Teaching

Today one of my students told me that he thought I was the best math teacher he's ever had. I did a mid-semester survey and the other students seem to share the sentiment.

Do I agree that I'm pretty good? I have no freaking clue.

Do I think his opinion of me will translate into him passing? I can only hope so.

Apparently there is a study showing that the way a student rates his math teacher is inversely correlated to the amount they measurably learn.

Food for thought. But in the meanwhile... I'm on a campaign for a teaching award.


Edit: On Teaching

On education 2

- feedback

The point is not to fire ineffective teachers. Teaching is hard... you'd fire everyone. The point is to set up systems which reliably make teachers good. (reflecting on...)

-data driven

Those systems can be discovered, monitored and maintained by honest thorough comprehensive data mining. Where we analyze data without unshakable hypotheses

- grit

But we do have one working hypothesis: that successful teaching is the successful teaching of perseverance.

On Education

"A Student should emerge from from such a general education with a knowledge of how problems, whether of life or science or art, have been treated, and with some insight therefore into how problems may be treated; and joined to that knowledge, he should possess and ability to understand positions other than his own, to present his own convictions relevantly, lucidly, and cogently, and finally to apply informed critical standards to his own arguments and those advances by others." 

-Richard McKeon, "Education and the Disciples," Ethics 47 (1937):377


I just started a Math Ed Course. I think this is gonna be fun.

Ode to a Flower

A friend once asked me if, because I'm doing a math PhD, I walk around seeing more of the world than a regular person. I thought he was silly. But maybe, on some level I do. Yay Math! Yay Science!

Some essays defending math

What is Mathematics for?  & A Mathematician's Lament

Maybe, I'll give these to my students in the fall

Mwuahahahahaha

THIS is what I want to do for the summer

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the summer and this article came out today in the Jamaica Observer (national newspaper).

Even the way the article was written speaks to an innumeracy in the both the writer and the audience.

I'm about to have a Masters in Math. I'm passionate about education. I'm willing to learn. I think I can help.

Fatigue

I always wonder why I'm in grad school, when I've never really liked classes. Honestly, I hate tests, I can't stand class-time and some of the few moments of unhappiness in my life have occurred performing the busy-work that is HOMEWORK.

I was especially feeling the burn this week, when I got really frustrated with a prof docking a ridiculous number of points on an assignment not for doing anything wrong, but for "lack of detail. When asked, the lack of detail he spoke of was me not repeating facts we had fully established in class. This saddens me. I'm even more saddened by the fact that at the ripe old age of the age I am, I still have to fuss about POINTS on HOMEWORK!!!!!

If all goes well, I'll be done with classes forever come June. Does that mean I can't/shouldn't check out now?

In other news, one of my friends from high school just got engaged. Seems I have to save up for another trip to Malaysia. 2013!!!

Disappointing

One of my students sent me an angry email about me giving her 80% for attendance to-date when she's only missed one class. I replied that there have only been 5 classes so far. #thisiswhyweneedmath

In other news... it's in the 60s in Nebraska in January. Clearly these are the end of days.

Math Nerd Time: Mobius transformations

With a little outside the box/dimension thinking, something difficult becomes easy to grasp.... and oh so pretty

Yes

That thing I was wishing for... I got it! The person I wanted agreed to take me on as a student. Now, I just have to convince him to take me with him on his travels.

Overling

Sorry I've been MIA. I just sat my QUALs (huge qualfying exams for the Math PhD). Plus, it's summer, I have a new job teaching in Omaha and I'm helping a friend with a project over at www.overling.org. Feel free to email them with your ideas. I think it's gonna be Ginormous.

Stay tuned.

Nerdiness

Ok, lets take a moment to indulge in my nerdy side. Some crazy foreign (I think Japanese) Mathematician, Kokichi Sugihara, has the odd hobby of using pure geometry to fool the human eye into seeing the impossible. Article here. Below are two of his videos. Enjoy!

How to get a Green Card - the paradoxes of immigration

In case you didn't pick up on it, I am in grad school now for a PhD in Math. I'm having a great time of it so far, but I can see that I am at a tremendous disadvantage simply because I am not a US citizen or permanent resident.

The government, rightfully acknowledging the need for American scientists and mathematicians, pours money into these fields. That's why Math PhD's get paid to finish their degree. That's why a couple of my classmates can call someone up and get Uncle Sam to pay for their text books, or why some of them are getting an all expense paid trip to New Orleans in January... for a Math conference of course. Government money flooding all over.

However, government money can only flow to US permanent residents and citizens. This leaves my Jamaican ass out in the cold. I can't even apply for the great majority of fellowships etc. But I figure, I've been in the US for 6 years now. By the end of my degree that 6 will be 12, and as a Math PhD, I would be valuable to the country. There must be a way of getting permanent residency over the next 6 years.

WRONG. There is absolutely no legal way for me to even qualify for an application. I have no immediate family here, I am not married to an American, and I am not famous in any field. So, given the unlikeliness of any of those things happening (I am still holding out for a Field's Medal!), there is no hope. I am cut off from the most promising opportunities in my field. I don't like the statistics either... immigrant graduates tend to be shunted from college to college after they get their PhD's.... never ever to be granted tenure.

