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

Lectured for two whole hours total today in all of my classes. We analyzed their first two tide graphs and I gave them the instructions for the third and last one, although I doubt it will be at the quality I'm expecting because that part of the lecture was rushed for the last five minutes of the period.

I didn't even know I was lecturing that long, although it may have been dragged out a little as I waited for responses from them regarding an assignment *they* *just* *submitted*. Any other time I would have sifted through the papers handed in and read their answers, but not when I had overwhelming doubt as to the quality of their analysis (from years of having given the same activity).

Given their faces of incomprehension after giving them the new assignment, I had to give them also my consultation hours for students who would want to clarify the procedure outside of class time. I even drew a blank in the first (1030am) class when I said they could accomplish it using spreadsheet software.

In the second (230pm) class I even gave them an example on the board, which might have been a little confusing since I didn't list down the steps, and I even offered to provide them with a copy of the spreadsheet file I used for graphing the times and tides that I showed them earlier.

It also turns out that I'm not substituting for my co-teacher today from 1140-1240, even though I already had a very early lunch at 10am. When the substitution schedules were filled out, I only filled in Monday and Friday at that time slot, and not Wednesday. And here I was thinking I was going to lecture on conservation of momentum with changing mass.

There was also a departmental meeting today on the General Education Curriculum and the revision of the laboratory policies. Two groups made up of volunteers are going to make new syllabi for teaching about the Environment and Material Science for the test classes in the College of Business and Economics first term next year. These are the topics that the Council of Chairs decided upon during their last meeting. I wonder what the Chemistry, Biology and Math departments picked.

This may be the reason why there's only one class of Astronomy for the third term.

On the new lab policies, oral reports are still in, but paper format is now out, replaced by question and answer format for the individual reports. This means rehashing the current manuals, and groups of three members each are asked to volunteer for two experiments for which new guide questions will be constructed.