The Other Students
I realized I hadn't posted images of my original students, before I got the new ones- all excepting Marine Bio of course. Naturally not those four. So here they are. Firstly Physical Science. 
But Biology today was the cat dissection, so most of the images I have are linked to that. We started with skinning, then looking in the gastric cavity and then the thorasic cavity, and spending some brief time on the urogenital tract. After that I had them in an extra credit period after school (to which almost everyone came) take a look at the muscles of the legs, principle bones, and even saw into the head to get at the brain. Great fun!
Actually, besides my regular lectures today, and the cat dissection, there were a few other items. Practice for the musical Oliver, going up on Friday and Saturday. Then the extra dissection. Then straight over for more practice, because the play is coming right up. Then a bit of grading and a break watching another episode of Season 4, 24. Then preparing for the kids to come to Starry Night.
Every night, it's baseball under the lights at the school. A huge amount of light pollution rises up from the new American school, in the middle of the countryside. I mean, these lights are really bright, and I've heard many teachers who live on campus wish that they were none
xistant, as they shine right into their living rooms. Tonight, we got special and generous permission to turn a good portion of those lights off so that we could observe the stars. Not enough to see the Milky Way, but enough to observe a lot more. And everything to the West of the school was a non-issue, due to the lights of Dar Baida-Casablanca. But we could see a fair bit to the North out to sea, as well as the South and the East.
It was pretty exciting. The kids came out, 11 at a time for an hour at a piece, and saw the moon's craters up close, and how pitted a planetary body can be without an atmosphere. Then we swung over to the brightest light in the Southern sky at the moment, Jupiter, and would you believe it, all 4 moons were visible- Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa! Just at the right time, with no occlusion, at least for the first hour. For the kids, this was the first time they'd seen an other moon but Luna through their own eyes. And then, a special treat for me, we swung over to a yellowish light just below the moon, for my first glimpse of Saturn through a telescope. At first I thought the telescope was jiggling, because the image was so oval. But then I realized I was looking at Saturn's rings! If you had good eyes, you could even see the darkness between the rings and Saturn. I did not know our telescope was powerful enough to see the rings. We had hit on a time when all 4 moons of Jupiter were visible, and the rings were not edge on but perpendicular to Earth, and so visible. And it was great to hear the shouts of jubilation from the kids upon seeing those objects for the first time.
Sadly, as I've been really busy this past week and this day, my roommate is packing up. I got home to find him gone. It's sad because he's about one of the best roommates one could ever dream of. I feel very sorry for some woman out there, as she has so far been missing out on all the joy she will experience when one day she is Collin's wife. A parting gift to me? He discovered why Moroccans put a piece of stone or a weighted Sidi Ali water bottle over their toilet (when they have a toilet you squat over, such as I have). Such a generous gift. He discovered it when he came into our bathroom the night before he left to find a very large rat staring at him, which then dived back down into the sewer.
But Biology today was the cat dissection, so most of the images I have are linked to that. We started with skinning, then looking in the gastric cavity and then the thorasic cavity, and spending some brief time on the urogenital tract. After that I had them in an extra credit period after school (to which almost everyone came) take a look at the muscles of the legs, principle bones, and even saw into the head to get at the brain. Great fun!
Actually, besides my regular lectures today, and the cat dissection, there were a few other items. Practice for the musical Oliver, going up on Friday and Saturday. Then the extra dissection. Then straight over for more practice, because the play is coming right up. Then a bit of grading and a break watching another episode of Season 4, 24. Then preparing for the kids to come to Starry Night.
Every night, it's baseball under the lights at the school. A huge amount of light pollution rises up from the new American school, in the middle of the countryside. I mean, these lights are really bright, and I've heard many teachers who live on campus wish that they were none
xistant, as they shine right into their living rooms. Tonight, we got special and generous permission to turn a good portion of those lights off so that we could observe the stars. Not enough to see the Milky Way, but enough to observe a lot more. And everything to the West of the school was a non-issue, due to the lights of Dar Baida-Casablanca. But we could see a fair bit to the North out to sea, as well as the South and the East.It was pretty exciting. The kids came out, 11 at a time for an hour at a piece, and saw the moon's craters up close, and how pitted a planetary body can be without an atmosphere. Then we swung over to the brightest light in the Southern sky at the moment, Jupiter, and would you believe it, all 4 moons were visible- Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa! Just at the right time, with no occlusion, at least for the first hour. For the kids, this was the first time they'd seen an other moon but Luna through their own eyes. And then, a special treat for me, we swung over to a yellowish light just below the moon, for my first glimpse of Saturn through a telescope. At first I thought the telescope was jiggling, because the image was so oval. But then I realized I was looking at Saturn's rings! If you had good eyes, you could even see the darkness between the rings and Saturn. I did not know our telescope was powerful enough to see the rings. We had hit on a time when all 4 moons of Jupiter were visible, and the rings were not edge on but perpendicular to Earth, and so visible. And it was great to hear the shouts of jubilation from the kids upon seeing those objects for the first time.Sadly, as I've been really busy this past week and this day, my roommate is packing up. I got home to find him gone. It's sad because he's about one of the best roommates one could ever dream of. I feel very sorry for some woman out there, as she has so far been missing out on all the joy she will experience when one day she is Collin's wife. A parting gift to me? He discovered why Moroccans put a piece of stone or a weighted Sidi Ali water bottle over their toilet (when they have a toilet you squat over, such as I have). Such a generous gift. He discovered it when he came into our bathroom the night before he left to find a very large rat staring at him, which then dived back down into the sewer.
Comments
i hope oliver goes well. it's one of my favorite stories - i even have the soundtrack from the old 1960's movie.
Oliver's performance last night went well, although there were some technical difficulties with the Powerpoint backgrounds that we are using for sets. Tonight is the final performance.