Getting Old and Resorting to Books!

Ok, so I just spent over an hour trying to find suitable resources for a lesson on ageing and its associated changes in metabolic rate, hormones (including menopause in women, and loss of reproductive capacity) and increases in onset of diseases such as Alzheimers and Cancers, and there appear to be no decent web sites for teaching on such subjects. Maybe this is a gap in the market? There are lots of sites about ageing aimed at people concerned about their own health as they advance in years, but none aimed at educating younger people on the subject.
In the end, I have resorted to the 'old-school' tactic of providing my own library for the lesson, so that my students can do their research from books. Many of us still remember these antiquated  means of conveying information by writing or printing words onto pages (that would be paper pages, rather than web-pages).
Luckily I have a whole room full of books upstairs, and have provided a decent selection containing relevant information, and have also thrown in a few random ones, which won't help the students with their research task, but may well provide a talking point pertinent to the wider subject (Human Biology) and hopefully peak their interest in reading.
The world wide web is a marvellous resource, but nothing compares to the smell and feel of a book!

The End of the Term is Nigh!

Well, here we go again... July approaches, and once again the academic year draws to a close.
This will be the first time in three years that I get the luxury of six weeks 'off work', but this time round I don't have the luxury of knowing that I am still being paid, so will be even busier that usual with my various writing projects, and with sorting out the web site in preparation for a full-on publicity assault in September. The hope is to catch schools early enough that they haven't allocated all of their budget, so may be willing to spend some money on high quality Science enrichment activities!
I only have a week to go with my teaching commitments at the college, as the final GCSE Science exam is this Friday, and all of the BTEC assignments have to be handed in on Friday too. I'm already down to one session a week at the school as they've switched to next year's timetable already, although I will be working there until the very, very end of term (with the exception of a week when I will be away in London visiting various museums and parks, which I hope will inspire me to write some new articles and lesson plans, and provide me with some fantastic photos).
The freelance challenge really comes into play now - do I see problems or solutions? Solutions always! Remember folks - "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate!"

Money... The root of all evil?

Well, money may be an evil, but these days it is certainly a necessary one, so I was mighty pleased to see that my missing £50 is now safely nestling in my bank account!
I have also received assurances from the school that they will sort out the pay issues there, and, being the optimist that I am, I'm looking forward to 4 months worth of pay at the end of July.
My writing still seems to have ground to a halt. I'm not sure whether it's just time commitments (I have a lot of other stuff going on at the moment) or just a lack of inspiration. Once exam season is out of the way I'll make a concerted effort to get back to churning out lesson plans and cool science at home ideas to share with the world, but at the moment the focus has to be on trying to get my students the grades they deserve, and calming the pre-exam nerves. It's amazing that even my mature students get really twitchy before an exam! That said, a couple of them came to see me after the first of their 3 GCSE modular exams, and said that it hadn't been anywhere near as awful as they'd thought. Confidence is half the battle when it comes to exam prep, and I think that's what the focus will be on over the next week or two - The keys to exam success:

• Know your stuff
• Be confident that you know your stuff
• Write the stuff you know clearly
• DON'T PANIC!

And most importantly:

• RTBQ - Read The Bloody (or Blooming, if you prefer) Question!!!!

Good luck to all Science examinees out there!

Better progress?

My mood has been somewhat improved by the sunnier disposition of the weather, and by a positive development since my last post.
My query about the missing £50 has now been dealt with swiftly and efficiently by the replacement to the lady I was originally in contact with. Many thanks to Georgina, the new 'lovely lady', who has not only sorted out my payment, but has also assured me that she will be in touch later in the summer to call upon my science lesson plan writing services again.
The website issues still remain, but on the up-side, I have a whole summer work-free to teach myself web design and HTML!

Slow Progress....

OK, so I knew that there would be ups and downs with the whole freelance idea. However, after a brief spurt of activity, much optimism, and a feeling of finally moving forward at something of a pace, things seem to have ground to a halt!
I'm not one to be easily beaten, so I won't let these minor problems hinder me in the long term, but there are a few aspects of my freelancing adventure which I feel are worthy of mention at this juncture...

• I am still awaiting any form of payment from one of the schools I have been working at since February (on the up side, I am now due 4 pay cheques at least as a combined lump sum..... sometime.... soon???...).
• I have not been paid the promised £50 for one of my freelance writing jobs within the stated 21 working days, and on calling the company concerned was told that the person I had been dealing with no longer worked there.
• The website I was so excited about is still nowhere near being in a state which can be used to advertise Dr D's as a professional business.
• The summer holidays are rapidly approaching, at which point, all employment within schools and colleges vanishes for six weeks.

My intention with 'Wandering Scientist' was to share the successes and failures of my freelancing adventure, and the past few weeks seem to have been on somewhat of a down-turn, but I hope that others will take note of my cautionary tales, and learn from my experiences - the morals of my stories being: 

• GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING! 
• FOLLOW UP ON ALL LATE INVOICES!
• Plan for holiday time so that you have the funds available to enjoy the down-time!

Happy science-ing!