One from the vault…

Spring Break was scheduled all last week. But it was extended for another week as faculty began to learn how they were going to adapt the remainder of their semester teaching to an online format.

So far I’ve received word from most of my teachers, and they all have plans which I think will work quite well. Biology and Psychology lectures will be pre-recorded, but I’m really hoping to watch them at my standard class times of 8:00 and 9:30. I’d like to remain in the swing of things so I don’t get complacent. Labs are a bit different, and I guess we’ll see how that goes when school resumes on Monday.

Students have been granted the option to take any or all of their classes this semester as pass/fail. Pass is a D- or above (unless it’s a class in your major). We have until the last day of classes to decide if we want to or not.

Which reminds me: now apparently Maryland releases midterm grades — it’s optional for faculty to submit them, but it’s still a nice check-in. (Probably an even better one for parents of younger students). Let’s see how I made out:

Now — my psychology grade is not included in here. But looking online I’m showing a 98.15% average so far. So overall I’m on track for a 4.0 average. AND AN A+. Wow. This is very different from my past experiences.

(When I went to UMD the first time around we did not have +/- associated with our grades. This is new.)

For my Designing Ethical Campaigns class I’ve had to complete a journal, part of which reflected on our time visiting the UMD archives. I was thinking back to my time writing for The Diamondback. Since it’s now all online, I went back in time to what was, perhaps, my favorite bit of writing for the school newspaper. I remember writing this, seeing it published, and finding out how many people actually read my stuff! Very uplifting.

Anyway, here’s “The Goatee.” Going to finish up the weekend with Shabbat and then prep for the second half of the semester…