Last blog for the course

Well, tonight I've decided to blog away.... As I was reading your posts about this class and friends you've made, your worries about not seeing each other after the course or your wishes and hopes to stay friends beyond the duration of this course, again, it made me feel happy. To have such a good atmoshpere in class is very important for the success of the course and for your personal satisfaction. To be honest with you, in the first five weeks, it didn't seem so to me. Then, we had some changes in class; you started working on your projects, and the things got on the "right" track, it seems. Each one of you have brought different qualities to the dynamics of the class. Whether you were chatty, quiet, worried, nurturing, scattered, calm, balanced, or nervous, .... it all worked out together! I quite enjoyed your different personalities.

I wish you all to stay friends wherever life takes you. I wish you success in the university and in life. Good luck!

About your writing

I've just finished reading all of your blogs and comments, and I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised, especially with some of you! I can't believe how much your writing has improved! There are still mistakes, but still.... Last time I checked was around the time of the Population blog; now, when I read everything that has been posted in the last week or so, I was very happy. It seems that these research papers and all the hard work you've done really pay off. I don't know if you can see it, but believe me - your teacher is very happy.

Reminder

After the mid-term reading exam (Overpopulation), I gave you a handout with two questions to blog about. It's been almost two weeks, and so far, only Ivy posted something. I know you were busy with your research papers, but now, it's the time to bring your blogs up to date. Don't forget to comment on your classmates' posts as well.

Another blogging assignment is to share your experience about doing the research paper. You may use the questions that you talked about this morning in Marley's class as the guidelines.

Please do them both before we start the Textbook project on Friday.

Those 5% might mean a lot at the end!

Public lecture presentations

As you can see from Marley's blog, we will have the two exams on Wednesday and Thursday, so Tuesday should be an"easy" day. However, it would be very good if we can fit in some lecture presentations so you get over with them and really start concentrating on your research papers.

So, as we said, presentations should be 15-20 minutes long (per group), +5 minutes for questions. Follow the evalutation sheet, and divide among yourselves who is doing what. The written report is 1.5-2 pages long.

I want groups that could be ready for Tuesday to leave a comment on my blog so I know what to plan for Tuesday.

By the way, your reactions to the happiness unit and love lecture are nice, inspiring and insightful. And your comments to your friends' reactions. Great blogging!!!

Comments about happiness

Some of you still haven't blogged about happiness, that is, haven't answered the first question from the pre-discussion in the unit on happiness. Please do so as I am going to ask you to print out the comments that you've received from your classmates and bring them to class on Tuesday so you can talk about them.

REMINDER: You need to post a comment to at least two of your classmates. Please check if you haven't posted any comments, do so. And, make sure that everybody receives comments.

Another lecture

If you are still having difficulties finding public lectures, in Saturday's Gazette there is an ad for a lecture "Water Resources Implications of a Changing Climate" by The Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre at McGill. The lecture is on April 30 from 6:00-7:00. I'll bring the complete information on Monday.

Happiness

As our next unit (probably starting Tuesday) is Happiness, I'd like to ask you to do two things in advance:
1. Free write your answer to question 1 on page 225 on your blog.
2. There is a quiz about happiness on the following site: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/v5/content/features/quiz/happiness/index.html
Do the quiz and get the results but I would also ask you to print the questions and bring them to class so you can discuss your answers. There are 24 questions. Please don't just print 24 pages or so but copy, paste, reduce the font, do whatever it takes to reduce the amount of paper used! Save the trees!!!