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

Returning to my story yesterday of the last electricity and magnetism session for the term: I requested one student to clear the board afterwards and return my eraser to me, but he gave more than that: he also passed the problem set.

I intentionally didn’t ask them to pass it because my first instructions were that it should be passed at the start of the period. It was disappointing to have my instructions disregarded yet again.

Anyway, it’s not their last encounter with the series-parallel circuits and Kirchhoff’s rules. It’s still in the electricity and magnetism lab finals. It’s just a question of whether I’ll give them the answers to the problem set. That’s something I’ll have to think about some other time.

On Friday in Trigonometry we discussed the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines, which took up only three quarters of an hour (faster for the second class, since I didn’t spend time writing the solutions on the board anymore). I wasn’t surprised though that giving them an exercise took the rest of the period for them to solve and pass.

There were also still some students expressing incredulity that the finals would not include identities. I jested that I would make a special exam for them that included identities.

For once I also gave the same exercise to both classes, telling them that two of the items I wrote down on the board that was supposed to be for example will be exercises. One was using law of sines the other was using law of cosines.

That, in fact, gave those who wanted enough lead time to solve the problem even before I finished with the lecture and the examples. They could have passed their papers as soon as I announced the end of the lecture, and they would have left early. But no one took advantage of that.

Minor Deiv moments: first of all, the first opportunity that I asked the class about any questions on the lesson, he raised his hand and asked me not about the results of their most recent exam, but of the results of his special exam. I still replied in the negative though.

Next, on a word problem that we had that was supposed to be solved using the law of sines, he raised his hand again and called me over to say that he used the two right triangles method we had before, except turned on its side 90 degrees and he got the same correct answer.

It reminded me about what the guidance counselor said that he had the same attitude at home, exploratory, experimental, and that it was encouraged by his parents.

What I replied to him was therefore a little false sounding even in my own ears: that the example was supposed to show the application of the law of sines and that he should stick to that.

At the end of the class though, he asked me at the door if we still had finals in Graphics One. Yes, I said, hands-on. I turned and left the room, but not before I distinctly heard him say behind me, supposedly under his breath, “F**k.”

Well, since it was under his breath only the consonants were clear anyway, but there seemed no mistaking his sentiment.

Not that I saw the need to reprimand him about that either.

It’s Wednesday. I have still to talk about two teachers saying goodbye, Monday’s electricity and magnetism lecture finals, yesterday’s faculty meeting and today’s Graphics One finals and electricity and magnetism lab finals. They will have to wait until next time.

The class is dismissed for today.