First day teaching in the Spring Quarter and I dressed for success! That means earrings and a scarf. Good luck to all who are starting or returning to teaching today.
Category Archives: teaching
March 29 Day 21: Full Circle
Everything has been communicated and released to the students—for the first week anyways. There will be a lot of experimentation in our “getting-to-know-you session.” A google doc, a sample quiz with different kinds questions and different ways to enter responses, randomly generated Zoom breakout rooms with assigned roles, and finally a upload assignment for theContinue reading “March 29 Day 21: Full Circle”
March 27 Day 19: Applying a Growth Mindset to Survive
What a week! Thank you to Duong Rita Than, Ruth Vanderpool, and Erik Tou for brainstorming, problem solving, and material sharing. I am closer to being prepared for the first day of spring quarter classes Monday but it will be a long weekend. Reflections on the transition: I have always loved gizmos, gadgets, and tech.Continue reading “March 27 Day 19: Applying a Growth Mindset to Survive”
March 26 Day 18: Welcome to New Students Spring Quarter
It starts: “It’s Spring quarter. Flowers are blooming, rain is falling, and we are following Governor Inslee’s “Stay-at-Home” order. Unlike last quarter when we unexpectedly went to online classes in week 10, we are starting anew with the expectation that the entire quarter will be delivered virtually.”
March 23, Day 15: The Third Wave
Many of my mathematical friends are in the vanguard of the third wave, starting their transitions to online teaching today. For many, their institutions were on spring break when the pandemic broke. Then granted an extra week for preparations, they are now making things happen for their students. I felt a social-media sigh as worries about “what to do” transformed into realities that they really “could do” this work. Creativity, caring, and resilience. I see it everywhere.
March 19 Day 11: Math Majors Class of 2020
A bittersweet virtual goodbye to the senior math majors. Our sixth and final day of capstone presentations went smoothly. The students dressed to impress and made me proud. I learned that in a Zoom conference, we can all turn our microphones on and clap to create real applause. The UWT Math community is strongly connectedContinue reading “March 19 Day 11: Math Majors Class of 2020”
March 18 Day 10: Swallowed by Black Hole
Day 10 of Math in the Time of Corona. I was just swallowed by that black hole. The uncertainty has been removed (2 days before the deadline) and Spring quarter will be entirely online. I quote from President Cauce’s email: “Shortly, we will notify all students that spring quarter will begin with remote instruction onContinue reading “March 18 Day 10: Swallowed by Black Hole”
March 17 Day 9: Not a rollercoaster. Black hole.
Day 9 in the Year of the Plague. It’s not a rollercoaster but a black hole sucking us toward an uncertain future. We may not be able to see beyond the event horizon, but we can help each other on this perilous journey. Each day brings new challenges. Yes, we are bringing our oldest homeContinue reading “March 17 Day 9: Not a rollercoaster. Black hole.”
March 16 Day 8: Personal Mantra and the Second Wave
Worry less about the integrity of online examinations and quality of online content. Worry more about the people. Assume best intentions. Think about your learning goals: to enable students to be critical thinkers? problem solvers? to have flexible minds and be able to adapt? They will get all that through the experience you provide and more. Will it really matter if your Calculus I class doesn’t get to L’Hopital’s rule or your Calculus II class doesn’t get to partial fraction decomposition? I doubt it. For those that need it, there will be time later. For now, congratulate yourself on getting through the first day (or the first week or planning for a future week) and just
March 12 Day 4: No More Black Name Tags, Please
This was my last “teaching day” of winter quarter. The senior seminar again proved to be inspirational. The students modeled how to move forward in uncertainty. They adapted what they knew to this time and place. We had Google slides, Beamer, and PowerPoint, zoomed live or streamed recordings. I am looking forward to two moreContinue reading “March 12 Day 4: No More Black Name Tags, Please”
Math Belongs to All of Us 