Tickets on the way!
My airplane tickets for MEEWT were fed exed today ... soon it will all seem so ... real.
But until it really is real, calculus and teaching a GRE prep course are going to KICK MY ASS. Holy shit this calc class is moving soooooo fast and there's so much work. The instructor is cool; I like him. He's friendly but not sleazy; he makes real-life applications without dumbing down. And I like ANY teacher who says to me, repeatedly, "I'm so glad you asked that question!" Because I told him I have limitless questions and he said, "Limitless? See! Already you're thinking calculus!" He's kind of perky, I realize as I write this. I was scolding myself for silly errors with adding incorrectly and dropping signs, and he patted my arm and said, "You know what that means? You're thinking like a mathematician instead of an arithmetician." And I thought that I was the spinmeister - he may be coveting my title. Anyway, I can tell he likes our class - we seem pretty bright and engaged, which I know is not always the case at the community college. I got asked to join a study group which might be a very good idea - if only to learn how to really use this (borrowed - thank you!!) TI-83+. I keep turning to the person beside me saying, "How do you ...??" They're all so damn fast with those buttons and I'm like, "Excuse me! Just picked one up yesterday! Slow the hell down until I know where to find the damn menus!"
I'm glad it's a short class - six weeks, I think. That doesn't give me much opportunity to ask myself, "What the hell am I doing in here??" There is no real reason for taking it. Oh, sure, I think it helps with the stats and stuff, which I'll be doing if I pursue the ed PhD. But it's not necessary really - nobody would require it. No, it's because I think it sucks that I've forgotten things I learned 20 years ago - so the stuff that's worth remembering, I'll relearn. Sigh. And maybe I'll fight off Alzheimers in the process.
What else? Um ... hot today. Very hot recently. Ah yes, summer in SoCal. Still refuse to turn on my A/C because I'm a cheap bastard. I figure I can always go work in a library or someplace already air conditioned on my way to class.
The GRE class will be interesting - all very nice people; I can tell already that I will enjoy spending three days a week with them, and I think it's a good program. And they're very knowledgeable about the importance of the GRE for their future career options, so they will be engaged and have very high expectations for me. I give a diagnostic tomorrow and will plan the syllabus around that - focusing on verbal (especially vocabulary) and writing. I think I'll take it with them too, just for fun - and suggest I excuse anybody who scores higher than me. Heck, scores within a standard deviation of me? Maybe ... Anyway, I want to retake the GRE when I've finished the teaching and the calculus - my goal is a perfect score. That would be cool, just because I'm a nerd (as Gail and Shelton - and Gomez - are quick to point out).
But until it really is real, calculus and teaching a GRE prep course are going to KICK MY ASS. Holy shit this calc class is moving soooooo fast and there's so much work. The instructor is cool; I like him. He's friendly but not sleazy; he makes real-life applications without dumbing down. And I like ANY teacher who says to me, repeatedly, "I'm so glad you asked that question!" Because I told him I have limitless questions and he said, "Limitless? See! Already you're thinking calculus!" He's kind of perky, I realize as I write this. I was scolding myself for silly errors with adding incorrectly and dropping signs, and he patted my arm and said, "You know what that means? You're thinking like a mathematician instead of an arithmetician." And I thought that I was the spinmeister - he may be coveting my title. Anyway, I can tell he likes our class - we seem pretty bright and engaged, which I know is not always the case at the community college. I got asked to join a study group which might be a very good idea - if only to learn how to really use this (borrowed - thank you!!) TI-83+. I keep turning to the person beside me saying, "How do you ...??" They're all so damn fast with those buttons and I'm like, "Excuse me! Just picked one up yesterday! Slow the hell down until I know where to find the damn menus!"
I'm glad it's a short class - six weeks, I think. That doesn't give me much opportunity to ask myself, "What the hell am I doing in here??" There is no real reason for taking it. Oh, sure, I think it helps with the stats and stuff, which I'll be doing if I pursue the ed PhD. But it's not necessary really - nobody would require it. No, it's because I think it sucks that I've forgotten things I learned 20 years ago - so the stuff that's worth remembering, I'll relearn. Sigh. And maybe I'll fight off Alzheimers in the process.
What else? Um ... hot today. Very hot recently. Ah yes, summer in SoCal. Still refuse to turn on my A/C because I'm a cheap bastard. I figure I can always go work in a library or someplace already air conditioned on my way to class.
The GRE class will be interesting - all very nice people; I can tell already that I will enjoy spending three days a week with them, and I think it's a good program. And they're very knowledgeable about the importance of the GRE for their future career options, so they will be engaged and have very high expectations for me. I give a diagnostic tomorrow and will plan the syllabus around that - focusing on verbal (especially vocabulary) and writing. I think I'll take it with them too, just for fun - and suggest I excuse anybody who scores higher than me. Heck, scores within a standard deviation of me? Maybe ... Anyway, I want to retake the GRE when I've finished the teaching and the calculus - my goal is a perfect score. That would be cool, just because I'm a nerd (as Gail and Shelton - and Gomez - are quick to point out).
posted by NOLA at 9:37 PM
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