I’m feel very lucky. I get to go home. Several of my AMATYC friends are affected by the American Airlines cancellation of more than 1700 flights since Friday. They are scrambling to find new hotels and extending child care for another day (or two.) Being in the last presentation slot of the meeting, I expectedContinue reading “October 31 Day 602: Goodbye AMATYC”
Category Archives: teaching
October 29 Day 600: Not Normal but Still Good
I marvel at what we can accomplish in our expanded digital world. Even though I have traveled to Phoenix to attend an in-person meeting, I had 6 hours of scheduled Zoom meetings today. How is that possible? I flew here for a reason. I should be attending the in-person talks. I started the day enjoyingContinue reading “October 29 Day 600: Not Normal but Still Good”
October 28 Day 599: ΦNIX
Mathematical friends know I have a “thing” for the golden ratio Φ (pronounced “fee”). So I enjoyed the fact that on the AMATYC 2021 conference advertisement, Phoenix was written as ΦNIX. It is my first time attending the AMATYC conference ever and it is the first in-person conference since the Louisiana/Mississippi MAA Section Meeting FebruaryContinue reading “October 28 Day 599: ΦNIX”
October 18 Day 589: Grand Reopening
I am excited to return to the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) of the University of Washington Tacoma for the first time in a very long time, quite possibly 589 days. Renovations started during the COVID closure kept the second floor of the Snoqualmie building off-limits until today. I held my very first in-person drop-inContinue reading “October 18 Day 589: Grand Reopening”
October 5 Day 576: Inconceivable
I just finished a virtual meeting with a student who was asking questions about the written homework due tonight (at 11:59 pm). He kept holding his work up to the laptop camera and I squinted to make out the writing. Hoping we could work differently, I asked, “What’s your favorite collaborative whiteboard?” Crickets. It wasContinue reading “October 5 Day 576: Inconceivable”
October 4 Day 575: Oops
It’s still early in the quarter so I hope that I will be forgiven my early mistakes. I arrived to the classroom 30 minutes early to get all the technology set up. I am using Zoom to record the class, my iPad to screenshare to the meeting, and the computer projector to display everything inContinue reading “October 4 Day 575: Oops”
October 3 Day 574: Old Routines are not Necessarily Good Routines
It’s the weekend during the regular academic year and it feels like nothing has changed. What does that mean? Phone calls with family and grading. It feels so familiar. The biggest difference is there is one more call to make now, having two sons away at college. UW Tacoma’s Matrix Algebra class is writing-intensive (a.k.aContinue reading “October 3 Day 574: Old Routines are not Necessarily Good Routines”
September 28 Day 569: Irksome Day
I spent the entire day on campus in preparation for tomorrow’s return to in-person teaching. I am definitely out of practice and nothing worked quite the way it did before. The best part of the day was seeing colleagues and friends, picking up classroom supplies (like extra masks for my students), and cleaning my officeContinue reading “September 28 Day 569: Irksome Day”
September 27 Day 568: Drowning
My classes at UW Tacoma begin in 43.5 hours; last night was my first anxiety dream in a long while. It felt like the eye of a hurricane. Walls of water surrounded me. Waves crashed through in slow motion and I knew there would be no escape. I had enough presence of mind to callContinue reading “September 27 Day 568: Drowning”
September 21 Day 562: Retreating to Advance
At UW Tacoma, the week before classes start is always full of academic program retreats. Today was the School for Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences Faculty. Tomorrow is the Mathematics Faculty. Friday is the Science and Mathematics Division Faculty. The retreats are being held on Zoom. I have mixed feelings about that. We are expected toContinue reading “September 21 Day 562: Retreating to Advance”
Math Belongs to All of Us 