Sorry posting has been light. We’re getting ready for the move, and I’m just not up to being creative in the evenings.
I like to check in with the American Federation of Teachers’ blog (”Let’s Get It Right“) every so often, just to get a sense for what’s on the minds of folks who represent […]
The semester ended last Friday with exams. I am through with classes for another year.
It wasn’t my best semester.
My Theory of Computation class went off pretty well. It was a smaller than usual group, which allowed for a great deal of interaction. I lectured for the most part (as usual), but there […]
I haven’t blogged much about my experiences with my liberal studies math class. Mostly because it’s been a less than satisfying experience. I don’t feel like I’ve really “clicked” with most of the students at all. I could write all about it, but I’m afraid it would come off sounding like whining […]
As I always knew, the problem of motivation starts well before college:
“My general level students bombed a test (did poorly). The very next day I allowed them to correct the ones that they missed using their textbooks - they had the whole period to make the corrections which were mostly term definitions right out of […]
My Visiting Scholar (also my Ph.D. advisor) left yesterday after three days and six lectures (!!). He gave talks on Engineering Ethics, Computability, Research Plagiarism, and Cooperative Learning. He also met with personnel at our Faculty Center and was impressed with the value the university appears to place on quality teaching.
It was a […]
In Mathematical Concepts, we talked a lot about probability. I tried to get students to understand how to figure out what the possible equally likely events were in a number of probability scenarios (coin tosses, dice throwing, card drawing, etc.). I blew one explanation near the end of Tuesday’s class and had to […]
Nothing earth-shattering to report.
In Theory of Computation, we mostly reviewed the mathematical foundations necessary to understand the upcoming models of computation. I went through them pretty quickly, stopping only to introduce the concept of a language. I reviewed equivalence relations and induction in the context of strings and languages, which is […]
Not much to report, really. I was not as polished as I’d like to have been because I was burning off a lot of nervous energy - this is a very dfferent course for me: first math course I’ve taught in a long time, largest number of sudents in one class, most diverse group […]
Robert at Casting Out Nines has suggested that we cross-blog about our experiences with our Liberal Studies Math courses. Fair enough! I’ve created a new category, Liberal Studies Mathematics (as Robert has done), and will try to write about my thoughts and experiences in teaching this course.
This three-hour course is a core requirement […]
I have finished grading finals and submitting final grades (what interesting symmetry that is), and so I am done with this dreadful semester. But I’m just not ready to talk about it yet.
Still, for your enjoyment, a couple of tidbits. Both fairly geeky.
First, something sent to me by one of my students a […]