I taught at a science and technology camp for girls today. This is my summer job, and it's a great gig: the program has a worthy mission, the kids and staff are interesting and fun, I get to spend time with middle schoolers in preparation for my new job, AND I only have to work seven days total during the summer.

I do, however, have to teach for EIGHT hours in a day! Four groups of ten kids for two hours each. Here are two things I learned: seventh graders do things much more slowly than juniors and seniors. That seems obvious, I know, but I really had no sense of the pacing. Also, I need to institute some kind of rule where they have to ask each other their questions before they ask me. Shef knew what I was talking about immediately. "Mom!" he said at dinner, "Just tell them, 'Ask three, then me!'". Because I didn't know this rule today, I logged 10,000 steps on my pedometer just by criss-crossing the computer lab. The elementary teachers seem to intrinsically know these awesome management helpers. How do you guys do that all the time?