Howdy y'all

Summer, unfortunately, has come to an end -- on the semester calendar, certainly not by Mother Nature's reckoning! Yes it's hot, yes it's miserable, yes I long for high temps of only two digits, ... Complaining, though, doesn't make me feel any cooler. Besides, I've got this heat thing figured out -- stay inside!

While classes have not yet started, today marks my third day "back at work." Though I complain about having to be here when there are no classes, I find it does force me to get some work done that I would otherwise put off again and again. For instance, we are switching to a new stats book this semester. One might think it'd be wise to work ahead to prepare lectures, work through example problems, select homework, etc. Well one might think that, but my take all summer has been roughly, "Aw, it's just stats. How different can it be? Mean, median, mode, binomial distributions, t-tests, etc. Right?"

I'm sincerely hoping the answer is, "Not much different." In any event, I have spent the past day or so getting some of that done. I'm hoping this is not a sign or responsibility or maturity on my part. Next thing you know, I'll be ironing my clothes and shaving every day!

Oh, I am toying with a new idea for my classes this fall. I read about this somewhere, but I don't remember where. Regardless, the plan is that each day I will work one (intentional) lie into the classroom lecture/discussion and then award points of some sort to the student who catches me in it. The idea is that it forces students to pay attention and think about what I'm saying. I'm sure there are practical problems with it, but I really like the idea. In reality, I think the toughest thing would be coming up with a plausible lie that fit the topic each day. Anyway, I'm toying with the idea. We'll see. Hey, I've got tenure now, so I figure I can get all radical.

Okay, that's about it for now. Just wanted to let y'all know my sabbatical was at an end and I'll be posting more regularly now.