Even though the days are getting shorter, you know its been a long one when… …you realize that you have been sitting in your desk chair more than 10 hours with only three trips downstairs all day. …the reports due this Friday are in pretty good shape but you don’t want to spend the lastContinue reading “October 26 Day 232: Long Day”
Category Archives: community
October 24 Day 230: Gravity
If I could decrease the gravitational constant for you, I would. I’d rather you soared skyward with your dreams than remain weighed down by your burdens.
October 22 Day 228: Where Am I?
I am a novice architect in gather.town. The scale of the space isn’t quite right for the size of the avatar, but I am guessing some one will know where I am supposed to be.
October 5 Day 211: Anxiety is Everywhere
I woke up from an anxiety dream this morning. It was a classic unprepared-for-lecture-sure-the-people-would-figure-out-I-was-an-imposter dream. I don’t get them often. In fact, the last one was back on July 4 Day 118: Anxious Dreaming, and it was about teaching classes this autumn. I know that these dreams are manifestations of my worries and doubts. I tryContinue reading “October 5 Day 211: Anxiety is Everywhere”
October 4 Day 210: Looking for Autumn
My husband and I have been taking morning walks during our continued isolation to spend time together, move our bodies, and appreciate the beauty that is all around us. Tacoma is the city of my heart—located on the Puget Sound with a working port, a remarkable urban park (Point Defiance), a famous bridge (Galloping Gertie),Continue reading “October 4 Day 210: Looking for Autumn”
October 2 Day 208 Part 2: After
It was relaxing. A Zoom meeting with mathematical friends, both old and new, to collaboratively color online. The conversation flowed effortlessly as we concentrated on filling in white spaces with splashes of joyful color. There were four images to choose from (see them in their original form in this morning’s post.) and below you seeContinue reading “October 2 Day 208 Part 2: After”
October 2 Day 208 Part 1: Before
Today is the day for the MAA Social Hour dedicated to collegial conversation and collaborative coloring. Participants will be able to color the above images using the shared whiteboard Limnu while conversing in Zoom breakout rooms. If people have the most recent version of Zoom installed, they will be able to self-select their room forContinue reading “October 2 Day 208 Part 1: Before”
October 1 Day 207: We Gather Together
I’m experimenting with virtual office hours this quarter. I wanted to reproduce the casual mingling that happens during my person-to-person drop-in hours at the UW Tacoma Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). I like the ability to wander around and eavesdrop on conversations. So after learning about Gather (gather.town), I decided to give it a go.Continue reading “October 1 Day 207: We Gather Together”
September 29 Day 205: Eve of the Beginning
This is it. The Canvas site has been released to the students. The assessment plan has been finalized. And tomorrow starts remote Autumn 2020 classes at UW Tacoma. Deciding on all the small details is perhaps the most stressful part. To reduce grading I am having students post written homework problems to a discussion boardContinue reading “September 29 Day 205: Eve of the Beginning”
September 13 Day 189: Quality Matters
I apologize to those who were hoping for a thoughtful post about designing an online course using QM’s framework. I’m stuck on air quality—and yes, it matters. Mostly I wanted to create the sliding image comparison below: Today’s Air Quality Index (AQI) has been hovering around 200. It was approximately 190 when the image onContinue reading “September 13 Day 189: Quality Matters”
Math Belongs to All of Us 