TW3

What a week!

It started with the Stats Exam. After last week's tornado drill, I decided to have the exam in the afternoon, outside of class. We set it for Monday afternoon. When I do this, I usually have an open exam period, so people can come when they are able. So the first students started at 4:00, and the last ones didn't leave until close to 8:00. Since I'd come at close to 8:00 that morning, that made for a twelve hour day.

Of course, not everyone could find time on Monday afternoon, so there were make up exams to give. Two people took it last Thursday, one Monday morning, one Tuesday morning, and two Wednesday at noon. As I type, the exams are sitting on the coffee table, waiting for me to finish grading them.

I had to visit three classes this week. On Tuesday, I went to review a junior colleague for his file. He did just fine, considering what an awful task he had. It was a Tuesday/Thursday class, which means that no one had thought about the material for five days, until late Monday night. It was at 8:00 in the morning, so they were all half-asleep. And it was Trigonometry, which is a class that they all had in high school, so they think that they know it. Of course, if they knew it, they wouldn't have to take it, but that doesn't mean that they have to, you know, study or anything. So Junior Colleague was starting with three strikes against him. It's no wonder he didn't hit a home run.

The other two classes that I had to visit were candidates for a teaching award. I sit on the committee that makes the recommendation. One of the two candidates is the German teacher, so I got to sit through a whole class in a language that I do not speak. When we found out he was a candidate, I tried to dump the responsibility on someone who has had some German, but no one would take it. I really am more impressed with the other guy, but I'm second guessing myself, wondering to what extent it's because I understand Biology -- not just the lecture, but the whole idea of what a good biologist does -- better than I understand foreign languages.

This week was the big one for our Senior Seminar. As a capstone, the students have to prepare and present some material that is outside the regular curriculum. There are something like 10 students this semester, but I "only" made it to two or three of the talks. And we had a guest speaker in our Math Colloquium, an old friend of mine from out of town. So we went out for pizza with him and his wife and our whole family.

And yesterday was the Medium Little Jogger's birthday, and Grandma Jogger and her partner are here from out of town. So I feel like I've been pulled a thousand directions all week.