Summer 2016

Summer, 2016, ends a bad year, and almost ended my life;
entering the hospital for an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery, I suffered a myocardial infarction in the elevator on my way to check in.  Two days and three stents later, I left with the  demand to put off the ACDF procedure for at least three months, Horrid luck.

The third week of classes is about to begin following the Labor Day holiday.
I have so far been unable to get my lecture videos posted in Vcamp360 to load or play on the computer in the physics lab. Nor can I save programs. And the lab software from Vernier has been taken when my own lab computer was vandalized of hard drive and CD drive this past summer. I did, as I reported earlier, get the projector and monitor to agree on resolution, and a new pair of speakers was brought up and plugged in by IT. All in all, the lab is now much less usable than it was when I retired 4 or 5 years ago.

First Week is Over

The first week of the fall semester is over.   That is to say, the semester is 1/16 over. I discovered today that the students and I had different editions of the text book. I think I ordered a proper one from amazon.com but it may not contain the modern physics chapters.
The problem with the projector and computer mismatch was solved by Mr. Fly. It was the resolution settings.
I thought I had Vcamp360 figured out but I don't.  Files seem to be misplaced or placed in the wrong category. We discussed briefly the experimental basis of the acceleration, velocity, displacement nature of kinematics, ready to leap Monday into linear motion
Comparing the MIT practice math placement test results with the ambitions limned in the academic autobiographies showed that the students are overestimating their abilities, drastically.

Things are beginning to fall into place. I finally was permitted to use a tiny, windowless, amenityless office in the Business Suite. On Monday, I was told that I would be allowed to teach a class. Evidently an order from on high had demanded that I be driven from the classroom for reasons I do not know; the ostensible reason was that I was not "student centered", whatever that means. In at least once sense, it's very true. On the other hand, when teaching as an adjunct before I held office hours, not required, during the week. I held office hours on Saturday. I bought software so I could (and did) make movies to post for the student to use to review. I used a very cheap textbook. I announced all tests some even months in advance. I was unfailingly polite even while in the maw of the uninterested. I purchased almost all the electronic data collection materials for the lab. I do not see how I was not "student centered."
This year's class seems like a good bunch of kids, Tomorrow I will administer a sort of assessment exam to see where they are in terms of elementary mathematics.
I hope to include some live streaming into the course also this fall.

The Fall 2015 academic year has arrived.

Fall, 2015, is here. I just learned that, in my role as Professor Emeritus, I am to teach a hybrid section of College and University Physics, the first with seven students, the second with six.  My first wish would be to find a way to separate these two. It would make my life much simpler. I will try on the first day. The class meets MWF from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m., with a lab on Wednesday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.  This leaves Thursday afternoons free for me to attend colloquia at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.  I have been evicted from my previous cubby-hole office and really have no place to go. I hope that much of the day the Physics Lab will not be used for classes, so that I can hang my hat there. When the lab is in use I shall claim work space in the James J. Kelly library. Perhaps there will be a free carrel at the east end, or even a study room on the north side.