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May 14, 2011

Today's Mail

Look what came in today's mail! Woot!

Oh my!

It has been forever since I have taken the time to post to my blog! So much has happened since I last posted! I spent the first part of summer with my friends Jennifer and Aaron in Sedalia, Missouri and the last two months of summer with my friend Shannon in Gravette, Arkansas (peppered with several overnight visits to my brother's house). Over the course of the past four months I have have lived with three sets of friends. Packed, moved, stored, moved, cleaned, unpacked, and cleaned some more! I am nearly done unpacking, however my new house (rental) has not been properly taken care of and I fear I may NEVER be done cleaning! Additionally, I finally, and I mean FINALLY finished, submitted, and defended my dissertation! I must make a few corrections, print the darned thing on cotton paper, and pray the graduate school approves my margins. I am most excited.

The fall semester began three weeks ago and I've yet to catch up. I am hoping to catch up this weekend, but I fear it may be December before that happens! I've got a couple of new classes, a new Blackboard platform to learn, and twice the number of committee meetings! Somebody light a candle for me!

The Library

The library is a quiet and dark place. Just like a library should be, I think! It is probably the second largest room in the house with the basement "playroom" coming in first. The library is adjacent to the dining room and the foyer and most likely served as the formal living room. It is a large rectangle with two windows on the exterior wall. There are no overhead light fixtures or wall switches. Perfect for nine six feet tall book cases and then some.

I'd like to say that the library contains all of our books, however there are two bookshelves in John's room and two in Orion's room. And if I recall correctly, there might be two or three boxes of books left in the garage. (And a whole bunch more in my office at school!) At one time I could give you a precise number of books owned, but not any more. With every move I have given several boxes away. With every trip to Half-Priced Books in Overland Park a few more books find their way home. To limit my habit, I try to purchase only hard back books. This new approach is working and my book whoring had slowed considerably.

In addition to the innumerable books, the library contains two comfy chairs a floor lamp, a roll top desk, the dissertation table (ugh!), and a lot of tchotchke. One of my favorite items is pictured left, a wind chime from S. Korea that Tree and P.D. sent to Orion when he was born. Below are some additional pictures of the library.

(Letter writing central)

(Children's literature corner)

(Wall of books and dissertation table; view from the dining room)

(Looking toward the foyer from the dining room)

With the dissertation and so many of my favorite items residing in the library one would think I would spend more time there. I wish I did.

House Sittin'

Four night down and five to go.

I've been hanging at friend's house while she is away hugging grandchildren. It's my job to keep an eye on her dog and two kitties. And I have to say, I love the pet door. They come and go as they please. But I swear, there's a bird in the house today. I hear it, but cannot find it. I am certain with two kitties it won't "be" in the house long.

I've been using my time here to work on the literature review- reorganizing and including articles I've recently found. I need to go to the office and print a few things so that I may also attempt some of the smaller data analyses that I prefer to do by hand: item analysis for the questionnaire, coding of the interviews, and agreement rate between the two questionnaires.

I thought my friend's subscription cable would distract me, but so far I haven't found anything to watch. But I love the music stations. Great genre choices and no commercials.

Back to work! Tomorrow I plan to play a little.

Faculty Research Day

Every spring the University of Central Missouri's Information Technology and Instruction and the Center for Teaching and Learning host Faculty Research Day. It begins with a call for research papers in the fall. The deadline for these papers is at the end of January. These papers are anonymously reviewed by our colleagues and winners are announced in March. The first place winner earns $500 while the second place winner earns $250.

I submitted a paper based on my dissertation data (hiss!). I wrote the paper for the ASTE conference in Connecticut in January and presented with my advisor, Dr. Wavering. I was also second author on another paper, "Persistence of Meteorological Misconceptions." My gal pal, Sal (aka Dr. Zellers) was first author and the paper shared findings from our initial study on weather misconceptions common to undergraduate students. This paper was also presented at the ASTE conference in January.

Winners were announced Tuesday. First place for Education and Human Services went to a colleague for his paper, "Effects of an Inner City Preschool Teacher-Directed Curriculum on the Achievement of Third Grade Students Following Standardized Assessment Measures for English and Mathematics" and the second place went to ME for my paper, "Alternative Conceptions in Earth Science and the Preservice Teacher." (Special thanks to my editor and advisor, Dr. Wavering, who served as co-author!)