Have I doomed myself to third class status by choosing to be an immigrant scholar? No, I actually think that the short-sightedness of current US immigration policy is to blame. There are so many great countries that would welcome a Math PhD with open arms; allowing me at least residency status.

Don't they remember that was how this country was built? And since the home-grown talent ain't that great... no offense

Conclusion:I fully believe the US deserves to lose it's immigrant talent
Observation: The outflow has already begun...


Addendum:why immigrant entrepreneurs are going home

Waiting for Superman - comments on state-run education

I watched this wonderful documentary about the failures of state-run education in the US. Maybe "wonderful" isn't the right word. It was heartbreaking, highly disturbing and raises great questions about, the real lack of opportunity in the US, the dangers of bureaucracy and the idea of American exceptionalism even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary - everything American is the best! Best education system, best healthcare system etc

This particular film is even more thought-provoking for me because I am now a graduate calculus TA at a large state university. The film speaks mostly to high-school education, but I get to see what that system spits out. Let me tell you this... the kids are not prepared and I don't think I can possibly help them. Not only because they are so far behind, but because I shouldn't be their calc TA. The university pours the little money they have into the math grad programme in order to attract more grad students, so they can serve as cheap TA's and basic math instructors, because tenured professors are so much more expensive. Then, we were explicitly told to put our calc teaching behind our other grad school work ... we are , after all, PhD students first.

Putting this all together, even if I were the best Calc TA in the world (and believe me, I'm not) I would still be doing them a disservice because I cannot, at the core of it, be wholly invested in my kids' education. This is a big dilemma

I got published!!!

Math! How I love thee!

...for the white man.

"The abilities, the intelligence, the promise of these young men will be squandered in their attempt to eke out a living doing the simplest, most mindless chores for the white man."

-Nelson Madela , Long Walk to Freedom, my copy page 33

This is exactly how I felt working for my last supervisor. Oh snap! Good riddance my friend. ha.

But will I prosper now that he is gone? We make jokes at work all about how the partners are afraid of Office 2007. We make jokes about "partner math" which is simple, slap dash math that latches on to the biggest roundest numbers on a page and yields nothing but broad estimations. Haha! so funny... Does this mean we get more stupid, dated and timid as we move up in this firm?

The more time I spend away from school the more I feel my intelligence is squandered. How do I stem this flow?

BTW I started reading Mandela's book. It was gifted to me two summers ago. It is quintissentially inspirational. Expect more quotes.

Thesis update

Alert : I don't care if you don't understand what follows. If you do understand it, leave me a note, we should talk.

The Thesis room for math students is a depressing little closet with no windows, no comfy chairs and no joy. I guess that also means no distractions because I have been getting my thesis done like a beast.

So far however, I am stuck because the variety i get from the groebner basis of my ideal of interest is larger than the projection of intersection of the curves that generate the ideal. The intersection is what I am after! not all this extra junk information!

What I need to do is find the groebner basis test for intersection of n curves in m-dimensional space. I think that whichever dude figured that out, must have already dealt with my problem.

Here I go

Exam Week

It's exam week and I have no exams, only two papers. We got our last test back for Real analysis and it was obvious that my professor went on a rampant bout of grade inflation. On one question, which admittedly deserved a good amount of partial credit, she gave me full marks saying 'you were headed in the right direction'. I ain't complaining.

We are all waiting for this week to be over. Then home-home and and then Winter Term. YAY!! An old friend of mine sent me a care package. I love friends who will send you stuff just for the heck of it... just to make you feel better.

BTW a Turkish friend of mine has been growing a fantastic beard. he is cutting it off before he goes home so that they "will let him on the plane". It's funny the things you take for granted. At least I only get harrassed in airports for fitting the description of a drug mule.

Dance, Travel, and Jena

My Grandma always said one should never trust a girl who doesn't like to dance. What on earth could that possibly mean? What's wrong with a girl who doesn't like to dance? Anyway, we are holding call-back auditions for one of my dance groups today. And even better than a girl who likes to dance, is a guy who likes to dance. How can a girl resist a fun-loving guy who demonstrable has flawless rhythm? Guys, take note.

After auditions we spend a couple of hours trying to figure out who to let in and then I get to write a 20 pager on the history of commutative algebra. Nice!!! I slept 12 hours last night in an attempt to procrastinate. But I have no more time to waste. Now I am taking comfort in my academic obligations. It will prevent me from havign to talk to people. Don't get me wrong, I love people and people generally like me, but after being gone all year its hard to reconnect. At first I thought it was that people have changed. But maybe its me. I am starting to fear that I am older, more judgemental and more awkward than I used to be. Only time will tell.

Even though I am trying to avoid people I am still thinking that later today I will attend a joint meeting between the Black Student Union and the Students for Social Justice about a Jena 6 awareness campaign on campus. For some info go to:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12353776
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17444
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070904jena,1,4272535.story

for entertainment, I suggest: www.allabout-sp.net