So the school year ended and now it’s summer vacation! Except that I am working. I am teaching two summer school classes. I shouldn’t complain. They are pretty easy. One is a class I designed called Fantasy Baseball. I created spinner wheels for myriad historical baseball players, based on their statistical probabilities, and students face off against each other for a 13-game regular season. Today we did the auction for pitchers. Students have a $100 budget for their entire team, and they must have a 3-man starting rotation. There’s strategy involved, and math. Anyway, because I am a programming genius, I created a google spreadsheet that updates the auction spreadsheet in real time, so that students can monitor their budgets and plan their next moves. Each team has an iPad to keep up with it, and we do blind bidding with Smart remotes.
It’s super fun.
Once they have purchased their teams, we’ll start playing head to head games. I created this unit from scratch, and I actually made it available to teachers who want to use it during the school year (during the summer, we just play the games – but the unit includes a bunch of math lessons that tie into it. It’s a pretty badass 268-page unit.)
The nice thing about summer school is that it’s over by 11:40 AM. Then I have the rest of the day. For writing? Not exactly. I have the kids to deal with while my wife is at work. Yesterday we went to the pool. Today I played school with my youngest daughter.
I am hoping to find a way to carve out some time for writing. I took a brief break, as I sent my final packet out on June 9th. I’ve heard back from my advisor, and it’s all very encouraging. Which means I should get to work. I would like to have some revisions done before residency. I have some good ideas, but summer school takes me right up to the eve of residency. Still, you gotta make the time, right?
Now that I’m done with my first semester at Hamline, it’s kind of amazing to look at where I am compared to where I started. I am not exaggerating when I say that I’ve learned more about writing in the last six months than in all of the thirty-six years that preceded it. My work seems so much better now. Not great…probably not good enough yet. But so much better. I feel like I’ll get there.
That will show all the naysayers (just kidding – there actually haven’t been any naysayers, other than myself.)
I totally want to take your fantasy baseball summer school class. It sounds like so much fun (even though i don’t know all that much about baseball and even less about fantasy baseball. That probably just means i SHOULD take your class)
Also, see you in 3 weeks! WOOOOO!
I know! I can’t wait!
We finished the auction today, so Monday is when the kids start playing. I don’t have an assistant this year, which sucks. Last year I made the high school kid mediate the arguments about where the spinner landed.