CollegeNow Grades

I've been instructing for a collegenow course in Meteorology. I have 30 students from LGHS registered. Around 12-15 tend to show up relatively regularly. We've had two tests. No one got above a 65 on either of them. I've made the tests so that they do what they are supposed to do, test the student's knowledge of the subject matter. I've tried it with a longer test (100 questions) with quick, multiple choice, true/false questions. The students were able to finish on time, even the ones that came in a half hour late to the test. The second test had 24 questions, but they were a combination of question types, and they got at the most basic and fundamental issues that we had been discussing in class and that were also covered in the textbook. And still the students did poorly. They're telling me that having a test on more than one chapter is too much for them. I think that I will infact make the next test on a single chapter. I spoke with Rob Perro from CollegeNow, and he suggested speaking with the HS principle about arranging for tutors for the students, which is a good idea. I had previously spoken with the principle, and he had a lot of students coming to him asking to drop the course, but he said that he insisted that they stay in the course and put more effort into it.

Mulitple Events

Funding for a Bruker training session in Feb and the OSM in March may not be available, which is disconcerting since I've spent $400 to register for OSM. I had been told that it would be acceptable by the department chair, and at the same time was going for SEM training from JEOL. For that training, I filled out an expense report and applied to have it refunded. Apparently I should have applied to encumber funds before doing anything. So I didn't encumber funds for OSM, thinking I would apply for reimbursement, and now there are no more funds available in the department.
Fortunately, there are external funds (from the college still), that had been encumbered for another person to use, however they were unable to use them. There was enough in that deal to cover both of my trips, IF it can be switched over to them. Hopefully it can. They are checking with Dean DiLorenzo to find out of this is workable.

Earlier in the day I received a phone call regarding CollegeNow. They were checking to see if I could be ready for a Meteorology class on Thursday. The problem was that I hadn't talked to my Chair about it, and it seems to me that any instructions regarding something like that need to come to me through him, since this is his department. I didn't think that there would be any problem, but still, I'd need to talk to him before actually starting it. Especially since we're in a wintersession, and the college class wouldn't start until afterwards, in the spring session. However, the Chair asked if I'd like to do the class when I met with him today, so that clears all that up. They're going to get off to an odd start however, since I have those two trips to go on in the beginning.

I also made contact with Mr. Li. He had originally be one of the candidates for the position that I have. He know works for a plastics company. They have some material, apparently its a plastic with silica grains embedded in it that they'd like to look at using the SEM. I was able to speak with him today and he'll be stopping by at around 11 on Thursday.


As a further note, I just started receiving payment in the last two weeks for the KECSS Astronomy class that ended last year. At least they are coming through now.