Friday, Another Meeting, and Feedback on Spaces After Periods

iPod morning commute music: Eric Clapton, Crossroads, disc 1 (1988)

One of the all-time great box sets, this spans Clapton's career. Disc 1 covers his time with The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and his early work with Cream. Essential.

I was hoping to take off early today, but found out I have another meeting. In our school, teachers are attached to a year group, ranging from (using US terms) 7th Grade through 12th Grade. In the teachers room, we sit together in our year group, and we are responsible for the students in that year group. When a student does something bad, such as skip school, this is a year group problem. This afternoon's meeting is with the other 9th grade teachers, about a student who skipped school.

We have a lot of meetings in my school. Every week I have a year group meeting, an English department meeting, and an International Studies Committee meeting. Two or three times a month (at least) we have general teachers' meetings. I'm also in charge of the high school ESS (English Speaking Society) Club, which meets at least twice a week.

Today's meeting is an extra one, as most student problem meetings are. And to think, I've been doing this for 20 years.

I've gotten some feedback concerning spaces after periods. It seems like those of us who were taught on typewriters were taught to put two spaces at the end of sentences. However, with computers, publishers would prefer single spaces. According to my co-worker, Bob, who did a more extensive on-line search, the usual typewriter fonts needed two spaces, but no more. However, people who were taught typewriting skills don't want to change: In fact, I don't think I can change. The habit is too ingrained. Thanks to both Bob and Ron for bringing me up to date on all of this. I'm still curious as to what schools are actually teaching.

I handed in a form to take a half day off tomorrow (Saturday...a 6 day school week AND all those meetings! Again, hard to believe it's been 20 years at this school). My family will go see the new Harry Potter film. Mainly, this will be a weekend of rest for me. I'm ready for a break.