Friday, March 4th, 2011 - end of week 8

It's the end of week 8, and we're all still alive. It's true that we've suffered some casualties (we hope that Corinna will join us at the graduation ceremony), and we'll all be happy to see the new buds when they appear on the trees as the weather warms. The first flowers in spring are the most beautiful and the shortest lived.

Your research papers are now complete, and you must feel proud of successfully finishing this long task. This project teaches you the process of writing a research paper, and you've all now learned that it's a big task, and certainly one that cannot be done at the last minute. The brilliant student who procrastinates, works little, yet succeeds makes up .001% of the population. That's probably fewer people than win the lottery. On the other hand, planning and hard work moves you to different and better places. Few people will disagree.

We're half way through the oral presentations. Congratulations to those who have already presented. You've worked hard, done excellent jobs, and I'm sure the rest of you will reach the same heights.

Assignments:

Text Book Chapter:

Read your section. Highlight the important information and write the main ideas in the margin. Making notes or a map of the section is a good idea. Make questions for discussion on Monday. Prepare answers to your questions in note form.


Blogging:

1. How do you feel about doing research and writing (probably) your first paper in English? Are you proud, confused, confident, discouraged, or...? Describe your feelings about this experience.
  
2. And speaking of feelings and experience, write about a very bad experience you've had in your life. Also, if you could simply take a pill and forget it, would you? Why or why not?

Next week:

Next week we'll listen to the last half of the research presentations. We'll work on the textbook project and do the exam questions on Thursday and Friday. We'll also continue working on short answer questions. Towards the end of the week, we'll start the input for the final evaluations. Don't be absent. It's all important.

Have a nice weekend. Enjoy the warm weather and even if it's raining, go out for a walk. Please answer my 2 blog questions.

Teresa