Thursday, May 03, 2007

It's a Wrap

I just submitted my course grades for this spring's edition of Physics 219. My students really came through strongly on the final exam. That was gratifying ... and, I'll have to admit, a little surprising.

Time to start thinking about the upcoming fall semester. There's only about 16 weeks 'til the start of classes. I'd better start laying out the schedule and the syllabus.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finals start here (SJSU) on the 16th, Commencement is the 25th, grades due from faculty by the 29th, YIKES, where has the semester gone? Fall semester starts August 20th...

Jim, are you surprised your students did so well because of their learning abilities or your teaching abilities?
Cathy

Jim Wetzel said...

Hey, Cathy! Great to see Northern California check in ...

My surprise at my students' strong final-exam performance is entirely due to their abysmally-poor performance on the second regular exam, just a few weeks ago. I thought I'd be reporting several of those F-type course grades, but -- as it turned out -- not a one. Of course, for the engineering-technology folks, who are the vast majority of my students, a D is just as bad as an F, and will necessitate another attempt. Still, an F is so much uglier, and I'm always much more cheerful if one does not occur.

Is that SJS schedule typical of universities in your area? Around here, pretty much everyone is finished by the first week in May.

itsmecissy said...

Pretty typical for CSU campuses. Spring semester is over at the ends of May, Fall semester begins in late August. Most of the UC campuses are on the quarter system so Spring quarter ends in mid-June and Fall quarter begins in October. The various junior, private, and "other" colleges usually begin classes in Sept and end in June.

Now that's probably more than you needed to know!
Cathy