Always amusing when students write "plaque" instead of "plague." Makes that whole 14th century crisis thing seem a bit overblown. It's just teeth, people...

My spring quarter officially began yesterday.  On top of all the usual start-of-the-quarter chaos, I had to accustom myself to a new campus (OSU-Newark), class size (only 10 students!  rock on!), and a 40-mile commute.  But it is going to be worth it.  The campus is tiny, the people are friendly, and I get to park right outside the building I teach ( Read more... )

This past quarter's evaluations are in, and all of them were positive except this:

"Terrible, absolutely excruciating class. Good guy, though, he did well."

Um, thanks, but what am I supposed to do with that?  I'm a nice guy but my teaching is excruciating?  The class topic (colonial Latin America) is terrible?  Hmm.

Fate can be so cruel to undergraduates.  It scheduled St. Patrick's Day during finals week.  And that makes me giggle.

Today I attended my last graded graduate seminar at Ohio State.  Next quarter I will sit in on a reading seminar from time to time but the prof doesn't expect me to keep up with the readings and I won't be graded for it.  Sweet.

"Overall, the Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica had a negative effect on the indigenous people living there."

A former student emailed me today to forward one of those "Bush was right about WMDs in Iraq and the media is covering it up" rants.  It is the story from June about the removal of about 550 tons of uranium "yellowcake" from Iraq to Canada, which was documented on msnbc and elsewhere.  The student's comment was: "I thought this was very interesting ( Read more... )

Today is Grading Final Exams Day.  One of the exam questions asked about the significance of the Civil Rights Movement, and I received generally fine descriptions of the movement's activities and tactics although the significance part is more tricky, as always.  This batch has a new twist, though, because of last month's presidential election ( Read more... )

Today I was listening to my iPod as I walked across campus (yes, I'm one of those obnoxious people who walk around with headphones in).  When I got to my destination and took the headphones out, I heard the theme to the 1980s version of Knight Rider coming out of my backpack.  At some point something must have jostled my phone and turned on the ( Read more... )

Yesterday it snowed all freaking day, but none of it sticked for very long.  It was a nice way to ease into winter and the holiday season ( Read more... )

I am discovering that the best way to sniff out the overachieving students in my classes is to assign a map quiz.  I gave them a study guide last week with a list of about 30 locations and then picked 15 of those for the quiz yesterday.  The overachievers finished early, of course, and then filled in the places that I did not choose to test them on ( Read more... )