Grindin'

Fourth of July was awesome - shared some drinks with the residents and then went to fireworks on the Chesapeake Bay. Honestly, I'm not even that much of a fan of fireworks but even I thought this was amazing. We were on a huge man-made hill, right on the corner, where we could simultaneously see fireworks over the water on our left and another fireworks show on the right. Combined with all that were multiple (6ish) shows that were going on in the suburbs of Baltimore, far away from where we were. Still, we probably saw about eight fireworks shows total last night for the time it would spend to see one. I wasn't mad about it.

Back to work today. I was evaluated at my school doing a lesson on the composition of Earth's atmosphere, relating both to its chemical composition and the different layers that make up our atmosphere. I had the kids do a "popcorn" reading of an article related to it, then we spent time drawing models (pie graphs, pictures, etc.) that demonstrated their knowledge of the subject. I thought I did pretty well, but rumor is the UTC rubric is a pretty strict one, because they really want to push us. With that being said, I'm not expecting the most glowing review ever, but I figure I probably shouldn't be getting one after only a few lessons in the classroom. Teaching is so much of an experienced-based profession that this is just how it is sometimes.

We also had class afterwards. I won't say much about it besides in one of our classes, one of our professors called out the whole class for not caring enough because we were not showing enough energy for him, sitting in an 85 degree classroom (no AC) after going through a morning of teaching at our schools. Needless to say, some of us were not to pleased about it. I suppose someone has to push us even when it would be easy to make excuses, but we all thought he could have done a better job of phrasing his rant. Alas....

Reading, reading, reading tonight. Placement and two classes tomorrow. Another day, another (lack of a) dollar.

BD