More SF Fun!

We are still in San Francisco, and are basically being forced to relax. The crablets go to bed every night at something like 7:30-8:00, and since we are staying in America's Smallest Hotel Room (tm), we have no choice but to sit there quietly and read for the next couple of hours until it is our bed time. Ah Shucks.

Last night I did have a stressful event, though. I logged on to the web page to enter my grades and couldn't figure out how to enter them. I looked around and around and around, but couldn't figure it out. Well, it turns out that one of the admin people in our department has to give me permission to enter my grades, and they sort of forgot. And it turns out that I had forgotten my own dongle thing that gives me the constantly changing password. It is in my winter coat in my closet in my mud room at home. The computer people were nice enough to send me a temporary password that would let me enter my grades, but it expired this morning. So, with no ability to enter grades and an expiring password, I was a little stressed out. I let it go though. No cursing. Aren't you proud of me?

This morning, the admin person gave me permission and the computer people gave me an extension. I entered my grades while at the poster session of AGU. Double checked them (only found 2 mistakes - good thing I checked!) and pushed enter. I think (please!) that I am done with this semester! Yeah!!!

Well, probably not. I would imaging that I will hear some complaints. I hope to God not, but I am not too optimistic. I gave something like 15 A+'s, so I would think that it would be hard as hell to get a C in my class. But, some people did.

I think that I have learned an extremely valueable lesson teaching this class - make a grading policy and stick to it like glue. No non-predefined extra credit. No wiggling on how much crap is worth. Make simple statements that can not be argued. I keep thinking that the students are reasonable people who want to learn and understanding that they have to actually work for their grade. Some are. Some are not. It is amazing how much energy you spend on the ones who are not willing to do work themselves.

Change of subject!

Tomorrow we are off to Muir Woods. That should be fun. The kids and Crab Mama have been having a good time in SF. They have been to the Exploritorium and other museums. They have gone to the Aquarium twice. They have taken a couple boat rides (one out to Alcatrez). We think that Crab Boy may have been very nervous about going to Alcatrez, since we think that no one told him that the jail wasn't actually used anymore. Can you imagine being an 7 year old boy and your mom is taking you to jail on an island. Yikes!

Alright, I have to finish some other work for the kid's school, so I should go now....