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

Third day of the first week of classes, school year 2005-6: my first class was the lab component of the Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism course.

I underestimated the number of people who would show up. It was double of that from last year’s class, and that’s not yet including those who were absent. Of course at the time we thought they were all enrolled in the afternoon class, given the count of those who showed up for the lecture class. I even had the hope, just like with the two Introduction to Robotics classes last term, that I could just tell some of the students in the morning class to move to the afternoon class to come close to evening up the number of students in each.

I divided them into four groups, allowing for three to four students per class. Not surprisingly, since we assumed that Deiv everyone’s perennial problem student and classmate, was in that class although he was not present, none of the groups wanted him in their team.

I told them that the alternative to them not settling the problem of grouping for be for me, not to assign the groups without listening to complaints, but to make the groupings rotate per week. Somehow the first option (unleashing the incompatibility on less people for the whole term) was more agreeable to them.

Different from last year’s class, this time I told them that we will start with the “field trip” to an electronics shop to familiarize them with where to buy equipment, to practice them on soldering and checking wire connections. I still have to fix our need for transportation, or whether we’ll commute, if we’ll just meet somewhere near the place then return to school. I told them I’ll give them the decision on the next lecture class before the next lab class.

I was also given the class list for my 11am-2pm Graphics One class. There was only one student signed up there. Since there were three sections of that class offered, one at 8-11am and the last at 2-5pm, I guess those two options were more palatable for the Engineering freshmen (and the sophomores who failed last year) than holding a three hour class during lunchtime.

I was under the impression though, as with most of the other under-attended classes, that there would be more attendees than what was listed, despite the contradicting truths that (a) students are notorious for enrolling late, and (b) students are just as known to not attend the first meeting of the class.

But just as I was preparing to meet that class (promising my co-faculty that I would be back to join them for lunch in a few minutes) the registrar’s personnel and the Vice Dean who were there on a conference as to what to do about the confusing enrollment (it was the first day the Vice Dean was in since Monday; she only shows up twice a week) they told me that the second Graphics One class had been dissolved, becoming apparently the second class of mine this term with such a fate.

Doesn’t mean I can just forget all about that subject though, as I am still the email correspondent of the software firm for getting their monthly license for use of the graphing program.

I’ll talk about my afternoon ELMALAB class next time, and the next day.

Session 607 is A Wrap. For now, class dismissed.