Dear diary: today I visited the museum

Here I am sitting in the Geology museum. Waiting for my students to show up. Inside there are many minerals, but few rocks. Minerals are the ingredients of rocks. Examples include mica, quartz, pyrite, gold, etc. Rocks are mixtures of minerals. Examples of these include granite, sandstone, and basalt.

But you already knew this. You might be asking yourself, why am I telling you this? For one blatant reason: I have nothing else to do. I've been all over this museum. I've seen the mastadon bones. I've marvelled at the glowing minerals. At this point: yawn. So I am bored.

Outside of the Geology museum are about 50 kids. There has been one field trip after another today, which is ok. I remember when I was a kid -- I loved this sort of thing. Anything to get out of the classroom. As I write, the kids are multiplying. Now there are roughly 100 our so. The chatter is getting loud. The teachers are getting stressed.

The teachers are now leading the kids in. One wave. Two waves. Three! It's getting really crowded in here. I can hear a general chorus of oohs and whoas. It's actually sort of soothing.

It's now getting close to class time. As my students enter, I give them the low-down:

*Take a look around the museum. It's a self-guided tour. Here is a copy of the tour book.
*The museum is shaped roughly like a circle, so take a look in the back.
*The display cases are numbered, and correspond to numbers in the tour book.
* Here is the worksheet. Sorry that it's not stapled; I didn't have time before class.
*There's alot of kids in here, so do the best you can.
*Some of the questions can be answered directly from the display cases. Others may be found in the tour book.
*There may be some info in the tour book which can help you answer some questions from the assignment from the beginning of the semester.
*The worksheet isn't due until next class period.
*Make sure you give me the tour book before you leave. I've emailed you an electronic copy.
*If you have questions, I'll be hanging around.

This is the fourth section I've brought to the museum this week. So far, I've been impressed with my students. They have been very adept at answering the questions.

My students are all here now, and are off working. I'm sitting here bored again. Sigh