Essays

I used my accident on Tuesday as a framework to talk about how to write an essay for my lower level classes. That went well in one class and less well in the other. How well that's going to translate into writing their own essays on Newton and Einstein is entirely up in the air. Some of them have no idea how bad their reading comprehension is and how completely absent their curiosity is. Then again, given that the allegedly college-bound students kept trying to answer a "how does x vary with y" question with statements beginning with "because," perhaps I shouldn't be terribly surprised. I start worrying about the future state of the country when I spend too much time thinking about my students' reading ocmprehension and critical thinking skills.

In other news, several classes asked about using the clickers again, so I spent some time writing up questions to use in my next couple of lectures. I haven't figured out if I can rearrange questions within CPS, or how to link the CPS to a PowerPoint, since it doesn't talk to my preferred SMART Notebook...

Perhaps more later. Younger Daughter has just informed me that dinner is about to be served.