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For you Job Hunters OT, maybe



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 10th 06, 08:20 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Tanada
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Posts: 666
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

Guys, if you have a master's degree in Mathematics, please, Please PLEASE
consider putting in a resume at Fayetteville Technical Community College.
In fact, if you are job hunting and have a masters or better in any subject,
community colleges can use you. There are major advantages to working at
the community college level. You don't have to publish or perish, you can
kick out those who act like horses behinds, and the pay is much better than
at the grade/middle/high school levels.

Yes, I looked and that idjit math instructor is still there. I had it
confirmed today that he flunked over a quarter of the class I was in. I
don't know what it says to you, but to me it says that he can't teach. Oh,
John, I learned more from the internet help you gave me than I did from the
idjit.

Pam S. who really wants to learn from a good teacher and


  #2  
Old August 10th 06, 08:57 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
badwilson
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Posts: 658
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

tanada wrote:
Guys, if you have a master's degree in Mathematics, please, Please
PLEASE consider putting in a resume at Fayetteville Technical
Community College. In fact, if you are job hunting and have a masters
or better in any subject, community colleges can use you. There are
major advantages to working at the community college level. You
don't have to publish or perish, you can kick out those who act like
horses behinds, and the pay is much better than at the
grade/middle/high school levels.
Yes, I looked and that idjit math instructor is still there. I had it
confirmed today that he flunked over a quarter of the class I was in.
I don't know what it says to you, but to me it says that he can't
teach. Oh, John, I learned more from the internet help you gave me
than I did from the idjit.

Pam S. who really wants to learn from a good teacher and


You cannot learn math from a bad teacher. I know this from experience.
I never got any higher than a C+ in math, even though I was getting A's
in all other subjects. I thought I just wasn't mathematically inclined.
Then, in grade 12, I got a great teacher who wrote notes on the board
and explained everything step by step and didn't make people feel
stupid. I got an A+ in Algebra 12 and an A in advanced Calculus 12, I
wrote the scholarship exam and got $500 and I got accepted into
Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria with a scholarship
(which I declined to become a pilot instead).
I really hope you get a good math teacher, Pam. Bring out the inner
mathematician in you!
--
Britta
Purring is an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness
overflow.
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album


  #3  
Old August 10th 06, 04:35 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Jo Firey
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Posts: 1,579
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe


"Martha" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
"tanada" wrote:

Guys, if you have a master's degree in Mathematics, please, .....
In fact, if you are job hunting and have a masters or better in any
subject,
community colleges can use you. There are major advantages ...... You
don't have to publish or perish, you can
kick out those who act like horses behinds, and the pay is much better
than
at the grade/middle/high school levels.


I teach math and chem as adjunct at my local comm.college, and I
totally agree with you, even though for adjuncts the pay is not good at
all.


Yes, I looked and that idjit math instructor is still there. I had it
confirmed today that he flunked over a quarter of the class I was in. I
don't know what it says to you, but to me it says that he can't teach.


That, however , is not necessarily so. I have been in classes, as a
student, in which there was absolutely no teaching and everybody got
A's. So the admin though the idiot was great, because his student evals
were great. I had to retake the class with someone else before I
actually learned the stuff.

I have taught one class in which out of 24 students , one passed,
because the others followed an idiot who told them he could physically
threaten me enought to pass them with no work. He did not succeed.
And I point out that for classes in this course in other semesters,
the average grade was 89. Yet if students don't learn, I am NOT going
to pass them.

Of course, I don't know the particular situation. That teacher might
be awful. I am simply saying that he might not be.


I've often wondered, how do they decide who gets to teach math anyway? I'm
good at math and can pretty much learn it out of a book or from anyone who
already knows how to do it. But that it hardly the norm. I was a math
major until I could not learn German, French or Russian and chose to change
my major. But that hardly qualified me to teach math at any level.

I get the strong impression that math in the primary grades is taught by
mostly very nice, very qualified school teachers. A great many of whom
really suck at math. They teach it by whatever method is currently mandated
and it they can control the class are considered a success. Then you get
into middle school and high school. Now the teachers are likely to
understand enough mathematics to cover the subject. But again the odds are
stacked against the student. Because they know next to nothing about how to
teach. College is often even worse. These teachers are usually very
proficient in the subject. But don't have a clue how to share it with
others. Especially with the non math inclined. So too often you have a
very bright mathematician trying to teach a subject to many students who
have never had a decent math teacher and are only taking it as a
requirement.