Both of these papers came from our newly formed department, Elementary and Early Childhood Education! A major coup for us. And while I didn't place first ~sob~ I did spend several hours editing the paper that earned first place so I like to think I helped a little. The award ceremony will be Friday, March 6, in the Union! I can't wait!

Tired and Cranky

Tired and cranky. These words are almost always associated with toddlers. However, as of late, they're quite appropriate descriptors of me. The semester is winding down at an alarming rate. I have one and a half weeks of class and a week of finals; I can hear the fat lady singing in the distance. This is been a semester of 12-14 hour days: grading, planning, researching, and writing. And the most distressing thing of all is that despite all the time I've logged, I still can't seem to catch up.

There are 'virtual' piles of papers to be graded (Ma, virtual here means they're electronic, and not hard copies.), there's a dissertation that is simmering (at least it's not cold), four research papers that are in the process of being written, grades to be posted, and plans for next semester! Yee gads!

Suffice it to say I've been terribly tired and most cranky. I am tired of eating fish sticks, frozen pizza, and corn dogs (Although I do love corn dogs!). I want chicken soup with matzo balls; I want baked chicken; I want steak! But I seem to be lacking two things: time and money.

So I've hypothesized that these two factors combined with poor nutrition have only compounded the grumpy and tired factors by several degrees.

With all this said, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can count on one hand the number of class periods I have left. I will have a week during Thanksgiving to rest and write and clean. Lovely! I plan to do all three. I'll have two weeks of class in December and then I'll have another three weeks to work on research (the dissertation and the four papers).

Ten Days

I cannot believe it has been ten days since I have posted! It just might be a record! I apologize; it is simply an indicator of how busy the past few weeks have been. My absence from the blogosphere, the pile of laundry, the unmade bed, the sticky kitchen floor, and the unpaid bills all point to the same, wicked truth. School has resumed!

I have been spending roughly 14 hours every day on campus. This has been my attempt to get caught up so that I can devote more time to research. You may ask how I could be so far behind during the first week of school. I didn't even have papers to grade until Thursday! After all I went to work a week early to get things ready. Alas, I had a student that consumed a particularly great deal of my time (over thirty hours in a week an a half). This student was not prepared to enter their internship and waited until the last minute to begin making corrections to the document that would enable them to participate in the internship. Said student had nearly three months to make corrections. And while the quote "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute and emergency on mine," continually played in my head over the course of dealing with said student, I was still the one who ended up being the most affected. Who pays for a students inability to follow directions, to plan, to organize, or to write coherently? Not the student. The teacher.


That aside, a great deal has happened in the last few days.

• School started for all three of us! Orion is navigating the often choppy waters of middle school. John is taking two courses (Anthropology & Ecology) in the mornings. And I am attempting Meteorology. I say attempting because I am conducting research with the professor of the course (Sally) and hanging out. I fear that I may not have the time to dedicate to studying.
• John has returned to the late night shift of 3:15 to 12:15.
• I am teaching another full load this semester, however I have taught all of these classes before so at least I have a vague idea of what I am doing this time around!
• An old friend died last week.
• Helen, the grey kitten, was adopted by three young ladies, students at UCM.
• I've been pretty sick and I have a mild case of pink eye! Allergy related? Perhaps.
  

And this is only a sampling of what has been happening! I have decided to use my blog as an incentive or reward! When I complete a certain amount of tasks, I will allow myself to post to the blog. Unfortunately, I doubt that there will be much to report. All work and no play makes Kat a very dull blogger!

Let's hope not!

Misconceptions of Astronomical Proportion

What have I done? I participated in a Writer's Workshop, that's what "I done." I decided to participate for two hours graduate credit so that I may easily renew my Missouri Teaching License. Part of the requirements for graduate credit included creating, revising, and submitting a manuscript for publication. Holy smokes!

And as of today, August 12, 2008 I have completed my first book proposal. After my professor evaluates my manuscript proposal I will submit it to NSTA Press (National Science Teachers' Association) for consideration.

My proposed book is called "Misconceptions of Astronomical Proportion: An Illustrated Guide" and I will rope my friend, Sally Zellers, into being co-author. The book will target school teachers. I have suggested ten chapters. Each chapter will cover a common misconception in astronomy, provide the current scientific understanding complete with illustrations (gotta find an illustrator!), and lastly offer teachers developmentally appropriate (bases on National Science Education Standards) activities and demonstrations that teachers may implement in their classrooms. What fun!

