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Actually, better than it might be. I'm still not great, but today I feel like I sort of have a brain and am not meaningless at work. Which is rather nice. (I am still quite tired, and I have a headache and the weird crankiness in my neck, but slight brain is nice.)
I have:
- helped a student find resources on Tokugawa Japan
- found a primary source for students focusing on the Rex v. Bourne case in England (one of the early abortion cases)
- checked out at least 20 books (yay for our circ stats)
- had conversations reassuring nice people that primary source documents for Queen Elizabeth are fairly easy to come by, and please do not worry. (But not going further, because they're still in the 'picking a topic' stage of the process.)
- contemplated finding resources on Kurdistan and the role of Kurds in the history of Iraq (we don't have much, and I should find something to add probably.)
- and need to track down a decent and reliable book about the history of the European witch trials (we have tons on Salem, but not so much on Europe.)
- going through this, had a moment almost every time of going "Well, if I can't track stuff down, I can pick X's brain about it" and then going "Oh, right, this is why they talk about personal learning networks" - because really, dear readers, you are neat people who know tons of interesting things.
On the note of things I have looked up for people, I'm continuing to see a trend that's really noticeable in the last year: people crossing over into doing a major research project on something unfamiliar to their experience. We have two groups doing things on abortion related issues (non-US, as this is their World Cultures class): both are groups of boys. We've got several people from one minority group doing research about a different one. And we have remarkably few doing the Big Obvious topics, which is really lovely.
I am, however, still hoping someone in one of these classes will do a project about Zepplins. (this year's History Day topic is invention and innovation, so they're particularly applicable.)
And finally
... had many people admire my word of the day (We have a white board easel upon which either I or the minion puts up quirky things - sometimes trivia, sometimes brain teasers, sometimes words.)
Today's is colubrine, which is a word for things of, relating to, or referring to snakes, and is one I'd never heard before. (I was familiar with the two other ones of that kind: serpentine and ophidian). It meant I got to draw a nice picture of a snake on the white board. (And next time I'm by an office supply store, I need to buy markers in more colors. My artistic range is limited by the black/blue/green/red ones work stocks currently.)
I have:
- helped a student find resources on Tokugawa Japan
- found a primary source for students focusing on the Rex v. Bourne case in England (one of the early abortion cases)
- checked out at least 20 books (yay for our circ stats)
- had conversations reassuring nice people that primary source documents for Queen Elizabeth are fairly easy to come by, and please do not worry. (But not going further, because they're still in the 'picking a topic' stage of the process.)
- contemplated finding resources on Kurdistan and the role of Kurds in the history of Iraq (we don't have much, and I should find something to add probably.)
- and need to track down a decent and reliable book about the history of the European witch trials (we have tons on Salem, but not so much on Europe.)
- going through this, had a moment almost every time of going "Well, if I can't track stuff down, I can pick X's brain about it" and then going "Oh, right, this is why they talk about personal learning networks" - because really, dear readers, you are neat people who know tons of interesting things.
On the note of things I have looked up for people, I'm continuing to see a trend that's really noticeable in the last year: people crossing over into doing a major research project on something unfamiliar to their experience. We have two groups doing things on abortion related issues (non-US, as this is their World Cultures class): both are groups of boys. We've got several people from one minority group doing research about a different one. And we have remarkably few doing the Big Obvious topics, which is really lovely.
I am, however, still hoping someone in one of these classes will do a project about Zepplins. (this year's History Day topic is invention and innovation, so they're particularly applicable.)
And finally
... had many people admire my word of the day (We have a white board easel upon which either I or the minion puts up quirky things - sometimes trivia, sometimes brain teasers, sometimes words.)
Today's is colubrine, which is a word for things of, relating to, or referring to snakes, and is one I'd never heard before. (I was familiar with the two other ones of that kind: serpentine and ophidian). It meant I got to draw a nice picture of a snake on the white board. (And next time I'm by an office supply store, I need to buy markers in more colors. My artistic range is limited by the black/blue/green/red ones work stocks currently.)
