Will I ever have a completely smooth week of classes this semester? Hmmm..
Last week started rocky when i went to campus to do my online classes from my office, only to discover that my network connection wasn't working. I knew it was because our university had started a new log in security procedure that I had to activate, but the only way I could access it was via the Internet, and the only way I could connect to the Internet was by logging in to the university network... a cute catch-22. So I needed about 90 mins of help in my office from a nice and patient Computer Center person, who finally got my room's wifi connection going. (In the afternoon another Computer Center person came to change the settings on my computer so as to enable my ethernet connection to work, just in case.) Anyway, apart from that, Wednesday went OK, I guess, with a lively and fun graduate school seminar in the morning and my Introduction to American Culture and Literature class for (mostly) first-year English majors in the afternoon (we covered Virginia Hamilton's "The People Could Fly," which, judging by the a little bit low scores on the quiz I gave at the end of class, was difficult for the kids to understand (or my presentation of it was). Thursday went OK (I continued trying Zoom for breakout rooms with my conversation class, which works with varying degrees of success, depending on the kids involved and their chutzpah levels and English abilities), except for the start of period 4 class for first-year Pharmacy majors, because something was up with the university server, so we couldn't join our Webex class meeting for about seven minutes, which results in much freaking out on my part and those of some of the students. Friday was OK! I had to scold (or shame) a couple seminar students who hadn't been reading their classmates' posts on our Facebook group, and then thought maybe that wasn't the best way to handle their lack of diligence. I hope I didn't crush their spirits! One boy in my seminar couldn't get his mic to work in Zoom, so in his breakout room he had to chat his ideas to his two group members, but they are both bright and friendly and good students, so I think it worked OK for him, and one group finished four topics that should take at least half an hour I reckoned in only ten minutes somehow! Hmmm... ANYWAY, I survived our fourth week, if you can believe that. Soon the semester will be a third over already. Good luck to all of us!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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