Rants and Raves

Rants: Why do people congregate the front of the bus instead of walking toward the back? It gives the impression that there are no seats at the back of the bus.

Another public transportation rant: Why do people try to sneak on the bus without paying the fare and get pissy when the bus driver kick them off?

Rave: I’m so excited for the start of fall TV – Empire, Law and Order SVU, Blackish, (maybe) Star, This is Us, and The Middle. 

Rant: Speaking of fall line ups, what is with the cast of “Dancing with the Stars” (one of my not so secret guilty pleasures? Did ABC use too much money for last year’s cast? From this season, I only recognize the actor from Malcolm in the Middle, Nick Lachey, and Deborah Gibson (or does she go by Debbie, now?). 

I am still a little annoyed that the blonde girl from Glee, who used to be a backup dancer for Beyonce, was on last season’s cast. 

Rave: I’m really enjoying the Ken Burns documentary about the Vietnam War. Actually, “enjoying” may be the wrong word for it. Watching this documentary and witnessing some of the events that are going on in the world today make me think that we really have not learn from our past mistakes. 

Rants: If you are against players in the NFL kneeling, then stop watching the games and more importantly stop bitching about it. Everyone has different ways and reasons for both protesting and showing patriotism to his/her country. I’m just going to leave it at that. 

Rave/Rant: Recently, Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced a tuition-free college program that should benefit the middle and lower classes in New York. I thought this was a great idea when I read about it back in January. Actually, I think that still is a good idea. One, education is a good thing. Two, college enrollment is up, which means I will get assigned more classes and more classes means more cash for me. However, I have noticed that there are a lot more students academically, compared to those from last semester. Last week, I administered my first exam and the scores were very low for both of my sections. The scores were so low that I am going to administer a make-up exam and take the average of the two exams (I rarely do this). I think the average was around a 52 for this exam; whereas, the average was around 69% last semester. I model my exams from the previous semester’s exams, so last week’s exam was not super difficult. Also, I provide a sample exam, which is the exam from the previous semester. I do think that some adjustments may need to be made for this college program. Now, it seems students are going to 2- or 4-year colleges just because they can. My City of New York (CUNY) school is more of a community college type of school, so many of my students are coming from high schools with lower standards for academic achievement. This may lead to even more unprepared students coming into the college, not doing well in their coursework, and then dropping out. The point is to get students into AND have them complete college with a degree. Another thing that may happen is something similar to what is going on in various public school. Administration may start asking educators to skew or inflate grades to keep enrollment up, so schools will receive money from the city and the state. 

Here are a few questions that were missed by many students. Keep in mind that I’m teaching a Biology 101 laboratory course. Honestly, these would be questions asked on a test for students in a 6th grade biology class. 

In the metric system, the _ is the correct unit for volume. 

A) ounce, B) meter, C) liter, D) pint

The _ of a microscope  is used to carry the instrument from point A to point B. 

A) arm, B) diaphragm, C) nosepiece, D) stage

From the acids and bases laboratory exercise, acetic acid [CH3COOH] can best be described as a _. 

A) strong acid, B) weak acid, C) strong base, D) weak base

C’mon! For the last question, two of the answer choices had the word “acid” in the question. 

Rave: Two of my favorite holidays are around the corner. That would be Halloween and Thanksgiving. I like Christmas, but there is too much to do and I do not even have kids. Although I do love watching Christmas movies from my childhood.

Rave: Two fun reunions. In October, I will meet some old friends from high school in Philly. They will be going to the Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull concert. I’m still on the fence if I will pay money to see him in concert (I’ll see how much tickets are on Stubhub, closer to the date). It will be nice to hangout because I have not been to Virginia since Thanksgiving. Reunion 2: Three of my classmates from my comparative ecology study abroad program will be visiting New York. It may be nice to hang out . . . IF they keep the kid talk to a minimum.