I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a good leader, again. My institution is at the start of the search for a Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences. We are working on the position description, a job ad, and an assessment rubric. Pulling together the desired characteristics and experiences ofContinue reading “February 23 Day 717: In Search of…Effective Leadership”
Author Archives: Jenny Quinn
February 22 Day 716: A Glimpse of the Most 2sday Tuesday
Today is February 22, 2022. That’s 2/22/22. And at 2 pm Pacific time, I hosted a Speed Networking event for the Mathematical Association of America. Eighteen MAA members (including myself) were matched for 3 minutes conversations–round robin fashion. I cycled through 13 conversations (missing only 4 participants). We talked about teaching, family, MAA, and mathematics.Continue reading “February 22 Day 716: A Glimpse of the Most 2sday Tuesday”
February 20 Day 714: Missed Opportunity
It was a beautiful morning. The sun eventually broke through the cloud cover (as shown in the cover image.) After my walk, I set my priorities for the day: Grade Friday’s reflections Comment on rough drafts and return so students can continue to develop and improve their final projects, due in 3 weeks. Work inContinue reading “February 20 Day 714: Missed Opportunity”
February 18 Day 712: Big News
Movement in the right direction? Yesterday, Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee announced that the statewide indoor mask mandate will end on March 21, 2022 providing more evidence to support my hope that February 17, 2022 will be the turning point for this pandemic.
February 17 Day 711: Turning Point?
When all is said and done and the “Great Pandemic of 2020” is a distant memory, do we point to February 17, 2022 and say “we turned the corner and everything steadily improved from this moment forward?” Dear God, I hope so. What is my evidence? The first daffodil. Nature’s indication of Spring. A signContinue reading “February 17 Day 711: Turning Point?”
February 16 Day 710: Precision of Language
This is the eve of an important due date: rough drafts of my students’ final projects in Matrix Algebra are due at 8 am. They will spend a good portion of tomorrow’s class in a peer review exercise. I tell students that writing mathematics is like writing poetry–every word has a purpose and is chosenContinue reading “February 16 Day 710: Precision of Language”
February 15 Day 709: Again?!?!!?
I apparently wore the same mismatched shoes again. This makes two class days in a row. The students might begin to think I do it on purpose. I’m might be overthinking here. Maybe they don’t even notice? And yet, I wonder if it will find its way onto my student teaching evaluations.
February 13 Day 707: Emergence
It is a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. Sunny. Clear. High of 58 degrees Fahrenheit. I saw the bright yellow of a blooming forsythia. Time to emerge from my winter slumber and breath deeply the fresh air. A morning stroll along the waterfront brought beauty and joy.
February 11 Day 705: Pandemic Learning
I noticed something the other day. In class, when students didn’t know how to solve a problem, the first thing they did was Google it. I had set up working groups with a mixture of in-person and remote participants. Computers were open for communication. I purposefully gave only one copy of the activity to eachContinue reading “February 11 Day 705: Pandemic Learning”
February 10 Day 704: Don’t Look Down
I spent the entire day wearing two different colored shoes. They are exactly the same style. It’s just one is black and the other is brown. I did not do this on purpose. And I didn’t notice until late in the afternoon. Oops.
Math Belongs to All of Us 