Heptadecagon

I could have gone my entire life without tasting SPAM. Seriously. As in, on my death bed, "not having tried SPAM" wasn't even going to make my list. But a week or so ago, one of the girls came home with an assignment. Zoe: Mom, I need to eat SPAM and turnips for two days. Me: SPAM and turnips? That's it? Zoe: Yes. Me: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner SPAM and turnips? Zoe: Yes. Me: Snack SPAM and turnips Zoe: Yes. Me: Why? Zoe: It's for extra credit. Me: What the heck? Who assigns something like that? Right? Which teacher in their right mind sends out an assignment like that? Apparently, it was for history class. Zoe went on to explain that they were covering World War I and that during that time soldiers could only eat SPAM and turnips. Something didn't sound right there, so I turned to my phone and looked up when SPAM was invented. And when was that? 1937. Well beyond the WWI years. Zoe: I know when World War I was, Mom. 1914 to 1918. And I know we...

Dear Student, Here we are, before the semester even begins , and I'm writing to you. Don't you wonder why? It's partly because I love writing these letters to you (find the other letters by searching this blog for Dear Student ), and partly because I anticipate that I'm going to have a rough semester. You see, I received an email a little while ago explaining that we're in the midst of changing textbooks. Which means that for anyone taking the first semester of the Human Anatomy and Physiology series, a new textbook is needed. For people like you, who are taking the second semester of the series, you can continue to use the textbook you bought for the first course. Great news, right? Wrong. Because in addition to that original email from a colleague, I've already received several emails from students. The gist of those emails goes a little like this: I see we need the 10th edition of the textbook, but I have the 8th edition. Will that be good enou...

Dear Student, It's been just about a month since I wrote the last letter to you. (Which reminds me...I wonder if you remember what goblet cells do. No, actually, I don't want to know if you know. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.) And here we are, on the day of the comprehensive exam, and I find myself writing again. Did you know that in just over seven hours, you will be done with me? That's provided you pass the class. Which I hope you do, because I think I've had enough of student behavior to get me through the summer and then some. (Ah, summer. I can't wait because guess what? I don't teach in the summer!) What has caused me to put thoughts on paper this time? No, it's not your lack of knowledge per se or your inability to pay attention. It's not even the fact that you might walk into class a bit late each day. (I got used to that action a long time ago.) No, it's a little fact that I stated at the beginning of the semester. A fact that you,...

Dear Student, This is the third letter I will be writing to random students. When I started writing the first letter , I never thought I could make a series out of these letters, but here we are, months later, and I'm rethinking my tune. Maybe if I keep going, my Dear Student letters can be compiled and published. Stranger things have happened, you know. (In case you missed my second letter, you can find it here .) But I'm not here to talk about my writing and publishing journey. I'm here to give you some tips for a successful semester. Now don't balk. I realize that our semester is actually over. Yes, you read that right. Maybe you aren't aware of it, but we took the last exam on Monday and I offered the comprehensive final on Wednesday, so in short, we're done. But since you contacted me last night about an exam you never made up--the one the rest of the students took on April 6--I wanted to make sure you knew that the class has indeed, come to a close. ...