Planning for the new season began this morning.

Honestly, after having taken the last six weeks completely “off”, it hurt a little.1 But like anything else in life, you put one foot in front of the other and take one step at a time.

One of the first steps typically involves rearranging the dates on the course calendar to fit the new dates. While this normally goes without much incident, this year’s calendar introduces a few wrinkles:

1. Our district is taking a full week off for Thanksgiving for the first time. It only cuts out two class days, but makes things a little uncomfortable towards the end of the 1st semester.
2. We are taking a full school day to administer the SAT to our students. We already do this for the PSAT in October, but now we’re adding the SAT in February.
3. Spring Break occurs a week later in the calendar. This is actually quite nice, as it allows us to get through inference with means at a more leisurely pace.2

As you can see, there’s a long to-do list of ideas for the course that I would like to implement someday. Whether or not they ever see the light of day this upcoming season remains to be seen.

1. Actually, it hurt a lot. [↩]
2. It also gives us some room for adjustments, in case we experience another “ice-pocalypse”… you know, “ice days” without any ice… [↩]
3. which means this idea was on my list for all of last year, but never found its way into the classroom. Maybe this year… [↩]
4. Perhaps it’s better if you don’t think about that one too much… =) [↩]

One morning this week I awoke in a cold sweat thinking,

Maintaining security during classroom exams (i.e., preventing cheating) is going to be a nightmare when Apple comes out with the iWatch1 this year.

You know those crazy, “random” thoughts that you often have upon waking up first thing in the morning — the ones that go away after being awake for more than five minutes, when your brain decides to start being sane?

Well, that one pretty much shows you where my mind is shifting as we enter the month of August.

FYI, the reality is already: “No phones or electronic devices in your pockets or on your person — put them in your bag and place all bags at the front of the room”. Pretty soon we will need to append: “and also remove all watches, glasses, contacts, and earrings.“ Blegh.2

Yeah… -_-

T-minus three weeks to opening day number eight.34

1. Yes, I’m aware that we already have smart watches from the likes of Moto, LG, and Same-sung. But let’s be real: the proliferation of such devices is likely to explode sometime in the next few months. [↩]
2. Incidentally, a coworker shared with me that in the 80’s — which I actually remember — the contraband du jour was calculator watches. So perhaps this is not an entirely new problem… [↩]
3. After watching “Sharknado 2” last week, I thought briefly of calling this: “Season 8: The 8th One”… or “Season 8: The Ocho”, for ye “Dodgeball” fans. [↩]
4. Oh, and if you don’t understand the title reference, go here. [↩]