I\u2019d be out the next three days. \u201cBe nice to the sub,\u201d I tell my students, \u201cYour goals: one, be the class she writes the nicest comment for; and two, on the comment slip, produce evidence of a sub snooze.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA subs news?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA sub-sunoooozuh<\/em>. Sleepy-sleep. Nighty-night. If you\u2019re working quietly, her eyelids will flutter, her head will nod, and mouth ajar, her saliva will pool – on the comment slip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A student asks, \u201cWhy do you even want to go?\u201d Another, \u201cDidn\u2019t you teach AP Environmental last year?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I reach for my readers and the conference presentation schedule and, in a professorial tone, read, \u201cA Cautionary Tail: Attempting to Estimate Survival of Gag Grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis<\/em>) in the Gulf of Mexico Using Acoustic Telemetry,\u201d and, \u201cGeorgia\u2019s intertidal oyster and artificial reefs: an aerial perspective on spatial and geomorphological change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly my point,\u201d says the contentious one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere\u2019s one for you,\u201d I read, \u201cDaily Georgia-EPD sewage spills report: how they happen, what\u2019s in them, and what to do about them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSounds awful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSounds like science. On a side note, if any of you is susceptible to separation anxiety, I\u2019ve arranged a number of counselors to avail themselves for your emotional support in my absence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThanks, Mr. Hogya, we\u2019ll manage. Turn up for FishCon 2019! Whoo-hoo!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Georgia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society<\/a> held its annual conference at Lake Blackshear in GA Veterans State Park in Cordele, GA, February 5 – 7. The GCAFS mission is \u201cto improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My science department chair, Rebecca, doubles as the Secretary\/Treasurer of the GCAFS and conference planner. A self-coined \u2018outsider\u2019, she was awarded the first annual Outstanding Service Award in 2018 in honor of her conference planning skills. As skipper, she not only sails the conference clipper, practically builds it anew, hull plank by plank, every year. The Outstanding Service Award this year would go to a long-time hatchery man who\u2019d swam up the dam ladder from sac fry to Fishery Manager. An underling would present his award and cite robust egg production and what pleasure it was to work for such a great guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve attended FishCon every year since 2015. The conference is more to me than a three-day break from school: between brisk fishes talk – twenty minutes, one audience question, next – my teacher peers and I help Rebecca tie the knots, secure the ropes, and raise the conference mast fulfilling the odd dirty job, the below-deck logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First mates were KC (Milton co-department chair and environmental science teacher), KB (former Milton AP Bio teacher, now in Forsyth County), and for one day only, GJ, Milton physical science teacher. Our mission: keep the conference sail taut and Rebecca\u2019s reputation intact. Like the Vasa<\/a>, what could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n