Y'All Show Yer School Spurt -- Git Out Of Town
Friday, 29 February 2008 15:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsThe Spirit of Spirit Day
I've written about Spirit Day before -- it's Western Michigan University's "extra" holiday. Once it was the day before Homecoming in the Fall. But they decided to move a holiday to Spring (i.e. Winter) Semester. So now Spirit Day stills falls on a Friday and has become the de facto start to Spring Break. Sorry, I have some issues with this. We're supposed to show our school spirit by leaving? What's up with that? And then there's the whole concept of combining "Spring Break" with a date which has the word "February" in it.
That's just not right. (grin)
Friday's The New Break Week and Thursday's The New Friday
So I overheard some students outside my door yesterday -- that Spring Break ends up meaning a test either on the last day of class, i.e. Thursday, or when you come back, i.e. a week from Monday. Okay, I'm guilty of assigning the former. My PHYS-2050 Honors class has exams on Thursdays anyway, and at the end of a month, so it's a natural. And I argued strenuously that PHYS-1800 have their exam when we come back on Wednesday and not Monday. There's just too many ways that students can not make it back on Monday 10 March 2008. (double-edged-grin)
What did disappoint me -- even though I suspected it would happen -- was that my 1pm PHYS-1800 lab was definitely down in count. Come on, people! Western has always had issues with people thinking that weekends start on Friday, so I can always tell when it's a Friday class, most semesters. (The Honors class is small and it's harder to hide in absence, so it's an anomaly.) So when Friday is a scheduled holiday, then some ya-hoos think that they can get away with cutting Thursday. Annoying. When I handed out the attendance sign-in sheet, I told people I was giving double attendance points for that day. Those who were there liked the idea. (triple-word-score-grin)
Yo, Sadie!
Today, of course, is Leap Day. The twenty-ninth of February. I was amused by the wags at NPR, who pointed out that actor Dennis Farina was born on this day in 1944 -- and that he's sixteen.
And if today had been a regular Friday, I'd have been wrestling with slippery and poor driving conditions. We got dumped on with several inches of snow overnight and during the day. Plus it is going to be in the 30s and there will be rain and rain/snow mixes over the weekend. Great, I get Spring Break and I stayed home today, rather than run into the collisions already going on over on I-96. I have things to do and pick up on Alpine Avenue, but they'll have to wait.
Of course, none of that matters. With my track record, I'll get the flu during Spring Break anyway -- since they've decided that this year's flu shots missed the right strain. (oops)
Dr. Phil
I've written about Spirit Day before -- it's Western Michigan University's "extra" holiday. Once it was the day before Homecoming in the Fall. But they decided to move a holiday to Spring (i.e. Winter) Semester. So now Spirit Day stills falls on a Friday and has become the de facto start to Spring Break. Sorry, I have some issues with this. We're supposed to show our school spirit by leaving? What's up with that? And then there's the whole concept of combining "Spring Break" with a date which has the word "February" in it.
That's just not right. (grin)
Friday's The New Break Week and Thursday's The New Friday
So I overheard some students outside my door yesterday -- that Spring Break ends up meaning a test either on the last day of class, i.e. Thursday, or when you come back, i.e. a week from Monday. Okay, I'm guilty of assigning the former. My PHYS-2050 Honors class has exams on Thursdays anyway, and at the end of a month, so it's a natural. And I argued strenuously that PHYS-1800 have their exam when we come back on Wednesday and not Monday. There's just too many ways that students can not make it back on Monday 10 March 2008. (double-edged-grin)
What did disappoint me -- even though I suspected it would happen -- was that my 1pm PHYS-1800 lab was definitely down in count. Come on, people! Western has always had issues with people thinking that weekends start on Friday, so I can always tell when it's a Friday class, most semesters. (The Honors class is small and it's harder to hide in absence, so it's an anomaly.) So when Friday is a scheduled holiday, then some ya-hoos think that they can get away with cutting Thursday. Annoying. When I handed out the attendance sign-in sheet, I told people I was giving double attendance points for that day. Those who were there liked the idea. (triple-word-score-grin)
Yo, Sadie!
Today, of course, is Leap Day. The twenty-ninth of February. I was amused by the wags at NPR, who pointed out that actor Dennis Farina was born on this day in 1944 -- and that he's sixteen.
And if today had been a regular Friday, I'd have been wrestling with slippery and poor driving conditions. We got dumped on with several inches of snow overnight and during the day. Plus it is going to be in the 30s and there will be rain and rain/snow mixes over the weekend. Great, I get Spring Break and I stayed home today, rather than run into the collisions already going on over on I-96. I have things to do and pick up on Alpine Avenue, but they'll have to wait.
Of course, none of that matters. With my track record, I'll get the flu during Spring Break anyway -- since they've decided that this year's flu shots missed the right strain. (oops)
Dr. Phil
