Last week in Mathematical Modeling (morning and afternoon) I’d asked students ahead of time to get up and present one or two of the slides they’ve made for their final presentations. Their mini-presentations went well. After each, I asked the class to tell the presenter something s/he did well.

I felt good about this; they seemed to enjoy it.

I continued with that on Tuesday … only to have about 1/3 or more of my afternoon class, including my scheduled presenters, not show up.

I felt stupid. And bad. Was I wrong last week? What the hell happened? Why was this okay in the morning class but not in the afternoon?

We’ll see what happens in class tomorrow. After that wrap-up to Tuesday, I am not looking forward to it.

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I thought some of my readers might like this article on Inequity in the Pursuit of Feminism. I get pretty hot about women’s issues, especially in the academic (math) world where the numbers are way out of whack. My interest is definitely self-serving. It’s good to have it pointed out that others (poor women, minorities, LGBT) have bigger problems than I face, and they deserve my support and outrage.