Sally and I had often talked about writing a series of these books over misconceptions in biology, earth science, and possibly chemistry. But both of us seriously doubt our content knowledge in at least two of those areas. However, through the process of creating my manuscript proposal, I realized that Sally and I could serve as editors for books over areas that may be beyond our 'cognitive scope.'

I've not give much thought to chemistry, but for biology I will be looking for misconceptions about evolution, plant life, reproduction, and more... If you're interested in writing a chapter for my common biology or chemistry misconceptions books drop me a line. I'm so excited! Some of you may be hearing from me via email in the very near future!

Wish me luck!

S is for Steel Creek

(Stones at Steel Creek on the Buffalo River, April 2008)

Steel Creek is one of my most favorite places to camp. It is located near Ponca, Arkansas on the Buffalo National River. April 4th, 5th, and 6th found me, my family, and several friends "roughing it" down by the river. It has been almost exactly two years since I had been camping. So I used my trip to Fayetteville to interview my subjects as an excuse to spend time at the river and with my friends. It was wonderful! We arrived at 6:00 a.m. precisely and were delighted to discover that Steel Creek is exactly four hours from the 'Burg when traveling down highways 13 and 65 (between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.). It was foggy and cold! We set up camp, had a bite to eat and then napped for a bit. We played by the river (which was up for us, but way down from the recent flooding they experienced) that afternoon, had dinner and waited for our friends to arrive. Shannon and Mia arrived at 10:00 p.m. but by that time I was already tucking myself into the tent. Orion and John helped them settle. Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous! The dogs, Nola and her brother Nate (Nate belongs to Mia), played and played. John roasted a magnificent turkey breast and we all ate till we popped. That evening our friend Pope (now Dr. Pope) joined us with mudbugs and Priscilla (her giant German Shepherd). We broke camp on Sunday, but took our time; we didn't leave the valley until 3:30.

Monday found me interviewing my subjects and we made our way back to the 'Burg shortly before 11:00 p.m.

Home, Only to Leave

Monday was a big day! A day of ups and a day of downs. I made it safely to Fayetteville only to discover that three of my last four interview subjects had been called out to their schools to assist with benchmark testing! I was on the verge of tears! My advisor was great. I took a deep breath, pulled some more names and started interviewing. A subject that was unable to meet with me last week showed up so I nabbed him. After lunch the Springdale cohort returned and I was able to pick up two of the three folks. I spent the afternoon in my advisor's office going over what needs to happen next and working on a timeline. We chatted about one of my most favorite and dearest professors, Dr. Rose Steelman. I had him and Rose to my house for brunch one day (years ago) as they both mean so much to me and are "painful constructivists." After my visit with him I had about an hour before my next interview so I decided to check my email. There I received an email from a friend in southern Arkansas. Rose died in February. The paper in Commerce, Texas wrote her a lovely obituary. And I sobbed like a baby. But I pulled it together, conducted my next interview, and completed the data collection process for my dissertation. Now I am just waiting for a few more expert surveys to find their way to me. Monday ended on a lovely note- I had a marvelous dinner with my big brother before returning to Shannon's.

Tuesday came too quickly, but I had class that afternoon and that evening. Into the car I jumped and headed north as quickly as possible. I was elated to make it back over the state line before I needed to refuel. Gas in Fayetteville and Bentonville is anywhere between $3.28 and $3.35. I paid $3.15 in Anderson. I was pleased to be making good time and was looking forward to my regular stop in Lamar (It's just about halfway and it's a great place to pee.). Seven miles south of Lamar there was a huge accident. I sat for nearly 90 minutes. I was three cars back from the wreck, but couldn't see anything for the semi trucks in front of me. I did watch as two LifeFlight helicopters landed, first one, then the other. It was miserable. After about 30 minutes I knew I wasn't going to make it back in time for my afternoon class. The second helicopter had yet to land. I watched it circle. And circle. And circle. Eventually I made it to Lamar where I stopped to relieve myself before jumping back in the car to (carefully) race the rest of the way home.

Tuesday evening Orion was too sick to remain at the library while I had class so we left roughly 20 minutes early. He cried and cried all the way home. I was tempted to take him to the emergency room, but wasn't entirely sure they would know what to do with him. My sister-in-law, Robin made several good suggestions. After Tylenol, a warm bath, and some TLC he settled enough to sleep.

