The Joint Mathematics Meeting 2021 is a virtual affair and will be my first national conference of the pandemic. It officially starts tomorrow morning but today was the MAA Board of Directors meeting that is held the day before. I’ve just finished planning my first two days of attendance. There is a learning curve forContinue reading “January 5 Day 303: Notable Firsts”
Category Archives: mathematics
January 3 Day 301: Time Machine
It has been more than fifteen years since my family moved to Tacoma, WA. I left a tenured position to follow my husband to the Pacific Northwest. At the time people thought I was crazy to leave without a replacement position—but keeping my family together was more important than a job or a title. Besides,Continue reading “January 3 Day 301: Time Machine”
December 18 Day 285: Finally Finished
After 5 days of oral assessment, including 19 interviews between 8 am and 3:30 pm today with hardly a moment to breathe, I can report that the final assessment interviews for Autumn 2020 are finished. With more than twice as many students as last spring, I feel as if I have entered a Zoom coma.Continue reading “December 18 Day 285: Finally Finished”
December 16 Day 283: Words of Gratitude
I am overwhelmed by the kind words I have received from students today. Some have come in email, others through the Course Management System, and some even “screen-to-screen” (since we weren’t actually face-to-face) at the end of their oral interviews. “Thanks again for the great quarter and helping me learn, and have a good day!”Continue reading “December 16 Day 283: Words of Gratitude”
December 15 Day 282: Magical Thinking or Avoidance Behavior?
Two days of oral finals completed and three days to go. Patterns from earlier in the quarter remain consistent. For some reason, students schedule interviews for the last possible minute. The number of interviews increases each day. Thank goodness the growth isn’t exponential. Is it magical thinking or avoidance behavior that motivates their scheduling? DoContinue reading “December 15 Day 282: Magical Thinking or Avoidance Behavior?”
December 7 Day 274: Math Metaphor
Without a doubt, 2020 has been the year of change. Out of necessity, how we work and where we work from are no longer what they were in the past. The struggle to adjust to a new reality has been exhausting—mentally, physically, and emotionally. Moving forward we need to manage this change better. The firstContinue reading “December 7 Day 274: Math Metaphor”
November 25 Day 262: Yahoo!
I finished teaching my second Wednesday class (at 5:40 pm) and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I feel like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. In a few minutes, we will be driving to SEATAC airport to retrieve our oldest—after surviving the COVID Autumn semester and completing final exams at St. OlafContinue reading “November 25 Day 262: Yahoo!”
November 24 Day 261: Individual Orals
Next week will be the final rung in the oral-assessment-scaffold in advance of the planned final for Calculus II. Teaching a fully remote course, I decided to continue with an oral final assessment as I did last Spring. Making this decision in advance and heeding my previous students’ recommendations, I have scaffolded building oral assessmentContinue reading “November 24 Day 261: Individual Orals”
November 23 Day 260: Not a Complete Disaster
And that is good enough for me. I introduced a new technology to our classroom; it had a few hiccups along the way. I knew it was going to be risky but we all needed a change of pace with more interaction, more freedom, and less zoom. So I held our class in Gather forContinue reading “November 23 Day 260: Not a Complete Disaster”
November 22 Day 259: Just a Little Jealous
I am just a little jealous of the men in my house. My husband, while having tons of grading to do, has a week long respite from teaching because of his University’s Thanksgiving- pandemic schedule. My youngest son’s high school is the same. So here I am working late into the night on Sunday, tryingContinue reading “November 22 Day 259: Just a Little Jealous”
Math Belongs to All of Us 