Annoying profs
I spoke to my friend Mike on the phone earlier about some math problems he was having trouble with. This included an example copied from the board in his class. The professor skipped a step and Mike was having trouble figuring out how the prof got from one line to the next (a negative seemed to disappear). However, according to Mike, the professor gave this really weird explanation for why he added a negative in the first place that didn't make any sense - you should get the same answer whether there was a negative or not! Then the prof did the question without the negative, just to show how you get the wrong answer. But you shouldn't!! Then of course Mike had no idea why what I was telling him was true since it's ridiculously hard to do calculus over the phone.
It's just really frustrating. Enough students find math hard and mysterious enough without professors telling them things that make no sense and skipping steps. Of course the students are going to have trouble then! Then I apparently have no credibility since I'm not the prof and the prof said something else. I'm also frustrated that I'm not there in person because it's so much easily to explain when you can show the visuals.
Anyway, he ended up leaving with an "I don't even care now why it's right, I just want to forget it." I typed an explanation in Word and emailed it so that he could read it when he had time (Word 2007 has a decent math display). I really hope he does so that he can at least understand it after the fact, even though his assignment is due tomorrow.
/selfish Honestly though, the other thing that annoys me is that I spent over an hour helping him with various math problems and because this frustrating argument came at the end, I get this half hearted "Yeah, thanks, bye". I'm helping him because I want to, but still. I just didn't like spending all that time helping and then feeling like he thought I had been no help at all cause he didn't understand what I told him about the last question. At least if he understands the word file, I'll feel like he might accept that I had been help. /end selfish.
It's just really frustrating. Enough students find math hard and mysterious enough without professors telling them things that make no sense and skipping steps. Of course the students are going to have trouble then! Then I apparently have no credibility since I'm not the prof and the prof said something else. I'm also frustrated that I'm not there in person because it's so much easily to explain when you can show the visuals.
Anyway, he ended up leaving with an "I don't even care now why it's right, I just want to forget it." I typed an explanation in Word and emailed it so that he could read it when he had time (Word 2007 has a decent math display). I really hope he does so that he can at least understand it after the fact, even though his assignment is due tomorrow.
/selfish Honestly though, the other thing that annoys me is that I spent over an hour helping him with various math problems and because this frustrating argument came at the end, I get this half hearted "Yeah, thanks, bye". I'm helping him because I want to, but still. I just didn't like spending all that time helping and then feeling like he thought I had been no help at all cause he didn't understand what I told him about the last question. At least if he understands the word file, I'll feel like he might accept that I had been help. /end selfish.