TGIF

TGIF!

Except it's Monday.

But this time TGIF doesn't stand for

Thank Goodness Its Friday.

This time TGIF is

Thank Goodness It's FINISHED!

Whew!

What a weekend!

I'm glad THAT one is over...

LOL

Saturday went well.

This particular class has a bunch of

really challenging students.

And the power went out in the afternoon

for a bit.

But we survived.

I even ate at Bonefish Grill

and had the MOST AMAZING

corn chowder with lump crab soup.

Oh my goodness.

And then a nice big

Florida Cobb Salad with fresh mango,

avocado, pumpkin and sunflower seeds 

and super tender grilled chicken

over baby spring greens.

Mmmmmmmmm

But then Sunday arrived.

The light never DID turn green

to get out of my hotel.

Ended up turning right and

making a U-turn in my giant truck.

That's always fun.

And then part way through the afternoon

we had another power failure.

(Welcome to Florida in the summer...)

When the power came back on,

everything powered right up,

EXCEPT my projector and sound system.

(and my entire class is Power Point / video driven)

Luckily I had just finished teaching the main

curriculum for the course and we were

down to the part where we were going to 

review and watch random related videos for 2 hours.

So instead I had them do some workbook stuff

while I tried to figure something out.

Fortunately, I keep an extra projector 

in my truck since I never know where I'm 

going to be teaching next nor what kind of

facilities they have.

Unfortunately, the computer didn't accept

my projector.

So I tried connecting it to another computer

on the other side of the room.

No dice.

Then the guy who owns the office called and

said he was pretty sure it was just the breaker.

But the breaker box was NOT where he said

it was.  (There WAS an EMPTY breaker box

on the opposite wall...)

I even had a MAN student look.

(grin)

Nope.  No breaker box in any of the 

unlocked rooms in the entire facility.

Next?

Fortunately (again) one of my students had

her laptop with her.  (Normally I bring mine,

but this weekend I knew I wasn't going to

want to workout in my hotel after these LONG

days, and I didn't want to leave it in my truck

or my hotel, and didn't want to lug it in and

out of the classroom - so I left it home.)

We finally got it all hooked up,

downloaded the power point presentation

and a power point viewer.

But then Google Slides took over.

Whatever.

Unfortunately, I think I left my bag with my

long extension cord / power strip at the

Coral Springs site when I subbed there

back in April.  (I just finally narrowed it down

to there.  Don't know if it's actually there.

Or just LOST)

Anyhow.

The cord on my projector is about 18 inches long.

Yeah.

Awesome.

So I set it up on a chair,

pointed it to the front of the room (ish)

and we all tilted our heads to the right.

Hahahahahahaha

(As I always tell the instructors I mentor -

You gotta be willing to PUNT!)

Also, unfortunately, Google Slide didn't actually work.

It would show the slides, but not the animations.

Which means, when you are doing a multiple choice

review, they pick the answer they want, and I should

be able to click and the right answer is highlighted in red.

Yeah.  No.

Oh well.  They just had to believe me!  LOL

Things went better after that.

And then came the final exam.

Crash and burn.

We have a brand new curriculum starting

this month and I guess we haven't got the

bugs all worked out yet.

Cuz I only passed 6 people out of 18.

Which is unheard of!

4 of the students who failed were

SCHOOL TEACHERS!

(And the other was a CPA!)

And high score was only 87!

Normally I have several high 90's.

So I was pretty bummed.

I'm going to need to really re-evaluate

how I teach this new stuff.

Less "extra" and more time for review.

Anyhow.

Again.

Fortunately I had a reservation to spend

the night in Ft. Lauderdale.

*Since I didn't get out of class until 10 pm.

Got up at 4:45 and hit the road to be 

at my office by 7:30.  Had to stop by the

house to pick up some eggs for a co-worker

and to kiss my Much Missed Husband!

This morning I sent a big long email to my

boss (guess I could have just linked to my blog...)

hahahaha

And then I got a text from a student who did

pass my test last night.

She just PASSED her State Exam this morning!

So I was all excited again.

I went online to my class roster so I could email

the students with a "shout out"

and look at my class size for this weekend.

SURPRISE!

I'm not teaching my normal West Palm Beach.

I'm teaching in Coral Springs!

(which is cool since I'll be able to get the 

stuff I think I left there...)

A "quick" phone call to my boss to find

out what's the deal and yup, it's true.

But that means I need to cancel hotel reservations

and make new ones.

(which I have already done.  Whew!)

So.

If you are looking for me.

Check the puddle under my desk.

That just might be me.