Day 325 of 1000
Both Kelly and Christian are taking a compressed semester class this summer. The classes are normally given over a period of 16 weeks, but during the summer they are given in five weeks. The classes meet every day of the week for an hour and a half. Kelly is taking a three hour class in Foundations of Advanced math–a proofs class, so that is here entire class load. Christian’s class includes a lab, so he spends a LOT of time on campus. The thing that is kind of surprising to me is that they seem to be assimilating the material very well even though both of them literally need to learn a new language with a new “alphabet” in just five weeks. They have just about as much homework as they did when they had a full course load spread of 16 weeks. They are doing OK so far, but the big tests will start next week.
Christian has to get up in his Chemistry lab sessions and explain how he solved problems. He asked me how to teach. The only thing I could think to tell him was practice. He has a stellar Chemistry professor that explains things very, very well. Kelly is in an even better situation with an emeritus professor who is 75 years old that comes back during the summer to teach on class out of love for the material. The students in both classes know exactly what to expect and the professors articulate the material very well in class. What a gift.