We're just about two full weeks into the semester. So far, so good.
My classes are mostly small this semester, with head counts of 3, 6, 12, and (not 24 but) 32. Out of those 53 students, I've had 5 or 6 contact me to say that they've either tested positive for COVID, live with someone who has tested positive for COVID, or are simply not feeling well. That's 10% of my students. I take this as a good sign because it means that they're taking the strong urging to stay home if they're feeling sick and keeping others safe. I've pushed the message quite hard that I'd prefer for them to stay home and that I'm more than willing to work with them to get them caught up again after they're feeling better (as well as running virtual office hours if they're stuck at home).
It looks like the omicron wave in Clark County is tapering off. Case counts peaked on January 10 with nearly 5000 cases in the 7-day moving average, and at this point we're down to about half that with numbering looking like they're going to continue in that direction. But even with that optimistic trajectory, I know of at least a few people who got COVID within the last couple weeks, so past the peak is definitely not the same as being over. (Also, it's time to watch the omicron BA.2 sub-variant...)
MATH 127 is my big class. The students seem pretty well engaged this semester. I expect that at least some of that is because they're glad to be back on campus. But regardless of the reason, it's a reminder of the reasons I enjoy what I do. Getting the students to interact with each other (which was difficult over Zoom) really adds to the energy of the class and really helps the students to think more carefully about the content. This is my only normal-ish sized class, but the fact that they seem to be doing pretty well so far gives me optimism that students are capable of navigating the new classroom environment.
STAT 152 is the new class that I'm teaching. It's the one with only three students in it. The students are all nursing students looking to complete a statistics course that's not even necessarily for something related to Nevada State. But that's fine. I was hoping that I'd start to see some data science students, but not yet. We've still got to figure out how to recruit for that program within the contact-limited COVID environment. I know that the two new faculty in the program are working on that. But back to the class, this class is the first time in a while that I'm teaching a class with very under-prepared students. Even basic things like decimals and percents are causing a little more hesitation than I'd like. But they'll figure it out.
MATH 352 is the "grown up" version of STAT 152. It's a course in probability and statistics. There are a lot of parallel concepts, but the upper division course covers more concepts and more of the theoretical framework of probability than STAT 152. It's a little bit confusing because I sometimes feel like I mentioned something in one course when it was really the other, and so I'm going to have to spend a little extra mental energy to keep things straight. That class has a dozen students, though a couple of them are unable to make it to class becase of work or other obligations. I have lecture capture set up for them, and so far everything is working out well for them.
And that leaves MATH 182, which is the second semester of calculus. There are six students in the class, and a couple of them haven't taken calculus in over 4 years. So they're having a really rough start to the semester. But I think they're coming along. One of the other students admitted to me that in my class my semester they had a tough time staying focused because it was online, and that they're struggling a bit this semester as a result. But they are communicating a desire to learn and (at least for now) they seem to be putting in the energy. So even though it's going to be a little rough for this class because of the weaker background, I get the impression that they're going to do okay.
Other campus stuff is really starting to pick up again. Our math search is going forward with the phone interview stage next week. We're a bit behind right now because we had a 3 week delay in getting the candidate pool released to us. So we're trying to push forward as fast as we can to make up for lost time and try our best not to lose candidates. There's only so much we can do right now, and so we've just got to hope for the best. There are several candidates that currently seem viable, which is a good sign for the remainder of the search. If there were only a couple candidates, I'd be quite afraid that they'll all go somewhere else before we get started. But with this many good ones, I'm feeling okay. Not great. But okay.
I'm running a FLC on refining/optimizing work habits. This is a new type of discussion group that I'm leading, and I'm quite curious to see how it will go. Typically, these FLCs are build around some sort of teaching concept. But this is really about figuring out how to do some of the behind the scenes stuff better so that we have more capacity to grow in our teaching. This has put me back in fast-reading mode. Since the beginning of the year, I've reread "The Power of Habit", read "Smarter, Faster, Better", and have just started "Getting Things Done." There's a lot of good stuff to take away from these things, and so if this semester goes well, I'd be inclined to do another one next semester using a different book. We'll see how it goes.
I was able to invest a bunch of time into my mediocre shmup, and it's at a point that I'm mostly done with it. The last thing I need to do is be able to make the enemy ships follow a specific path, and I have to write that code in a way that students will be able to modify it without too much difficulty. Then I've got to go back and format the code, then package the teaching into a series of videos that we will share with the students. The event isn't until April and so my target is to have this done by early March. That should be more than enough time. (Famous last words...)
After some discussion, we may be moving our test tube rack product to either the Amazon store or maybe an Ebay store. We're having some continuing discussions about the best way to do this that works with the payment systems within the institution. This is a bit of a shift from where we thought we were going, so we'll see what happens there.
I guess this is a good place to wrap things up. No piano practice has happened. Thor is getting to know Joan better now that I'm out of the house so much. We did a hike with friends in Arizona (Liberty Bell Arch). We've got a couple days lined up to spend time with other friends. The summer InterVarsity faculty conferences are being brought to an end because COVID is making it too difficult to do effectively. My basil is still too sparse to harvest, and I'm not yet able to convince it to grow in more (but I'm still working on it). Time is starting to move fast again.
