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

Yesterday I went to the EVP to ask him if the mechanics subject next term could be given 6 hours a week while still retaining its 3 unit status, just like what’s been done with Algebra and English 1. He was VERY hesitant, and suggested that I just cut down the topics for the subject. In the case of the engineering majors, he’s willing to have a Mechanics 2 subject instead, with some introduction to Electricity and Magnetism (the next topics in the text) thrown in.

That will be at least a year in the future though, probably after the students have evaluated the current course for content.

And speaking of evaluation, there was none for the teachers this term. After all, that’s supposed to happen the week after midterms, and it’s already the eleventh week of classes.

Speaking of midterms, I was forced to hand mine in yesterday. This is because at least two students who are looking to transfer next year could not have their transcripts forwarded because it needs their midterm grades for the current term.

The midterm standing of my students have been ready since last week, but I just haven’t passed them to the secretary because she kept saying it wasn’t required (despite the constant reminders during the same time last term). I have been giving them to the students though. I just didn’t post it in the halls for all to see.

I had to tell David to do the same for the lab, because there was no midterm grade in what he had posted for the students last week, just the status of their various requirements so far.

Speaking of lab, the sample problems about friction we discussed in class last Monday as part of their review for the quiz on Thursday were all taken from the lab manual, because David told me that none of the groups who performed the experiment on friction last week got all the answers to the supplementary problems correctly.

Afterwards one of the students came up to me and said that she does well in classes that deals with a lot of memorization of terms and facts (like the Sociology subject they had last term), but she doesn’t like analysis and application subjects such as the one I’m teaching, and I guess, computer programming as well.

I will have to find a way to tell her diplomatically that memorization is considered a low level skill compared to analysis in application in the hierarchy of learning abilities from the Innovative Teaching seminar we had last month. It will then be up to her if she wants to evolve in terms of the stage of her aptitude.

Yesterday I accompanied the same student and her group mates on their NSTP project, which is teaching to some Grade II pupils in a nearby public school (not the same school as the library renovation group).

This time two out of the six group members taught reading, with some comprehension thrown in, in the form of questions thrown to the kids afterwards.

They also bought candy as reward for those who got high in the quiz they gave last time they were there, as well as for those who participated in the recitation for this meeting. THAT certainly elicited a lot of interest to their lesson.