Heptadecagon

On 2/11/13, I wrote the following in the first draft of this blog post: "I gave my first exam on Saturday, and much to my surprise and delight, the students did well. Very well, in fact. The exam wasn't the hardest I've ever given, but it certainly wasn't easy. But it was a first exam. It served its purpose: to let me know what sort of class I have." I laughed as I read that paragraph, for two reasons: 1. I'd forgotten that I taught a couple of Saturday courses a few years ago. 2. I'd forgotten that the students who take Saturday courses tend to do better in my classes. I've put a lot of thought into that second statement over the last couple of years. Students who take Saturday courses tend to do better in my classes . Why might that be? I teach the exact same way to each and every set of students, and usually, we have exactly the same amount of time to cover our material. What I figured out, though, is that the students who sign up for Saturday ...

This is the first post encompassing my draft makeovers . I think the date recorded by Blogger indicated that I'd started it sometime in late December, 2012. That seems like a lifetime ago, but as I sat down to read the draft, I realized that while some things have changed since four years ago, much of my life (and the life surrounding me) is still the same. And if I could talk about standards then, I can probably still talk about standards now. At school, we throw that word and variations of it around quite a bit. We need to have "standards" for the classes, or a "standard" comprehensive exam for everyone. Is the new instructor teaching to the "standards" that the college expects? Standards, standards, standards. We're so worried about them in the business and academic setting, but what about elsewhere? Well, every once in a while, I think about whether or not I'm living my life up to the standards for which they are set.  And then I think,...