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Goodbye, Livejournal
I am sad to say I am leaving Livejournal. I have enjoyed my time here, but I have decided to move to wordpress.com. Please go to my new website, Symmetric Blog for details. -
My students are impressive.
A student came to me today to discuss a conjecture that we made in class. First, I am impressed that my students are coming up with conjectures spontaneously. Second, I am impressed that some of the students are trying to prove them ( Read more... ) -
On creating lies
I typically write my own homework packets, rather than just selecting problems out of the book. I have several reasons for this:
- Students are forced to use the space that I provide. Since there is a bigger problem students not using enough white space, I can make most students' assignments neater by forcing enough white space.
- Students cannot ( Read more... )
- Students are forced to use the space that I provide. Since there is a bigger problem students not using enough white space, I can make most students' assignments neater by forcing enough white space.
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From Fish to Infinity
Steven Strogatz just stated a series for the New York Times that explains mathematics to the lay-person. His first post, called From Fish to Infinity">From Fish to Infinity, discusses natural numbers and addition. -
Problem Posing
My college is now accepting applications from its students for summer research. I met with my first student today, and I fortunately have a handful of research questions that would work for him. However, I find this to be a very difficult task; heck, I find it difficult to come up with my own research questions ( Read more... ) -
Cooperative Homework Update
I finished grading my first assignment for my abstract algebra class, and all is well. I was particularly concerned about how the cooperative homework component would be perceived by the students-I worry about student reaction whenever I change the usual school procedure. In particular, I was concerned that students would not like having other ( Read more... ) -
Assessing Student Learning
Derek Bruff tweeted about a post on teachingcollegemath.com. The post is about how a student's concept of what mathematics is is correlated to his/her study habits and success. In it, she suggests pre- and post-testing students on their conceptions to help evaluate the worth of a teaching method. -
First Day of Abstract Algebra
The first day of abstract algebra went reasonably well. The students seem great (as always), and I did roughly what I expected to do. Here is what I accomplished:
- We started with a bingo-type icebreaker activity. At the very least, this avoids the creepy pre-semester silence that happens immediately before some classes begin.
- The students cut ( Read more... )
- We started with a bingo-type icebreaker activity. At the very least, this avoids the creepy pre-semester silence that happens immediately before some classes begin.
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Cooperative Learning
I attempt to add a new, proven feature to my teaching each year. This semester, I am concentrating on adding true cooperative learning to my classes ( Read more... ) -
Making Algebra Less "Abstract"
I am teaching abstract algebra next semester, and I have decided to focus on 9 10 finite groups at the beginning of the semester. These groups are:
- Cyclic group of order 3
- Cyclic group of order 6
- Cyclic group of order 7
- Dihedral group of order 6
- Dihedral group of order 8
- Symmetric group of order 6
- Symmetric group of order 24
- Alternating ( Read more... )
- Cyclic group of order 3