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

On what would have been the third day of the fifteenth week of classes (continuing the count) we had our course card distribution day.

Fully one fourth of all my mechanics lecture classes failed, which was just about the same ratio as in Miss Edna’s class, except that I had four times as many students as she did.

At the very least, I could say that no one failed under me for a second time. Two of the students, who already got a zero in the same subject under me last term, got grades of either one or one point five this time around.

Some of the students who were given the option of not taking the last two exams because they already had an average standing of three or three point five found that they got higher than their expected grade because of further adjustments I made to pass some of their classmates, as well as the minor requirements that I did not factor in when I showed them their pre-final standing.

Of those that did fail, three of them passed under me either in Mathematical Methods 1 or Trigonometric Applications last term.

One of them already gave up (and said she’ll do better next term) after seeing her thirty three percent pre-final assessment, even though she still had one more make up exam to answer.

Another was the one who probably thought she could slide on very minimal effort just like she thinks she did in the previous trimester. She even described mathematics as being her Waterloo. Not that I agree that means she should just give up on it instead of persisting to understand the subject, especially after years of negative conditioning in her grade school and high school.

A third one left the country in the middle of the term, after being the star actress in the school’s most recent stage production. The Registrar’s office said that she could still pass if her teachers agreed for her to pass all her final requirements online, but she never contracted me after her departure, so that may mean she got too busy when she landed.

One student, who already failed under me in Trigonometric Applications, approached me during the final weeks of the term saying he really wanted to pass. I told him he had missed two exams already, so he could take them, even without an excuse letter as to his absences. He missed the schedule I gave him to make them up, but he did show up during the finals week. I gave him one of the two exams for him to answer right then and there, but he passed it without having written anything other than his name, and just said he’d (say it with me) do better next time.

Maybe I should make it a point to warn them from the very start of the term next time that if they got one point zeroes by the seat of their pants while I was their teacher in previous subjects, that any similar situation during the succeeding terms will be met with stricter measures and more diligent requirements.

That’s it for now. I’ll talk about other details of course card distribution day next time. Class dismissed.