Shoulda Known Better

I must have been in junior high when I saw The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (on HBO or one of its precursors). I might have been a bit younger. All I know is that it made an impression on me. (The earlier link is to the video on YouTube. Here's a link to it on IMDb.)

I was fine up until they got to the predictions for the then future. Let's just say that part freaked me out. A lot.

Last week I covered a middle school science class. The teacher had an emergency, so the lesson plans were kind of last minute (read: she pulled out a video). The DVD was The Universe. Perfect for them.

The first episode on the DVD was "Secrets of the Sun". I hit play.

"We've seen that one. Can we watch 'The End of the Earth'?"

Sure, why not? I stopped the other episode and started the one requested.

It was only after the episode got into near earth asteroids like Apophis and gamma-ray bursts that I realized my mistake. A group of students were chattering, and their chatter wasn't the usual video chatter. They were worried.

(I tried to calm them by telling them that Apophis' next near Earth pass was a long way out. "How old will you be?" I asked, forgetting that they were all born in 2000 & 2001. Even I can do that math. It puts them in their mid-thirties.)

I told them that they had nothing to worry about. The scientists would have a solution by the time Apophis is due to return. The gamma ray bursts were such a small probability that it wasn't something they needed to concern themselves with.

But I understood their worry. I was told not to worry about random quatrains as well. Didn't help. I was at that age.

I really should have known better.

What scared the bejeesus out of you at 12 & 13?

Catching the Answers

7th grade science. They were to watch a video on light and answer 10 questions that were provided to them on a handout.

By 4th period, I was pretty familiar with the video. Familiar enough to explain to that class that each answer would appear three separate times. And I let them know that I would point out when each answer was stated.

This is not enough for 7th graders. They worry.

"But what if we still don't get the answers?"

Stated three times in the video? With me calling out: "Here's number 2"? Not likely.

The girl persisted. But what if she missed an answer?

"What if an asteroid hits the Earth in the next five minutes?" I asked her.

I could only assure her so much. I had to get the video started. I had to make sure that we could go over the answers after as well.

Things That Worry Me

The first Campaign challenge is up. I plan to get to it, but I'm going to need some time to ponder before I submit anything.

So, for today, I'm doing another repost Tuesday. I stumbled across this in my files, and considering the anniversary is this coming weekend, I thought this post was kind of apropos. It was originally posted on October 30, 2006.  


So today I was in this AVID class (Advancement Via Individual Determination) and they had this interview assignment. They were supposed to talk about some historical event. It was a strange assignment, but it's not my job to judge. I just had to make sure they were doing it.

Anyway, two of them looked over at me. They wanted to know when 9/11 was.

Let me repeat, they wanted to know when 9/11 was.

My reply: "September 11th."

That's when they clarified.

One said it was in 2003 and the other was going for 2004. When I informed them that it had happened in 2001 they wanted to make sure that I was sure. I was sure.

This kind of disturbed me. I had to remind myself that I was dealing with 7th graders--12-year-olds. They were in 2nd grade when it happened. When I was that age I probably would have had trouble with such dates, right? Right?

The Panic

I heard about it this morning on the radio. I was driving to work when one of the DJs said it. Earthquake in Japan. 8.9. Yikes!

I've lived in Southern California my whole life, so I understand the whole Richter Scale thing. 8.9? That's a scary number.

Then the next thing the DJ said gave me chills. Tsunami. Headed towards So. Cal.

And I relaxed about a minute later. I was driving away from the coast. I would be too far inland for it to impact me.

I got to class. Math: classes of algebra 1 and algebra 2. I read through the lesson plans. Worksheets. Easy enough.

First period was algebra 1. They had heard about the coming tsunami too. And they were worried.

I explained that we were too far inland for it to hit us. I explained that if we were in any real danger, the school would have been evacuated. The administration has to keep abreast of such things, and they would implement plans if needed. We were safe. There was nothing to worry about.

They weren't buying it.

One girl asked if I could turn on the news. (We don't exactly have cable in the classroom.) I compromised and promised to turn on the computer and look on the Internet for news. That seemed to satisfy her.

Another student then helped panic the class by announcing something she had seen on her cell phone (which I didn't see her check, or that cell phone would now be in the office's possession). It was something about 7 foot waves. I tried to calm them, and eventually I succeeded, as I found another story online that said that Hawaii had sustained no major damage.

Then I concentrated on getting them to work on the algebra assignment. That didn't work out so well.