June 11 Day 95: Finals. Part II.

Nine hours over three days were required to complete the oral final. It was a test of stamina for me. Yet surprisingly pleasant. The Method One week in advance, students were given nine questions on which the examination would be drawn. They could use all resources available to prepare including but not limited to: eachContinue reading “June 11 Day 95: Finals. Part II.”

June 10 Day 94: Finals. Part I.

I spent 5 straight hours sitting in the home office without stirring. Three hours were spent administering back-to-back oral exams —two questions, twenty minutes, and no time to spare. Two more hours were spent on a more traditional remotely administered final exam in my mastery based precalculus class. This is my first time using anContinue reading “June 10 Day 94: Finals. Part I.”

May 16 Day 69: To Do

For those of you not familiar with the Canvas Teacher app, the 114 in the red oval represents the number of items in need of grading this weekend. Some are quick check-offs: complete or incomplete. About half are assessments from my mastery-based precalculus course. The rest come from my writing intensive matrix theory course (soContinue reading “May 16 Day 69: To Do”

May 10 Day 63: A Grading Travelogue

It’s the weekend and that means serious grading. Today’s task: the Matrix Theory midterm that I gave on Thursday. Twenty four students, six pages each. I vowed to grade each page in a different location. Before I begin, a kudos to my technology. I downloaded the exams to a folder in my iCloud and canContinue reading “May 10 Day 63: A Grading Travelogue”

April 26 Day 49: Love Letters

Dear Mathematics, I am more grateful than you can know that you are a part of my life. You make my pulse race when a solution is revealed. You inspire me towards creativity and persistence. You provided the foundation upon which I built my career. And you bring comfort—even when I don’t know that isContinue reading “April 26 Day 49: Love Letters”

April 25 Day 48: What Have I Done?

It’s Saturday. I spent the bulk of my day grading and I’m looking at a repeat performance tomorrow. In a time when I am trying to pare down to essential material, why do I keep asking so much of myself? Yes, yes…for the students. Absolutely. Develop that growth mindset. But do they appreciate it? DoContinue reading “April 25 Day 48: What Have I Done?”