Today I have spent preparing for my first paid consulting gig in St. Louis. I leave tomorrow evening after class. All day Friday I'll be sharing math games with Lyon A.B.I. It will be good to see my old teacher friends. I'll be returning Saturday afternoon!

April has been a whirlwind of travel. I am glad to see that the end is in sight. But for now, I am home, only to leave again.

Q is for...

Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Truth, & Beauty… My first Quarks. Is it too late to go back and finish my Physics degree?

Q is for Quantitative Data… What I have been entering all weekend and plan to analyze soon! The Qualitative Data is slowly following.

Q is for Quadragenarian… I may only be 38 but I am feeling every bit of forty-something today!

Dubious Crock-pot Experiment #1

It has been forever since I've been to the grocery store. But I am in that "use what you have in the pantry" mode. I am also in that work on the dissertation every spare moment mode. And to top it off, I had a PDS book study in Knob Noster this afternoon and I have an Advisory Board meeting tonight! When would I make dinner and what exactly would I make?

I decided to write down what I did on the off chance that what came out of the crock-pot hours later would be edible. About two hours into cooking I was delighted by the smells coming from simmering crock-pot on the counter. Perhaps dinner wouldn't be so bad after all. I am home for only a few minutes before rushing off again. I gave the contents a stir and a taste. I am looking forward to dinner later! I went ahead and made rice (for Orion) and I have flour tortillas as well. I dare you to give it a try. Let me know what you think. And please suggest a name for this recipe using comments or by sending me an email. I am not sure I can call it "Dubious Crock-pot Experiment" forever. Especially if I decide to submit the recipe...

Dubious Crock-pot Experiment #1

What you need:
Can o' Black Beans
1/2 Bag of Frozen Corn (More if you like!)
4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts; sliced or diced (You decide.)
Garlic and Onion Powder
Cumin and Cayenne Pepper
Cilantro
1 Onion; chopped
1 Jar of Salsa (As spicy as you want!)

What you do:
1. Open can of black beans and rinse. Toss in crock-pot.
2. Toss in half bag of frozen corn.
3. Place chicken on beans and corn. Sprinkle with garlic, onion and garlic powder, cumin, cayenne, and cilantro.
4. Top with chopped onion.
5. Dump jar of salsa on top.
6. Place lid on crock-pot, turn on low, and leave it for 4 to 5 hours.

Serving suggestions:
A) Serve over chips topped with cheese for a "chicken nacho" kind of meal.
B) Serve over rice.
C) Wrap it up in a flour tortilla topped with cheddar cheese.
D) Use it in a salad topped with Ranch dressing or sour cream.

Spring Break Lament!

What happened to spring break? Is it over already? Where did it go? What did I do with all that time? Well, I'll tell you!

Saturday, the first day of break, my friend Ruthie came over and helped unpack about three (3) dozen boxes of books! Not only did she help with the books, she brought lunch from Wendy's AND made dinner in the crock pot!

I spent Sunday unpacking a little bit more and packing for my trip to Arkansas. Orion and I left around 2:00 that afternoon. About two hours later than I had hoped. We arrived at Shannon's house at 6:00. We joined Shan's entire family for dinner at Pizza Hut. We had fun. It was lovely. But Orion drank too much caffeine at dinner! I was not a watchful mama and I paid that evening with less than four hours of sleep trying to get HIM to sleep. Ugh.

Monday dawned early. We were up at 5:30 and out the door by 6:15. We made our way to Fayetteville where I found a parking spot on campus (I was there by 7:15!) and hiked up the hill to collect some more data for the dissertation (!gasp!). Orion waited in Peabody Perks, the coffee shop, while I did my thing. He chatted with faculty, staff and students while avoiding his homework. Once I finished I sat with him for a while and we worked on his school work. We had a dinner date that evening with Michael and Robin and couldn't decide if we should go back to Shan's (an hour away) and sleep or just tough it out. We decided to tough it out and save on gas money and drive time. So we spent the day visiting with Amber and Lux and hitting the local thrift stores. It was a gorgeous day and we even spent some time flying a kite at Gully Park. What a blast. I had received some bad news about a young friend of mine and we had hoped to visit her, but she was not allowed "non family" visitors so we dropped a note off at her house for her before heading over to have a fabulous Mexican meal with Michael and Robin and La Hacienda. Yum! It was 9:45 by the time we got back Shan's and we were plum tuckered out! But the best news was that Shan had decided to take a mental health day on Tuesday to spend with us!

