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| It's about that time again:
This time around:
MATH 225B: Algebraic Topology
MATH 245B: Real Analysis
MATH 214A: Intro to Algebraic Geometry
MATH 375: TA-ing
Maybe this grade-posting is getting a little pointless, although the tradition has survived up until now. Grades in grad school are getting to the point where they don't matter anymore, although I am satisfied that I got all A's this quarter, especially in Topology and Analysis. But they pretty much throw free A's at you after the first few courses.
Case in point: I completely stopped going to my algebraic geometry class this quarter about 3 weeks into the class. The final grade was based on a "expository paper," aka a book report. I copied down some crap out of a book that I totally didn't understand, constituting about a handwritten page front and back. I put my "paper" in his mailbox the day before it was due.
I got an A in the class. | | |
| Edit: remember this song?! 
The classes were:
MATH 205B Number Theory (Analytic)
MATH 225A Differentiable Manifolds (qual class!)
MATH 245A Real Analysis (qual class!)
MATH 375 TA-ing
MATH 495 First Year TA Seminar
Typical. In graduate school, I bet most of the graduate students got
grades that look something like this. Anyways, I'm pretty average in
most of my classes - I was ranked #14/29 on the analysis final, pretty
much smack dab in the middle of everyone. On the other hand, lots of
people here have taken graduate classes in analysis/manifolds as
undergrads, so I guess you'd expect them to be more prepared. I think
next quarter I'd like to find a way to study more (i.e. not at my
computer) and I think I'm going to seek out other people more, for
questions and such.
Besides studying for my classes, I've also been TAing my first class
ever! I TAed two sections of 31B, basically an equivalent of 408L at UT
("Integration and infinite series"). It was a lot of fun, and I was
glad that I was able to help my kids. I put a lot of effort into it,
and it looks like it paid off. We started off with a full class of 180
students, 26 dropped, so we ended up with 154 kids. Only 4 of my kids
dropped, which I was pretty satisfied about. Here are the section
averages for the quarter, the bolded sections are mine:
Section
HW (35%, out of 60
pts)
Midterms (30%, out of
40 pts)
Final (35%, out of
80)
Average (out of 100)
3A
45.9
19.5
48.2
62.5
3B
50.8
18.8
49.9
65.5
3C
49.5
19.2
51.1
65.6
3D
49.0
19.8
47.5
64.2
3E
50.4
19.8
49.5
65.8
3F
51.8
20.6
55.7
70.0
Average
49.6
19.7
50.4
65.7
I was impressed with my kids, especially given that presumably the
lowest 22 kids in other sections dropped, which in theory would have
left the kids that were doing well. Seriously, look at that! I mean my
Thursday 3F kids are amazing, but my 3E kids are also pretty awesome -
haha, all of the other sections are below the mean mostly because of
3F. I've
been thinking about the extra stuff I've done over this quarter, and
figuring out if they're worth it or not
1) Extra office hours:
I'm not sure how much my kids appreciate me having two office hours a
week, but it's not that big of a deal for me (although not that many
people come). I think I'll keep this in future quarters.
2) Still even more office hours during test weeks: Similar to 1), this isn't that big of a deal for me, and I'll be available to help those that want help.
3) Weekly tips on homework:
This originally came about as a way for me to equalize the disparities
in performance between my Thursday and Tuesday sections. The Thursday
kids would get almost an entire week's head start on everything, and
the Tuesday kids would be completely lost until discussion, at which
point they'd have to cram a whole week's worth of learning into one
day. I originally sent it to my Tuesday kids, but eventually started
sending it to everyone, and it was a humongous hit. I think this is
probably one thing my kids really thought was helpful. Although I
imagine it would be less useful for upper division classes and higher.
This is definitely a keeper.
4) Midterm study guides/suggested problems:
They took me a long time to write up, and some students found them
useful, but others didn't. I think that suggested problems are a good
idea, because they give students a definite goal to work towards (i.e.
finishing the problems I give them to do). I feel strongly that
students in lower division classes need concrete goals in order to
actually learn. I'll probably keep the suggested problems, but might
ditch detail in the rest of the study guide in favor of weekly
summaries (see 7)).
5) Review sessions: I
gave 2 review sessions by myself, and then basically organized one for
the final where I invited all of the other TAs. These totalled 9 hours,
but I dont know if it was worth it. They weren't very efficient, and
basically went like a extended discussion. Ideally in my head, a review
session should be summarizing up all of the information on the test,
and maybe working a few trickier questions to help the kids get a feel
for how the techniques they learned can be applied to not-so-obvious
problems. I was reading my evaluations and all of them were at least
decent, except for one student who said that my review sessions were
"lousy". While I wouldn't call my own review sessions lousy, I
definitely feel that I could make them more productive and efficient.
6) Being available on AIM:
This was pretty neutral, and didn't wasn't that big of a deal, but I
think being able to quickly communicate reactively (as opposed to
sending a bunch of emails back and forth) is useful. Even though I
check my email all the time.
7) Summarizing the material learned each week, possibly in outline form:
This is something I didn't do enough of, but instead I tried to do the
summarizing on the midterm study guides. I think this might've been a
mistake, and too much for the students to digest at once. I've always
had this idea in the back of my mind, but didn't know why I never went
through with it. Students would benefit much more from seeing me write
up an outline of material from the week, than seeing me do another
homework problem. Even though it isn't math, and they subconsciously
know it, it helps them to actually see it written out (especially since
most students are concrete S learners).
8) Explaining stuff better:
I think I explain things pretty decently, but sometimes I'm unsure of
how to explain a solution in a way that students would understand
clearly. On my evaluations a good number of students wrote that
sometimes I get confused when I'm explaining something. Some things are
just intuitively clear to me, but I know they aren't at all for other
students. So it's difficult to explain intuition, and you definitely
can't just say "well, it just is."
At the end of next quarter, I'm planing on taking the geometry/topology
qualifying exam, and hopefully I'll pass that, so I can study and pass
the analysis qual in the beginning of fall next quarter. Anyways, for
now, I'm back in Houston until 1/7/07, so lets hang out!
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| Come on people, have you no love for my awesome music!!!
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| Okay, I never do this, but this song is too awesome not to put in the background.
Chino XL feat. Crooked I - Tap Dancing
I was lucky enough to catch this on its world premiere on the radio one
night a few days ago - Felli Fel played like the first 30 seconds, then stopped the
track, and went to commercial, and said he would play the rest of the
track after commercial. It was so good that I seriously waited through
the entire 10 minutes of commercial. I didn't even change the station
while I was waiting.
I was so impressed by the song that I googled several times a day for
this song. After several days of no links, I finally got (only) one
link. But it had a link to the mp3 itself! So, enjoy.
And sorry about the little website ad in the beginning - this is the only copy I can find.
Anyway, this **** is straight up serious, not even joking.
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