8.24.2011

Day 94

Today was exciting.  I had math finance this morning and we talked about compound interest.  Nothing new, but a good review.  Between classes had to go make some copies of my syllabus for my class at 11.  So I found the computer lab and printed some stuff off.  While I was there I talked with another G.A. who is teaching the same class... his name is James.  He was telling me that he had never taught anything before and didn't know what he was doing.  I felt really bad for him... he was teaching an 8am class for freshmen, he'd never taught before, and I can't say with certainty that English is his first language.  So I tried to help him out a little bit.  He asked to see my syllabus and notes so I showed them all to him, I explained how I picked the chapters that I did, and I also gave him a couple tips on keeping the student's attention at 8 in the morning.


After I made copies I just walked around outside for a little bit until Life Contingencies started.  I got there a little early and talked with Jacob for a bit.  He studied chemistry and math, but realized that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in a lab... so he's going into math!  When we got in the classroom I talked with Erica and Jordan about making a study group.  I also (jokingly) asked our professor... but I don't think he caught that it was a joke.


After that class was over I briefly talked with Erica about meeting to work on stuff tonight... but that I had to teach in 5 minutes.  So i gave her my phone number and told her to let me know if anyone wanted to do homework.  As I was leaving Tim and Yu approached me about getting together to study.  I learned later that after I left about 7 people approached Erica about joining our study group.  Which is precisely what I expected to happen.


So my class.  It was fun.  As I walked into the room (which was completely full when I got there) I asked the first guy in the door if this was for MATHS 125.  He assured me that it was.  So as I walked to the front of the room I could see the realization hit him that I was teaching... he laughed a lot.  No one else had any idea what was going on.  It was funny.  So I started the lecture by passing the syllabus out, introducing myself, and reading over the syllabus.  Courtesy of Becky, I did in fact introduce myself as Postmaster Pagano.  I think it might stick.  We'll see.  After I'd read over the syllabus and explained everything I asked if they had any questions.  So they asked about what I was studying, why I was teaching, and stuff like that.  I asked them if they would mind if I read some stories to them from the Book of Virtues and they were all ok with that.  So I'm going to start with that on Thursday.  I also forgot to ask if anyone had any exciting news to share.  Oh well.  I'd like to start every class that way.  I also went through my material way faster than I anticipated.  I had no idea how intelligent they would be or how long it would take. I learned.  It didn't take long.  So I'll probably plan for more on Thursday.  Definitely more examples.  I ended up finishing about 30 minutes early... oh well :)


After class I came back to my apartment and ate lunch.  Around 2 Erica and I went to go explore downtown since neither of us had really gotten a chance to see what was down there.  Yeah... not a whole lot.  We did find this kitchen store and I talked with the lady who worked there for a bit.  I'd asked her what one thing everyone should have.  I figured that would get her talking about everything, which it did.  So about ten minutes later we left... mainly because she had to take a phone call.  So we walked around for a while looking for anything interesting.  Then we came back.


When I got back I cleaned up a little then started making dinner, which was stir-fry tonight.  I had just started when Jessie called to see if she could come over while the repair guy worked on their toilet.  So I invited her to eat as well.  When I was making the rice I kind of forgot that I was supposed to measure how much water I used... I'm used to making pasta.  So that was exciting.  But it tasted ok.  I got the reduced sodium soy sauce from the store.  That was a terrible choice.  But it turned out alright.  It was kinda hard without a wok, but I managed.


At 7 I went to go do homework with people.  This consisted of us finding a study room, spending about 30 minutes working on/discussing the first few problems...then realizing that we hadn't covered anything else.  So we spent the next... 40 minutes or so trying to read the book and figure some more out. But that didn't go well.  I haven't gotten my book yet so I haven't read any of it.  That would have helped a lot.  Oh well.  It should be here tomorrow.


When I got back I was too frustrated from studying/discussing how scary the exams are that I didn't want to do anything.  So I ate some celery and played Team Fortress.


Overall it was a pretty good day.  The exams are a bit stressful... but such is life.  We'll figure something out.  But I'm going to bed now.

1 comment:

  1. I need to clarify that Miles first introduced me to the "Postmaster" title... so I can't take full credit. But it sounded like a productive day!

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