Tuesday was another fabulous day! Absolutely! We woke up. Got dressed and jumped in the Honda and zoomed out of town. Shan bought us breakfast at McD's and we were headed down to the Buffalo River in no time. The weather was perfect. Sunny, mid sixties, blue skies! We spent several hours sitting on the bank of the river looking for Odin Stones. I took my shoes off and stuck my feet in the icy water! It was pure bliss. We then headed up to Osage to visit with my friend Newton Lale at Osage Clayworks. Orion made a few pinch pots while Newt 'threw' about a dozen dinner plates and we chatted about all sorts of things. What a perfect day! We came home via Route 62 through Eureka Springs and Garfield so we got to view the changes to E.S. and the growth out at Beaver Lake. We were plum tuckered out when we got home. Shannon made fabulous tacos! I cannot wait to try her recipe myself. Shan's family joined us for dinner Tuesday too! Did I mention that Tuesday was perfect!

Wednesday I did nothing. Shannon's dad picked Orion up at 5:30, in the morning, and they did farmer things all day. I slept till about 8:30, showered, did laundry (mine and some of Shan's) and finished the first season and started the second season of Grey's Anatomy. Shannon enticed me to stay that evening with the promise of making Chicken Shannon (a recipe John created some 15 years ago for Miss Shannon herself!) as I hadn't had it in forever! We visited the local grocery after Shan got home from school and I prepped while Shan cooked. We fed another host of folks for dinner that night too! Shan's sister joined us and Shan's friend from school, Kelly, and her daughter Summer. Orion went to bed early, but I stayed up to watch more Grey's Anatomy!

Thursday Orion and I made a leisurely trip back to Missouri. We stopped at several flea markets in the Eldorado Springs area. I purchased some nifty '70s glassware that goes perfectly in our new house. We made it home about the time John finished work. After dinner I got a second wind and unpacked boxes, mostly in the kitchen this time, till 2:00 a.m.

Friday I was slow to start. Sore from the hard work. But I had to get up. The flooring guys were supposed to come. Orion and I spent that morning in the garage unpacking more boxes of books and all sorts of forgotten treasures. The flooring guys arrived just after noon and I no longer have carpet in my bathroom (ewww!). I have a lovely, bright linoleum. Much better. But those guys sure did stir up the dust. The bad news is that I still don't have flooring in the foyer. Seems the door is too low or the floor is two high. So there's some debate about how they plan to fix that.

I went to the grocery store early Saturday amidst a flurry of flakes. Huge, fat, wet snow was falling from the sky at an amazing rate! But it was warm and it melted by noon. The rest of the day, some eight hours, was spent working in my library. I foolishly thought I could just toss books onto the shelves and that I would organize them at another time. I couldn't stand it! I caved. I ended up alphabetizing (by author's last name) my two bookshelves of young adult literature and my one bookshelf of popular fiction. Four other bookshelves were organized by subject/category. Astronomy, religion, art, history, philosophy, dictionaries, literature, poetry, and the list goes on. I have three stacks, roughly four feet tall each, of children's picture books that need to be organized (most likely alphabetical by author's last name, but non-fiction will be categorized by subject area), another bookshelf to be assembled, and about six more boxes of books in the garage! Nearly everything else has been unpacked. Now I am just in the process of shifting it from one place to the next.

Sunday... I spent today wondering where in the heck my spring break disappeared to and chastising myself for organizing books instead of grading papers (ugh!). Today I cleaned both bathrooms again and finally got my shower curtain up! I will get to shower in my OWN bathroom tonight. W00T! The house is coming together. I still have curtains to hang. I've not even made it to the basement to unpack the games or goodies down there.

Now I must mention how helpful Orion has been throughout this entire move. He carried boxes and boxes and boxes to the new house. And he's carried nearly every box in from the garage for me. He removes the empty boxes and brings more to be unpacked. He has swept and vacuumed and match me step for step. Thank you, Orion!

Friday Revisited

What a week! What a week! I hope Friday finds you all doing well! We are blessed with a 50 degree day! Saturday will be a lovely 60 degrees! We won't know how to behave! But don't worry, Mother Nature still has a few surprises: We're expecting snow for Monday! Oh yes!

Here's a recap of my week!

I raced to and from Fayetteville to collect data on Monday for the "D." I am pleased to announce that it went well and I will be moving forward with the next level of data collection (interviews!). I plan to return to Fayetteville over my spring break (March 10) and then again on Easter Monday (March 24)... I am fairly certain I'll have to return in April as well, but I can't see that far ahead!

