Erbium

Dearest Fellow Readers - I miss you. Terribly. Waking up at 4:30 a.m. and going to graduate classes after being in high school is rough...as you can tell from my pathetic attempt at blogging lately. To brighten your moods, here are some of the goofy things I do to survive hour and a half commutes, working with ninth graders who have egos bigger than the Michigan defensive line, and getting up at times that college students go to bed.

In the morning, I've found that picking out clothing before 5 a.m. leads to some horrifying outfits. I remember having a Spanish teacher who talked about getting dressed in the dark and for the most part she never looked that great (one time she was wearing a yellow and a purple sock with a skirt...yikes). So I literally lay out my clothes the night before, including shoes and accessories. It saves me at least 5 to 10 minutes that I can use to sleep. At the beginning of the week, I must look like I have OCD though because I have every outfit with a post-it note attached saying the day of the week hung up in my room.

Set two alarms. The other morning I questioned why my alarm went off so early and promptly went back to bed. Thank goodness the second alarm knocked some sense into me.

Leave a checklist at the door. If you think remembering your laptop (and charger), water bottle, lunch, phone, car keys, wallet, and school stuff is plausible in the morning, power to you. I'm lucky if I remember to consult my checklist, which is why it is directly above the lock for my door.

If you can't make dinner in a pair of shoes, there is no way that you can teach in them. End of story.

Always pack extra lunch. I pack enough for myself and then for myself again. Because you will be hungry at 7:30, 11:00, and 2:00. Teaching gives you a voracious appetite.


Fun Fact: Erbium, terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium are all named after Ytterby, Sweden where they were discovered in a single mine!


Trivia: What other cities have elements named after them?

I recently got a "scientific inquiry" about where we are on the periodic table. Here is a blank table for reference, but I'll post a new page with just a periodic table in the near future!