Brandon began writing the essay to the outline he created yesterday. He had to revisit the week's readings, as the early historical figures (Henry I, Henry III, and Henry de Guise) were easily confused. He has some nice insight on the nature of assassination insofar as it concerns the monarchs during this time. He made some headway on this assignment, and he will finish the post by tomorrow.
We started preparing notes/materials for the the final exam at the end of the week. Unfortunately, the mid-term was so basic, it's very difficult to get Brandon to put in more than a minimum effort. I'm concerned this class is going to convince him that he can continue to do that in future classes.
There was one last homework assignment before the final exam this week. It was a case study of a marketing idea by the Boston Blazers professional lacrosse team. Brandon got into it as they came from Boston, and came up with some very solid answers. We then started preparing materials for the final exam later this week.
We continued working on the questions for this week. Brandon spent a lot of time on one of them, but we managed to come up with some very solid answers. He finally got some feedback from the professor, and it turns out he's gotten excellent reviews from the professor for his work and discussion posts.
Brandon and I watched his assigned video (36 minutes), and Brandon subsequently took the assigned quiz. We then moved on to our reading of the week, which covers the Reformation and the various leaders in England, France, and Spain. Brandon is not particularly interested in the course content, but he works hard to make sure he completes each assignment. He also completed the two discussion board peer responses, so he is all finished with the post responsibilities. We still have this week's posts, but we have plenty of time.
Brandon combined all of the elements of his outline into a well-written discussion posts. Of his peers, Brandon is the only one who takes the time to articulate the implications of the facts presented; he does not simply reiterate the facts themselves. He needs some help making connections between ideas, but once given the threads, he can weave them together in a way that addresses our task.
Brandon finished the outline to his discussion board assignment, touching upon some things from the reading that were appropriate to bring up in writing. He argued that the Spaniard's treatment of the AmerIndians was in no way justified. He thought of a few things from the reading: 1. AmerIndian man is hunted "holding his guts in," and the Spaniards still pursue and kill him, 2. the on-set of Syphilis as caused by various violations of the native women, 3. Gold lust and its consequences for the natives. Brandon and I enjoyed the week's reading materials, and we both learned a lot about the conquest of the New World.
Today we worked on the discussion post for the week about pricing strategies and the importance of understanding pricing as a manager. Today was the first time Brandon could really apply his experience at Dunkin Donuts, and I think we came up with a very interesting and solid post. We'll work on rest of the new chapters for the rest of the week, and are in good shape going into the final next week.
We continued with the questions for this week, and finished everything up with no problems. Brandon is definitely starting to get bored with this class and is getting back to his bare mininum effort routine. Fortunately, we only have one more week of new material left, and then will start prepping for the final exam.
