Office hours

Please take advantage of my office hours whenever you can. You do not need an appointment to come in. If you need help with the homework or material from class, if you feel that you are falling behind or that the material is consistently too difficult, or if you simply want to chat about anything, please see me. It is imperative that you talk me as soon as a problem arises so that we can fix it quickly. If you cannot make the office hours, feel free to contact me and we will arrange a time to meet. The best way to reach me is through email, although I cannot guarantee that I will reply to a message sent after 6 pm until the next morning or a message sent during the weekend until the following Monday.

I enjoy having students in office hours and am always happy to clarify the material and help you get unstuck on homework.  However, here are some things office hours are not for: 

• If you miss class, I will not re-lecture the material in office hours for you, but will be happy to clear up any confusion you might still have after you have studied the notes and the textbook;

• I will not tell you the solution to a homework problem.  I will give you hints or provide comments on the attempts you’ve already made, but it is up to you to figure out and write up the complete solutions;

• I will not “pre-grade” your homework.  In other words, I will not go over your solution to see if it is correct before you turn it in.  I will provide plenty of help to enable you to do the problem correctly, but your final solution should be only yours.  The goal is for you to gain confidence in your ability to solve the homework problems (again, with my help along the way), and relying on my confirmation that your solutions is correct will hinder this process.

• Office hours are not the place for you to do the homework.  You should seek my help after you have put in a good amount of effort on your own.  If you think of office hours as a place to come and work on the problem set, it will be too easy for you to give up and ask me to help you when you get stuck.  This will work against the process of building up confidence and independence.

Special arrangements

If you need special arrangements for the exams or any other aspect for the course due to religious observances or disabilities, please contact me as soon as possible. If you think you might need special arrangements, you should contact the Office of Accessibility and Disability Resources.

Other resources

Variety of assistance is available to you through the Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center. Your academic dean is also a good source of information and advice.