Danny,

Congrats on your 'promotion'

I'm glad to be teaching again myself. From Mid August till last night, my students have 'lost' over 8 days of class. Our classes are fairly 'concentrated' in terms of information and we often go through an entire 600 page text in just 6 weeks before we move on to another subject. Many of our students graduating from high-school are used to that much material in an entire school year. Wen we came back from each unscheduled 'vacation', we had to waste the best part of another day reviewing what was being taught the previous session, often almost a week prior. The kids are human too (even though teachers often forget that) and they weren't unaware that storms were coming and often were afraid (away from home often for the first time in their lives) and certainly were distracted from their studies even before the storm arrived. Half of the review day was spent trying to remember what we were doing that previous week in the first place and allowing everyone to tell their 'war' stories. So, for the last 6 weeks, I think it conservative that we missed 1 out of every 3 days of useful class time. We can't ever make up the missed lab time. Lab is where many students actually 'learn' the theory.

So, yes, belts lost in cat litter not withstanding, *teaching* was good to be my main concern once again. Seems that my 'teaching' was interrupted when we first 'met' after Camille. Is there a pattern here?

Anyway, congrats!