Broken buses and Coffee shop clones

Today featured way too much stress for my liking, but it improved as the day went on. ( Bus fiasco with a happy ending. )

I saw a clone of artremis in the Costa in the Waterstones near college. This was somewhat alarming as Ludys are known for their liking of both coffee and books, and I often go to Costa and/or Waterstones with the real Ludy. The clone-grrl was the same height as Ludy and had the same shape & size face, neck, breasts and hips! She also wore similar clothes (a Uniqlo top and cotton tomboy trousers with pull-tabs to tighten them over the hips). She had the same colour and style of hair, but it was flat rather than spiky, and had rectangular glasses, but hers had normal lenses rather than pink. Also her skin was a tone darker than Ludy's. Nonetheless, it was a really good resemblance and I couldn't help staring! If I'd had any photos of Ludy on my phone, I would have said "You look just like my girlfriend" and asked to take a photo of her in return; but as it was I couldn't prove that I wasn't a complete nutter trying to take photos of strangers to perve over. So I didn't say anything. She ordered a small cappuccino, which was just as well, as if it had been a medium Fairtrade vanilla latte I might just have died of shock!

Later this evening, Richard & I went for dinner with pir, who we have not seen in far too long. When my course is over, I need to spend the summer going round seeing all the friends I have here in London that I haven't had time to see in months or years! I have satiated both my desire-for-gadgets and concern-for-the-environment by buying the iPod he wasn't using, which is Reuse of existing electronics and therefore even better than Recycling. And now I will have music wherever I go without running down my stupid mobile phone battery. I will have to buy a new phone soon because the one I have just doesn't work properly, but I'll have to deal with the guilt about that later. No time for it now. 

And, in case you care, I got 93% on my mass spec coursework, which is another A+ to add to my collection. I think I'm going to have to remember how much I rock, because I really am very stressed about these exams now.

Things that make me happy. [Teaching]

You're not supposed to have favourite students, but show me a teacher who doesn't. On the most basic level, it's difficult not to prefer a student who is always on time, hands work in promptly, smiles and works to the best of their ability over a student who is late with everything, lazy, surly and has pitiful excuses about why something didn't get done. In working with students one-to-one, no matter how much you try to hide it, you each learn about the other's personality. And often what you learn over time isn't the same as the first impression.

My favourite student of this academic year has her exams on Monday and Tuesday next week, and it has been an uphill struggle. Not least of all because I've had to spend far more time than I'd like unteaching some of the rubbish that her college teacher has been telling her. I'm at the point where I'm starting to doubt that this person even has a chemistry degree. If you're in the middle of a lesson and you ask your teacher a question about what they're teaching, shouldn't they be able to answer it? Maybe not immediately - we all have momentary brain farts, and sometimes a student will go way past the syllabus into the stratosphere and you have to try to think through what you know to give them an answer. But if you're teaching acid-base equilibria and a student is confused about the expression for K_a, it shouldn't even require thought. Let alone a flounce and "You know, you can't expect me to know all the answers immediately". Also, the college hasn't come close to finishing teaching of the syllabus. They're supposed to spend 135 hours on the core and 44 hours on the options, and while I don't know how long they spent on the core, I know they've only spent about 15 hours on the options. They only started teaching the option during the Easter holiday! (Yes, the students had to come in for extra lessons!). The whole thing has been one unmitigated disaster and I have been advising all of my younger students and their parents to Avoid That College Like The Plague.

Anyway. Tonight R gave me an exam paper to mark that seemed quite good. I was pleased with her answers, especially to the longer, harder questions at the end, which she had previously been too terrified of to even attempt. When I calculated the percentage and checked the mark against the examiners' report, I found it was in the level 4-5 range, which is what she needs for university. Considering that she started at level 2, this is a huge improvement. When she left to cycle home I phoned her mother to tell her how well she's doing. Of course, I don't know what will happen on the exam day, and grades can never be certain until you have the official letter. But I am confident that she will do orders of magnitude better than she would have if I hadn't worked with her. The fact that I get to work with students and see this improvement in them makes my job - sometimes, even my very existence - worthwhile.