The Pocket Professor

We've been talking about World War One in history class for quite some time now. As is logical, we started with the causes, then the war itself, and now we're on the results and impact. Usually, Mr. Majask puts up a PowerPoint and talks about it for most of the hour, and we take notes and ask questions. Recently, however, he's found an online resource and put it to good use: the Portable Professor. Or, as we have ever so affectionately renamed the concept, the Pocket Professor. The main idea is that a professor from a well-known university (in our case, Margaret MacMillan from the University of Oxford) records a series of lectures about a given topic, and teachers, students, or whoever's interested can buy them as CDs and listen. We've always joked (affectionately, of course) that Mr. Majask likes to make his life easier in as many ways as possible, and now he's given us another opportunity by having someone else lecture for him. Also, after about the third or fourth lecture, he started using PowerPoints that are made to go along with the lectures. Word has spread that Mr. Giromini practically started worshiping him when he found out, and he's joked about trying to find a Pocket Professor for physics (or, as he referred to it in class the other day, "puh-hisix"). Anyway, we heard the last lecture a few days ago, and had our review day after that, with our real-live professor:) To be honest, (and to end the post on a positive note,) I think Margaret was more helpful to me than I'm letting on. But if you ask me about that later, I'll deny it. Fair warning. Besides, as Mary put it, "It's so easy to tune out if it can't yell at you!"