Teaching in the Fall Semester as a Graduate Assistant

The final exam is two hours long, and my supervisor writes it and give it to all the sections of college algebra. It is a comprehensive exam.
 
I know that this question is not the best one to ask because it is unrealistic. My supervisor said the same thing. In this exam, calculators was not allowed. So I had it make it an easy computation problem but with idea of a share work problem that was linear. The main point of this question is the set up of the share work problem.
Whether the question was a good one really depend on what you were thinking when you gave the problem. If you realized that since both companies can do the plowing on their own in less than 6 hours so that the answer was obvious and you wanted your students to say that it is obvious, then I like the question. Otherwise you should be more careful making up exams. I ALWAYS solve my exams before giving it to the students, not to have an answer sheet (I actually throw it away after doing the test), but to make sure that there are no problems with the exam.
 
A fellow graduate student once told me that he gave his class a problem like this: If you had 20 coins that consisted of only nickels and times totaling to $1.75, then how many quarters do you have? He knew that the answer was 0, but wanted to see how the students handled that question.
 
Hi. I have completed my second year of teaching College Algebra. It went fine; a couple of hiccups during the year for teaching.

In the first semester, I had a larger class with 33 students. I had to go quick about the material. It could have been better in the first semester because I was moving very slow at the beginning because I generally wanted them to know the exponential rules and polynomial concepts in the first chapter. Although my exams were challenging, I remained confident by dividing the difficult questions into more manageable sections for them to work out the solution. I also gave them extra credit and extra written homework for them to review the old concepts. I also did a survey on my teaching in that class and notice some issues that I had. Course-wise, the first semester was brutal, with the one 500-level and one 600-level which the course titles were Theory of Statistics 1 and Numerical Optimization. In general, I did well in both courses.

For my graduate paper requirement, I thought I had a paper advisor ready since I took Functional Analysis in the Spring 2023. In the fall of 2023, the potential paper advisor kindly declined my request. I felt a sense of panic since this was my final year. Afterwards, I requested an appointment with my current academic advisor. We brainstormed my strengths and interests. At the end of the day, I found a paper advisor, and I found my topic, which was the Schrodinger equation in 1D on the positive real line with an integral operator that maps Lp to Lp which p is bigger than zero but at most 1 I assume p is 1 to make the integral operator to be linear. During the semester, I met my advisor and worked on the research.

In the second semester, it went well because I had a larger class with 33-35 students. I created seven written homework assignments for them to review some key concepts from the lectures and online homework with requiring them to explain their answers. I still wrote exams slightly more difficult than my supervisor. But I also am generous in my grading. I believe I had a strong organization of the material as well. By the end of the semester, I had improved my teaching skills.

My paper remained unfinished in the second semester due to a lack of motivation and time caused by my teaching responsibilities and student courses. Plus, I was looking for some teaching community college jobs in MN. I received an interview opportunity in Rochester, MN, but I wasn't offered the job. Despite that, I'll spend one year as a full-time instructor at Mankato on a fixed-term contract. My teaching schedule for the first semester includes precalculus and Trigonometry courses.

Course-wise- the second semester was ok, because my focus was getting my paper done. So I only took 2 500-level classes and my paper credit, which was 600-level credit. I decided during the fall semester that I would take Theory of Statistics 2 because I wanted to see where the statistics came from as well as being abled to teach the introduction to statistics since I know the theoretical background of the concepts in the introduction to statistics. But I already know that I dislike statistics, but I will give it another chance. I learned many concepts that I was not familiar with. The second 500-level was a PDE class which I took one in my undergraduate studies. In that class, we went into some new topics that I had not seen before. This class helped me with the graduated paper. I got a D in Theory of Statistics 2. I passed my PDE course.

I was abled to walk on the stage during the graduation ceremony. I finished my paper in the summer. Now, I have my master's in Mathematics..
 
Congratulations on finishing your master's in math!!
I recall that you are planning on going for your PhD.
I always put my students first but I would deviate for that if I was in a PhD program. You need to finish your program and if that puts your student 2nd, then I think that is OK. Why?? After you finish your PhD and start teaching (if that is your plan), then you can do the best job teaching that you can do. Research is fine, but there is nothing (in my opinion) better than being a great teacher.

For whatever it is worth, after decades of being out of college I am entering a math PhD program later this month. I hope that I finish up as I have wanted this degree for a long long time.
 
Congratulations on finishing your master's in math!!
I recall that you are planning on going for your PhD.
I always put my students first but I would deviate for that if I was in a PhD program. You need to finish your program and if that puts your student 2nd, then I think that is OK. Why?? After you finish your PhD and start teaching (if that is your plan), then you can do the best job teaching that you can do. Research is fine, but there is nothing (in my opinion) better than being a great teacher.

For whatever it is worth, after decades of being out of college I am entering a math PhD program later this month. I hope that I finish up as I have wanted this degree for a long long time.
Thank you. I've opted to take a brief break from my plans to pursue a doctorate. I am experiencing burnout from school because I was attempting to balance the roles of both a teacher and a student simultaneously. It is important for me to identify a meaningful reason for desiring a Ph.D. that goes beyond superficial motivations. My goal is to make progress in my writing and proof writing abilities over the course of the year. I’m leaning towards keeping my options open for this year. In addition, I want to have some academic experience in case I choose to teach students at the community college level. I want to know what are job duties for a professor as well as committee work. One thing, I might do over the year is to do some research in mathematics and publish it.

Any helpful advice on teaching Precalculus or Trigonometry?

I hope you get the math Ph.D.

cbarker12
 
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