Teaching

1/14/2025: Note-Taking Philosophy

I think that using slides in math courses does not benefit learning. If I am expecting my students to take notes I should give them the appropriate time to write things down and to ensure I give them that time I write everything I would expect them to write down on the board. I will use slide notes as my notes and post them to the Blackboard website,  but for during lecture I will do my best to write on the board. I also ask my students to have laptops away during lecture. It is very difficult to type math notes on a computer and it is best to have then write down their notes by hand. I have found that if students have their laptops out that they either will be doing something completely unrelated to class or try and do the homework for the class during class. I want them to have notes they can come back to when it is time to study for exams. While finishing the homework early is appealing to the students, I think without a log of their thought process or ability to replicate their solutions in general leads to more confusion at the end of the unit. 

3/11/2025: Adjusting Policies in a Problematic Class

I have discovered an issue with my current class when I had to get a substitute to cover my section. I gave my sub the option to not take roll since they do not have access to the Blackboard roster. My sub reached out to my after she covered my class to inform me that a large group of students walked out after she admitted that she would not be taking roll. I have had issues with students walking out in the middle of lecture for a chunk of this semester, so I am going to have to adapt my roll policy. Although normally I trust my sections to treat the attendance policy with respect, I am changing my policy to be that I will pass out a paper roll at the beginning of lecture (a few minutes after the start in case people are running a few minutes late) and then take roll at the end of class. I hope this will lead to students not packing up and leaving in droves in the middle of the lecture. I have had students complain that this group leaving in the middle of lecture is distracting as they are not quiet in their departure. (4/15/2025 Update: I did not need to change my policy for long because these problem students started cutting class entirely. While I was disheartened to have these students miss out on lectures, I was at least grateful the other students in the class would no longer have such frequent disturbances and could focus on the lectures.) 

8/19/2025: Trying New "Get to Know Me" Frist Day Activity

This semester I am teaching College Algebra with review. This means we meet 5 times a week, instead of the regular 3, and that I tend to get the students with less math confidence. Another instructor made a first day hand out for the students that I thought would be good to also hand out. I have never done one of these "Get to know me" activities before, but I really liked getting the feedback from my students. It was a quick hand out asking their name (and how to pronounce it or if they go by a nickname), where they are from, their major, their math confidence on a scale of 0-10, an interesting fact, and any concerns about the class I should know about. My two favorite takeaways from this is that I can see the overall confidence of the class and some specific concerns right from the start. For example, I had a student on the worksheet tell me that they are partially deaf. By knowing this early I am already being mindful of how clearly I am speaking and making an extra effort to write everything important down on the board. Another perk is that collecting the worksheets made it easy to take attendance the first day.