It is lovely to have such supportive, understanding friends, family and bloggy readers! Thank you for encouraging me to get enough sleep and find some semblance of balance in my life.

Jobs and Roles
Mommy
Teacher
Wife
Lover
Laundress
Child of God
Mentor
Manager
Chef
Friend

Not necessarily in that order.

Today was the first day back at our homeschool co-op, after a long Christmas break. This semester I’m teaching two classes and assisting in a third. I’ve found it’s much more fun to be the teacher megalomaniac ruler than just a simple assistant. Assistants sit back and observe, occasionally dispensing discipline. Teachers snicker as they create lesson plans, chortle as they assign homework and give out cruel tests with wild abandon.

Some of my favorite homeschooling girls.

Several months ago I read this article in Good Housekeeping about a mom who spent a day in her son’s middle school. One part jumped out at me where the author told of how her son gave a PowerPoint presentation to start the day:

He opened with an Emily Dickinson poem. Then he went through the athletic schedules, the lunch menu, and a brief “This Day in History.” In my time, the school secretary would have read the whole thing in a bored monotone over the crackly intercom. Sam used his computer to beam special effects onto a screen and make his narration sound as if it came from different voices.

Wow, I thought to myself, I don’t even know how to use PowerPoint and here is an eighth grade student giving a presentation in front of his class. I immediately realized that this was subject matter we needed to offer at co-op. A PowerPoint class would be perfect! I suggested it to the board members and they loved it.

“I’ll teach it,” I heard myself say.

Only….I didn’t know PowerPoint. And I don’t own a copy of it. Nor do I have any real experience in public speaking.

So I had neither the software or the know-how. Perfect.

The five year olds played BINGO with gold fish crackers today – that’s MY kind of class.

“That’s all right,” (I said to myself, in my optimistic, confident stupid and foolhardy way) “I’ll learn it over Christmas break.”

Sigh. This is how I get myself into trouble.

Thankfully I have an awesome, capable husband and friends with talented, business-savvy husbands. This morning I was ready with my very own presentation, a laptop and projector, an hour’s worth of information to teach and homework for my students.

Future students for my class – bwahahahahah!

There is nothing like a deadline to push me to achieve great things.

At lunch several of the moms were talking about computers and how much WE all need to learn more of the fundamentals. I looked over at the woman who taught a computer hardware class last semester (I was her teacher’s assistant) and she said, “Kathy, you and I should teach a class on computer basics.”

I immediately responded…

“That’s a GREAT idea! Just what the co-op needs.”

Some people do NOT learn.

Kathy
Project 366 – Day 18

Side Note: We’re using Impress – part of Open Office’s FREE Productivity Suite – and not PowerPoint in the presentation class. Tim says they’re pretty comparable. “You’ve used one presentation application, you’ve used ‘em all,” he asserted confidently. “How many have you used?” I asked, impressed with his bravado. “Er, two,” he admitted.

[Editor's note: Kathy finished this blog hours ago, but asked me to 'tweak it a little' before I went to bed. I stayed up making the Caribbean safe for colonization, sinking dozens of Spanish military convoys and hunting down vicious pirates. Kathy's a good girl, and has been in bed for hours. ]

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