The two best parts of my trip to Fayetteville were staying with Shannon at her wonderful house AND unexpectedly finding my most excellent sister-in-law racing to Kansas City on I-44 in Joplin! (I looked in my rear view mirror to see a gorgeous Audi zipping up behind me and thought to myself, it's a pretty blue, just like Robin's. I pulled over to let it pass and noted it was Robin!) I tailed her from Joplin to my turn off in Nevada up 71 at the speed of Robin (very nearly the speed of light!). We had a great chat via the cell phone (I had John's!) until my reception became wonky around Lamar! Serendipitous!

After returning to the 'Burg I threw myself back into packing and my duties here at the University. Last night I bowled, but my heart, back and wrist were NOT into the game. My scores were abysmal: 102, 91, and 81...

Last night after bowling Orion and I loaded the Kia. This morning John and I loaded the truck. We picked up the keys and dropped off a few loads before I came to work. John's taken another load over and is sweeping out the garage! Tomorrow our friends from the Biology Department are coming over to help us (Yea!).

We'll probably remain at the "old" house for a few more days as we don't have water, a fridge, a new front door, or flooring in the entry or main bathroom. But these items will be fixed early next week, weather permitting (See my comment earlier about the prediction for snow on Monday!).

Wish us luck!

I'll keep you posted and I promise to post some pictures soon!

Is it Friday Yet?

What a day! What a day! I graded papers into the wee hours last night and graded the rest this morning! Barely making it out of the house and to campus in time for class! I made it. I wrapped up my afternoon by forcing John to make copies of my instrument while I made copies of the data collection sheet for the instrument and the IIOC survey for my "experts." I am ready for my trip to Fayetteville. I will be collecting my data on Monday.

Tonight I am working frantically on Science Olympiad which starts tomorrow morning! And wondering, how do I get myself in these situations!

Top it off with we're moving! I've been somewhat quiet about this announcement for several reasons. Mostly I've not taken the time. Partly because I am sad to be leaving my tiny house. And partly because it isn't quite real yet (read: I'm the only one who seems to be packing boxes!). Friday, we will have the keys to our new rental house. South of the university about 1.5 miles, there's a small subdivision filled with ubiquitous split-level ranch type houses. We plan to start moving on Saturday, March 1. The new house is huge. Built in 1972 it has plenty of wood paneling. It's big enough the we will never have to see one another if we don't want to. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms above the ginormous two car garage. There's a living room, den, laundry room (yea!), kitchen and dining room on the main level. The basement has been finished to include a game room, bedroom, half-bath, and wood working shop! We can wait out the tornadoes in style! Besides the laundry room, my favorite part of the house are the closets- ten or eleven- each one bigger than the last.

To top it off, I heard tell from Canada, that my sister Tree is now Dr. Tree! Congratulations little sister! We are all so proud of you.

And so I ask, is it Friday yet? I better sign off and go create something devious for Science Olympiad.

Good News!

A couple of weeks ago I submitted my IRB protocol form (permission to collect data) for my dissertation. Last night I heard from the compliance officer that I would be forwarded on to the next level and that she felt there were no corrections to be made. I will begin (again) collecting data February 25 on my trip to Northwest Arkansas!

SRATE

SRATE stands for the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators. And that's where I am headed in a mere 6 or so hours! Yes, it's just after 2:00 a.m. and yes I am printing off my overhead slides, just in case I don't have access to a projector, yes I haven't completed packing, yes I am driving, and yes it looks like I'll get less than four hours of sleep!

Ugh! This year's SRATE conference will be held in St. Louis, so I have about a three hour drive in front of me tomorrow morning. I will be presenting on Thursday with a group of professors from UCM and again on Friday, solo. My Friday presentation is "Common Earth Science Misconceptions of Preservice Teachers." It is a discussion friendly version of my previous research and current and future dissertation.

We will be staying downtown in the Hyatt just off of Union Station! I am excited to be a "tourist" in St. Louis. After a few days with the conference I plan to hang with my St. Louis Teacher Friends, if time permits, before returning to the 'Burg, classes, paper grading, and the dreaded dissertation!

Four Days Straight

Attention readers! I have worked on my "book report" ~sob!~ for four straight days! Holy smokes! Please keep sending your prayers, good thoughts, brain vibes, and love this way! I have such a long way to go. ~sob-sniffle-sob~