1/25/10 First Day of Class

Today was the first official day of class. Last week we got things arranged with a classroom, thanks to Bro. Stuart and Pres. Ralls, and got permission from D'Ann to advertize the class. We also did a trial run with the help of Michael.

This morning we started out the day by handing out fliers as a family. We handed out approximately 200 flyers. Our kids really enjoyed it and the students were very respectful and kind to our children. Rebecca noted that the students really seemed to enjoy the novelty of a handful of kids running around campus passing out flyers.

The class is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2:00 pm in Room 207-208 of the Institute. The room is used by the student wards on Sundays, but Bro. Stuart has agreed to let me leave the classroom set up during the week so I set up on Mondays and then take it back down on Fridays. I will try to post a picture of the classroom sometime soon.

Today we had 5 students show up: Ryan, Victoria, Chris, Spencer, and Michael. I started the class by introducing myself and telling a little about my background and how I came upon my research. I then introduced the class and talked about the paper that will be the main assignment in the class. I also discussed the organization of the class and how we will be working on the paper according to the agricultural model of the 4 seasons and the work associated with each season, namely: Spring- harrow, plant, flowers, buds, then thin; Summer- weed and water; Autumn- harvest and lay up in store; Winter- endure and enjoy fruits.

Tonight I had the thought of creating this blog. Hopefully it can serve as a help to family and friends so they can keep up on the class and what I am teaching and how things are going. Also, I think it will help me in future semesters as I try to fine tune the class. I currently plan on leaving it public (no password) so I will probably keep it slightly generic in content but we will see. It is as easily possible that I will give up as it is that I will really get into it and put in lots of details since I am new to blogging and am doing this on a bit of a whim.