Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Second day of lecturing for the term: three for astronomy and one for introductory programming.
I’ll tackle programming first. Two students (a guy and a girl) who were late during the first (and only) meeting last week approached me at the end of the class (so I won’t have a bad impression on their tardiness, they said). They related that the former vice dean had fouled up their enrollment to the wrong section, and they had it changed. Talking to one of my co-teachers later, who is the only other one teaching the same subject, when she started her class in the computer lab at the same time as my class, she saw the female enter the room, ask the lab assistant who the teacher was, then leave.

My co-teacher recognized the student because she failed her in the same subject last term, for submitting a project that worked a little too well but that they couldn’t explain satisfactorily when asked to defend it. So she failed them. I understand why she would not want to have the same teacher again when she repeated the subject. I told the our former vice chair/current vice dean about the real reason the students went to him to change sections. Ultimately though it’s in my hands how I treat the students.

What I can’t believe is that the students have no idea that their various teachers (at least the ones in the same department, unless circumstances mitigate) talk to each other about them. Do these students really think they can get away with their previous behavior in my class? Heck, having been warned, I have decided to discontinue my previous policy of giving the students their lab exercise sometime before the hands-on session starts. Instead I’m going to give it to them at the start of the class, to ensure (not entirely though, there’s still the internet all the computers there have access to) that the students attempt to make the programs on the spot.

On another front, one of the students in my class is the one who unsuccessfully tried to have his grade changed in the science lab subject last term. Is his shifting because of not reaching the minimum required GPA to continue on the human biology track?

In astronomy, the difficulty right now is pacing the three one-hour-classes/week lectures with that whose schedule is two one-and-a-half-hour-classes/week.