Half-way Through Academic Year

It's lunch time and I am getting ready for my first class of the new Semester which started today. We have 14 weeks in Semester 2, so a long road of learning and teaching lies ahead. I have two new classes of 100+ students each - one first year class, and one second year class (whom I taught last year). I'm looking forward to teaching Managerial Foundations of Information Systems, and Software Project Management.

For the students - they too are half-way through their year. They are waiting anxiously for their Semester 1 exam results, and I'm sure they are both apprehensive and excited to be learning new subjects. I do earnestly hope that students will turn up for their classes - but it's hard to convince students that this is important. I was a student once myself and did not have an exemplary record of attendance (though I was reasonably good at going to my classes!).

Today and tomorrow I'll be introducing each module and getting a start on the content - the real work begins next week. I plan for the first time to try a motivational video during my introduction to encourage the students to do their best. It is taken from a film called "Facing the Giants (Trailer on YouTube)", and I am using it to ask students to try their very best in the module. See what you think...