Now he's a REAL professor, and it is a lot more work than he thought! He is teaching 2 classes plus 2 labs, and it keeps him pretty busy! He teaches Physics 101, or Physics for Poets. He and his colleague and friend Michael Ottinger decided to call it Physics for Poets instead of Physics for Dummies because one of the Engineering Professor's son is taking that class and his last name is Poet. It's funny to hear them talk about this class. The 2nd class is Physics 110, which requires the use of a lot more math. They do a lot more work and less conceptual stuff. Each of those classes has a lab that goes along with it. This means Brian is BUSY constantly. Every class at Missouri Western State University has a strict attendance policy. If the kids miss too many classes, they get withdrawn by the University. Because of this policy, Brian had to come up with a way to track attendance. Michael has taught Physics at Western for the past 10 years, and gave Brian some suggestions. So, at the beginning of class, each student has to sign in, and at the end, they have to submit a write-up, basically to prove they stayed. Brian has the students write 1 thing they learned, and 1 thing that wasn't clear so he has feedback on what the students need. I think it's a good idea. I help him grade the attendance papers, and the homework. For the homework, he just checks to make sure they tried each problem. Brian grades all the labs, and has to put together power point presentations for each class lecture and lab. It's a lot of work, and he feels like he is barely treading water most of the time.
Once he gets through this semester, he plans to work on an all online Astronomy class. He gets a bonus for doing that, and every little bit helps.
So, that's the update on Doctor Bucklein. Just don't let him know I called him that. It results in lots of tickling.
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