Day 207

Woohoo!  School is done for the semester!


This morning started out reasonably well.  I got up, ate some breakfast, did some stats, then headed up to campus so I could turn in my MATHS 125  book and talk with Dr. Fischer.  I'm glad that I was able to talk with him today because I think it helped both of us.  I explained to him some things to help clarify what he saw and notated (specifically that he mentioned my not using a particular formula, so I explained that I had used it in a previous class and explored other methods of solving the problem in the class he observed).  He assured me that this was nothing personal and that he when another position opened up that he would most likely be asking me back (mathematicians are, by nature, hesitant to use definite wording).  But the fact was that he had to cut somebody and the cards simply did not play in my favor.  He explained that the main issue is that my teaching style is very difficult to master.  He said that between the meetings and what he saw it was obvious that I am doing my best to keep my students interests at the forefront, but that this method can often lead to many issues with time and classroom management.  He definitely was not discouraging me from my teaching style.  In fact, it was more of his way of explaining that he knows how much more work I'm doing by teaching the way that I'm doing and he wanted it to be very clearly that I knew he really appreciated what I've done, especially since teaching was not originally my first choice.  So I felt a lot better after that.  He has also been in my position of being a graduate student and graduate instructor who has had the disappointment of being given other duties for a semester so he was able to commiserate with me regarding how disheartening it is to feel like all this work has gone unnoticed.  Overall I was pleased with the meeting. I didn't expect anything to change, I just wanted to clarify a few things that he said yesterday and share my opinion on it all.  And he definitely wanted to hear my opinion.


After that meeting I went to my office and studied with Timbo for the remainder of the afternoon.  We went over a few things that hadn't made sense earlier and got them figured out.  Which is good, because some of them ended up being on the exam.


Anyhow, the exam.  I thought it went well.  I'm not entirely sure what the probability of getting at least one of each of the six faces on a die to turn up out of 8 rolls given that three of them are twos.  But... I did something.  Otherwise I think I did well.  Hopefully I got at least an 85!


After the test I came back, put dishes in the sink and promptly did not do them.  I ended up going to dinner with Jessie and Richard at Greek's pizza.  It was really good.  Then we went back to their apartment and had dessert!  Jessie was telling us about some of the stuff she's been dealing with at the hospital and I have concluded that some of those people are just full of nonsense!


After dinner I went to go hang out with Kathryn for a bit.  She's heading back to New York tomorrow morning... which I'm sure will be a splendid drive.  Then I came back, beat Bastion, talked with Kimmy and James... and now I'm going to bed!  


And I forgot to call mom today.  Sorry mom!