At 3:42 pm -0400 8/10/01, Kevin Baillie wrote: >Ref: http://www.smeed.org/1574 > >Well just to let you know that you have managed 'to enthuse one >extra student'. I beleive that it isn't the case that students >aren't interested in your subjects, just that they are some of the >most difficult to 'do', it's more a lack of understanding.

I pretty much know that. I was just being controversial. Except that there will be a (hopefully small) number of students that dislike me and/or the subject material. It goes with the territory of being opinionated ;-) Glad to hear that you are enthused - so far!

> >I find your lectures some of the most entertaining and I >learned(ing) something along the way. True, students would rather be >anywhere else than stuck in a hot, stuffy lecture theatre, but by >inserting humour and and 'stories' (the 45 minute one was well >appricated ;-)) ensure that you hold onto our short attention spans >a bit longer than would be achieved if you were to 'rabbit' on for >50 mins.

Good news on both counts - entertained and learning. Long experience has led me to believe that a large measure of humour and topical comment help to make the subjects I teach more palatable. Of course, there are those that would disagree B-}

Thanks for the feedback,

Duncan