Swim today.\u00a0 You know how not all workouts feel glorious?<\/p>\n
This one did feel wonderful.\u00a0 I had my groove on.\u00a0 Other than counting laps, I didn’t think about anything<\/em> while I was swimming.\u00a0 Usually I work out stuff I’m going to write, or try to chew on a problem to see if I can solve it.\u00a0 Today, because I’m teaching a class in Word, I had to get my swim in quite early in the morning.\u00a0 I don’t think my brain had turned on yet, even if the sun was<\/em> up.<\/p>\n I shared a lane with a guy who likes to do pullups on the starting blocks at the end of every few laps.\u00a0 I notice that’s a popular thing for some swimmers to do.\u00a0 Tempted to try it to see if I can.\u00a0 With the support of starting half in the water, it might be possible.\u00a0 And fun, if I manage it.\u00a0 I doubt I’ll make that much of a part of my swimming routine, though, other than variety.<\/p>\n I had a good class yesterday.\u00a0 The students were interested and involved.\u00a0 God, I love it when that happens.\u00a0 I suspect part of it was that I really like that particular class\u00a0 (Advanced Excel).\u00a0\u00a0 It’s moderately geeky, and there’s more room to play and explore than with the other classes.<\/p>\n What was really nice was that I think I’ve convinced one of my students to experiment more.\u00a0 Every time he’d ask, “What’ll happen if I do <foo>?”\u00a0 I’d reply, “Try it.”<\/p>\n Sometimes it was because I didn’t know<\/em>, honestly.\u00a0 But sometimes it was because I really like to get my students into the habit of exploring.<\/p>\n Today I’m teaching Intermediate Word.\u00a0 For me, it’s not as exciting a class.\u00a0 I mean, I like it well enough, and it’s a nice change from endlessly teaching Excel (which is the bulk of what I do for teaching).\u00a0 But it’s kind of routine unless I get a group for whom the material is somehow exciting.\u00a0\u00a0 Then it’s a lot of fun, but that’s true of any class.<\/p>\n ‘Course, any teacher will now tell me that figuring out a way to generate excitement and enthusiasm up front is the way to go with this.\u00a0 And they’d be right!\u00a0 There are some games I sometimes come up with that even the adults like.\u00a0 I’ve used one where every time I misuse a term and a student spots it, they get a point.\u00a0 Believe it or not, this gets them paying attention.\u00a0 You’d think it wouldn’t but it does.\u00a0 I came up with it one day when I taught after being up all night in the hospital with a child.\u00a0 It was for me<\/em> to stay focused, but it generated some interest for the class, and the mutual focus wound up making it an excellent class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Swim today.\u00a0 You know how not all workouts feel glorious? This one did feel wonderful.\u00a0 I had my groove on.\u00a0 Other than counting laps, I didn’t think about anything while I was swimming.\u00a0 Usually I work out stuff I’m going to write, or try to chew on a problem to see if I can solve … <\/p>\n