ed presentation was great but the math ed piece just didn't seem to come together the way I would have done it; perhaps I'm too critical. The hmmppphhh factor here was that some of the math content seemed off the mark and there was no real theory as there was in the Special Ed piece. When two professional fields such as these collaborate it seems to me that there should be a form of synergistic theory development rather than two separate courses of action or thought.

And then finally, my house decided to give me hmmpphh in a big way. This past summer the town of Richmond received stimulus money to completely rebuild the aging Victorian sewer system. Two days ago I noticed water in the basement. Unfortunately is wasn't rain water as I first thought but a leaking sewer line. It turns out the contractors probably did a poor job of connecting the new line to the existing line exiting my house.