posty goodness
i'm teaching again this week and it's a completely different world from last week. i have two smart, tech-savvy students who are familiar with other software of this type and have been using it hands-on in recent times. they both have good headsets for the online communication, proper computer mouse/monitor setups for the type of work, and are comfortable with using windows software in general. so this week, i'm consoling rose, who is having a miserable time mothering all her coworkers and dealing with clients who have caught a bad case of the stupids.
i found out what was causing at least part of my student's trouble last week. she was working on a pretty small laptop screen, and she didn't have a real mouse. just the touchpad. now, if you've ever done any drafting work, you'll immediately grok that this is a bad situation. if not, well... try to imagine that you've been tasked with chopping all the vegetables for my gumbo-cooking, and all you have is a butter knife. it's nominally a knife, yes. but it really was intended for a much more casual knife task than the dicing of crisp vegetables and there is a tool much better suited to the task that you should be using. this was part of why my student seemed so stupid last week. she was using the wrong tool for the job, and wasn't at all familiar with the job in the first place. by the end of the week, though, she had "gotten it". in part because there was no more drafting, and in part because she really was bright enough to figure out the analysis parts of the software.
this week i am reveling in the quality and quantity of good friendship with which i am surrounded. i've had awesome company this week and great conversations and i'm glowing with the blessing of a rich social network. life is good! i am blessed!
oh, and in other news, my iris... the one i dug up and carted with me when i had to sell and move out of my grandparents' house in austin. the one that symbolically carries all of my memories of my grandmother in the pot with it, the one that i nearly killed by over-watering it and nearly killed by under-watering it, and nearly froze by forgetting to bring it in during an ice storm last year... it is BLOOMING. for the first time in six years. for the first time since i put it into a pot, it is blooming. one gorgeous, glorious, paper-fine white bloom. rose is in charge of taking pictures. i'll post them if she ever passes them along. seriously, my life is good.
i found out what was causing at least part of my student's trouble last week. she was working on a pretty small laptop screen, and she didn't have a real mouse. just the touchpad. now, if you've ever done any drafting work, you'll immediately grok that this is a bad situation. if not, well... try to imagine that you've been tasked with chopping all the vegetables for my gumbo-cooking, and all you have is a butter knife. it's nominally a knife, yes. but it really was intended for a much more casual knife task than the dicing of crisp vegetables and there is a tool much better suited to the task that you should be using. this was part of why my student seemed so stupid last week. she was using the wrong tool for the job, and wasn't at all familiar with the job in the first place. by the end of the week, though, she had "gotten it". in part because there was no more drafting, and in part because she really was bright enough to figure out the analysis parts of the software.
this week i am reveling in the quality and quantity of good friendship with which i am surrounded. i've had awesome company this week and great conversations and i'm glowing with the blessing of a rich social network. life is good! i am blessed!
oh, and in other news, my iris... the one i dug up and carted with me when i had to sell and move out of my grandparents' house in austin. the one that symbolically carries all of my memories of my grandmother in the pot with it, the one that i nearly killed by over-watering it and nearly killed by under-watering it, and nearly froze by forgetting to bring it in during an ice storm last year... it is BLOOMING. for the first time in six years. for the first time since i put it into a pot, it is blooming. one gorgeous, glorious, paper-fine white bloom. rose is in charge of taking pictures. i'll post them if she ever passes them along. seriously, my life is good.