I got all my syllabi written, and organized my first week’s lectures. I also created and published the Canvas pages for my students. I still have to revamp the first lab — thanks to COVID-19, I’ve had to do major surgery on how the lab operates, to accommodate social distancing. I’ll probably get that done tomorrow.
Also, I sort of understand why the administration did this, but it’s still kind of annoying. They killed Spring Break — don’t you students scurry off to visit family and bring back the plague! But then they sprinkled one day long breaks throughout the term, rather than just shortening the whole semester. That tends to mess up lab schedules more than the usual big block of lost time.
But they didn’t consult me on the matter, so I guess I can’t complain. I just deal with what they hand me at this point, and hope I don’t die a horrible slow lingering death of the current epidemic.
We’re still keeping students at home, even for labs, unless they are in programs like nursing that require in-person work. Do you have to run more lab sections to accommodate keeping students away from each other?
Yeah, I’ve tripled the number of labs.
Why not syllabuses? Have you ever had boni, or clashed with ignorami? Or, at a bus station, wondered which of the bi to get on?
At 74 years old and having “pre-existing conditions”, I’m well aware of how fortunate I am to be able to work from home.
It’s probably also a good thing that I seem to lack the full complement of social skills. In particular, I never get lonely. I can feel boredom, certainly, but never loneliness; so I’m happy to never leave my apartment except for occasional trips to the grocery store. (The store where I shop enforces the mask mandate, and I’m able to go when it’s not too busy anyway. I don’t know what I’d do in Morris…probably drive some place far away like PZ is forced to do.)
billseymour, at 60 years old and without “pre-existing conditions”, I’m well aware of how fortunate I am to be able to not have to work.
jacksprocket, #3
Technically “ignoramus” and “bus” would not be pluralised with the second declension masculine nominative plural -i form, because they are not second declension nouns. “ignoramus” is a first person plural verb (“we are ignorant”), while “bus” is a shortening of “omnibus”, the dative plural of omnis (“everyone”, so “for everyone”), which is both third declension and plural already.
“syllabus” and “bonus”, however, would be.
And now you know why I never get invited to parties.
You’re quite right, we ignorami are indeed doofi, and my comments bunka. We need to rearrange our agendae to include more classics in our curricula. I was of course misled by Godley’s epic poem:
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
But when does a word, classical or foreign, become naturalised and acquire a regular English -s or -es plural? And why only the original plural retained? No one says, “I’m talking about the syllabo”, or “I was talking to a group of alumnorum”.