Grading and attendance clarification

Here are some guidelines about grading.

First of all there are different kinds of situations in the class.

Some of you are processing emotional stuff and growing and this is very important and certainly part of your overall education. If someone the situation is really difficult and you cannot come to class, keep an email touch with me and so your connection will not be broken. My letter was not aimed towards these students but if you are in the catogory I recommend that you od not skip class or if you do come and see me individually

There are other very rare situation were students could not come to class for unusual reasons and I am dealing with each students on a 1-1 individual basis. My letter was not aimed towards them either.

Also my letter was not aimed towards students who for rare occasions did not come to class for various reasons.

My letter was aimed towards students who
1. Either think that this class in bullshit and a waste of their time and this is why they do not come to class. If you are in the category I suggest you withdraw now before you get an F or
2. Students who think this is a wonderful class but think that the instructor is such a good guy that he will give them a good grade any way. For these students, I suggest that they do not skip a single class and start adding to the class themselves even more then they have been doing until now.

Now about final requirements.

I decided to give a final in the class. I looked at the math content of the course and it was very beautiful and not too difficult. Here are some dates where the content of the final was discussed and we will enrich it and deepen our understanding for the rest of the semester in addition of presentations. To present to the class is a privilege and if you don't want to do it I will not force you but the grade is going to include everything you learned and did in the course. The dates are 9/30 10/1,29,31 11/7,9 In addition we devoted several class times to the seelogo movie presentation that expresses Fibonacci numbers in a higher dimension and I will put it in the final for sure and we will review. Look at the blogs.

This being said I want to add two things:

1. That I do not want you to feel that something changed in my intent and style. Most of you are doing just fine and I know that you are learning a lot all the time. We had many magical moments in the class and this is not going to go away. It is all part of the experience. We are just adding a twist, a little whirl, a dragon that is going to turn into a crysal.

2. I was listening to some music a few minutes ago. Strings. It was amazing patterns and enery in them. I realized that this is all about. patterns. Our class, the test, all the math that we did and will do this semester is about patterns and energy. I invite you to see it that way including this seemingly new twist...

Sincerely,

--Dani