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

To make up for not having checked the students’ diskettes in my introductory programming class last Tuesday afternoon because of the blackout, I went to school very early yesterday. By 8am I had also printing out the hands-on exercise for 1030am.

And since in my astronomy classes yesterday all I had to do was teach the groups who brought their compasses how to read the azimuth, and to have their review/recitation for the exam on Friday, I used the hour-and-a-third before my 920am class started preparing the exam on Friday.

I wasn’t able to finish it, but I had completed enough so that I was able to finish it before lunch today and have it run. It’s a two-page fifty-item two-points-each test.

But back to yesterday. I had told all the astronomy class students last Monday that the due date for their first group assignment has been moved to Monday next week.

There were some students who had already finished their mock telescope and wanted to submit it already so they don’t have to carry it around. I told them they could, but they will have to get it from the department for the activity on Monday. Surprisingly, they decided to just bring it again on Monday.

In my first class, only one group brought a compass, just like last Monday. So I gave them the deadline that whether or not all the groups bring their compasses by Monday next week, I will teach them all the theory of how to measure the azimuth, and it will be up to them to find out how to use it on their telescopes. I said that I would no longer entertain questions about the azimuth measurement after Monday.

After the recitation, my new special class student also asked me again for the names of her group mates because she could not find them. This is because she misread the name as Lara. The class of course told her there was no one with that name in the class, when all she had to ask was which group only had three members.

So at the end of that class I had to show her the group listings again. This time she wrote down the names of her group mates, which should have done last time. No longer waiting for her initiative, I gave her the contact numbers of the three students from the index cards they submitted during the first week of classes.

In my hands-on class, again the students seemed to have a difficult time with the exercise, which highlighted the for-loop. I had to remind them to submit their disks when it was already time. They didn’t request if I’m going to post the solution on the tack board outside the department, though. I still may, though, and announce it to them on Monday.

I saw my major programming special class student in the hallway again, this time because he is one of the sacristans in the noon mass in the chapel on the ground floor of the science building. He still has not submitted his second assignment.

Back at the department, the chairman also told me to just schedule the defense of my thesis advisee when he has already submitted a paper that is acceptable to me.

If that’s the condition, it may take a while. I left a note with the secretary to tell the student that if he calls or shows up when I’m not there.