Riding Hard

I rode my bike to campus in the evening earlier this week to save time from walking. As I rode across campus to class, I started up a hill. As I slowed to a near stop two-thirds the way up, I tried to quickly change gears. Unfortunately, the chain rattled through the cassette (sprockets on the rear wheel) and popped off the chainrings (sprockets rotated by the peddles). I walked my bike the rest of the way.

After class, I came out to my bike with the expectation that I would only need to remount the chain. A security officer was just coming around to check doors and shined his flashlight on the chainrings. To my amazement, I saw that I had snapped the smallest sprocket! Several bolts had attached it to the larger chainrings, but now it hung by only a single bolt (the teeth going the wrong direction just above the tube intersection)...actually that was only one portion of it. Most of the snapped sprocket was hanging over the peddle shaft (this is what I am holding in the picture). With the baseball coach (he was was in class with me) holding the back tire off the ground and the security officer holding the flashlight, I put the chain on the new smallest chainring and was able to peddle away! And yes...I had a nice ride home.

Wear and tear and...escargot

I think I hit the "wall" on Tuesday, as I had a rough go of the lecture during Thermo. I felt like I didn't understand the material as well as I should have, and I told my students that they were lucky they were getting taught the material because I didn't. (Oops...maybe I shouldn't have told them that! Ah well.) I had to do the same lecture on Thursday for different students and it went much better. Then I reviewed the material again Friday and everyone seemed to be understanding it much better.

Later in the day, another faculty member indicated that his lecture that afternoon was so boring, it oozed out of the lecture hall and into the hall way. Even HE was bored! I sensed he and others in the conversation were tired as the discussion we were having ended early due to minimal responses.

This picture is my first snail sighting in Oregon. Actually, I don't know if I have ever seen a "wild snail." I found it as a nice reminder of how I should take my first year...slow and steady!

Over Halfway!

I am still here! The semester has continued to progress well. Lectures are becoming a little easier to prepare and my students seem to be understanding the material well.

The first exam issues of too little time were cured by giving the second exams in back to back lab periods so that students could come to either session (avoid time conflicts of trying to find a single time when all could meet). They scored much better this time around. In addition, I introduced a second grading scale that downplays the first exam. Therefore, the students' overall grade will be the higher of either the syllabus grading scale or the new scale.

Reaching the middle of term, I encountered a grading requirement I have never experienced; I had to post mid-term grades of C- or below (higher grades were considered passing). I gave out a few < C- grades throughout my three courses. I haven't heard from any of those students yet, but they definitely have the potential to make-up their deficit and finish well.

A non-teaching experience...I was driving back home and stopped in the left-hand turn lane. A gentleman in the lane to my right (that only went straight) asked me how to get to a certain highway. I told him that I recently moved to the area and didn't know where the road was. I asked him where he was going, and he replied just after the light changed and he was pulling away. Ironically, I knew the town, how to get there, and I had a map that I had just bought on the seat next to me! I hope he found someone more knowledgeable than I!?