Yes, at each level a few will shine and learn how to teach. Some primary
teachers are good at math. But I never got the impression in eighteen years
of school that anyone was ever trained in how to teach math.

Jo


  #4  
Old August 10th 06, 06:42 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Tanada
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Posts: 666
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe


"Martha" wrote in message
...
In article . net,

I have taught one class in which out of 24 students , one passed,
because the others followed an idiot who told them he could physically
threaten me enought to pass them with no work. He did not succeed.
And I point out that for classes in this course in other semesters,
the average grade was 89. Yet if students don't learn, I am NOT going
to pass them.

Of course, I don't know the particular situation. That teacher might
be awful. I am simply saying that he might not be.


Martha, this teacher was kicked over from the Electrical Engineering
Department when the Math department was scouting around for help because
they were understaffed. He had a reputation among the other teachers. I
don't know all of it, just that one of my teachers in a third department had
heard of him and his inability to make important concepts understood.

For what it was worth, this guy would teach 2+ ways to solve a problem, at
the same time. This is not a good way to teach dyslexics. I know this
because I am dyslexic. In a short time, that class went from almost 40
students to around 20. The teacher's favorite conversations involved pop
television shows, sex, his wife's body, sex, strip clubs, and taking young
women to the beach. He is in his 60s or 70s. I considered that class as a
hostile learning environment. Not only did he sexually harass us, but he
refused to teach word problems, since he didn't like doing them. Several
students pointed out to him that word problems would be on the final. To
cap it, several of the students he failed took the same class from other
teachers during the summer session and received As and Bs on it. I would
consider him a failed teacher.

Pam S.


  #5  
Old August 10th 06, 07:20 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 3,999
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

Jo Firey wrote:

I was a math major until I could not learn German, French or
Russian and chose to change my major.


Since when are these languages required for a math degree??

I have a math degree, and I didn't have to learn those languages. (I
studied Spanish for several semesters, but it wasn't required for the
degree, I just did it because I liked it.)

These teachers are usually very
proficient in the subject. But don't have a clue how to share it with
others. Especially with the non math inclined. So too often you have a
very bright mathematician trying to teach a subject to many students who
have never had a decent math teacher and are only taking it as a
requirement.


I would like to do volunteer tutoring in math. I've done it before,
with mixed success. It's hard for me to get into the mind of someone
who's math-phobic, because for me, math was always kind of a "safe"
and comforting place. And since as a student I usually picked math up
intuitively, it's hard for me to break that down into the pieces that
would help a student who is trying to understand. I imagine that's the
same problem for a lot of math teachers who are good at math.

I have had better results just trying to communicate my enjoyment of
math. Not by lecturing the student on how wonderful it is - more like,
teaching them cool tricks and interesting little facts that might
stimulate their interest. One time, a tutoring student of mine, who
had originally started with me saying that she detested math, came
into a tutoring session saying, "I tried that game you taught me last
week, and it was really fun! I've been doing it all week." I was so
pleased by that! I think it was something like factoring polynomials -
not exactly a simple math task.

I prefer working with adults, so this is limiting, since I know that
the main demand for tutors is with school kids. But there are plenty of
adults out there who need math help for one reason or another, and
they tend to be very motivated, as opposed to kids, who for the most
part would rather be doing almost anything else than meeting with their
math tutor!

Joyce
  #6  
Old August 10th 06, 07:23 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Dan M
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Posts: 506
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

I was a math major until I could not learn German, French or
Russian and chose to change my major.


Since when are these languages required for a math degree??


Depends on the school. At the University of California, Riverside if you
want to pursue a Masters in math, you must be fluent in German, French,
Russian, or Hebrew (at least that was the case when I last looked into it,
10 or 15 years ago).

Dan
  #7  
Old August 10th 06, 07:28 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 3,999
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

tanada wrote:

For what it was worth, this guy would teach 2+ ways to solve a
problem, at the same time. This is not a good way to teach dyslexics.
I know this because I am dyslexic.


Well, I'm not dyslexic, but I would still consider that way of teaching
very frustrating and confusing! Sheesh, it's enough of a challenge to
learn something one way, let alone throwing in some other thing, which
might run together in many students' minds and get them all confused.

But then, I also hate software that offers 5 different ways to do the
same thing. I know they do this because different people have different
preferences, eg, some like the keyboard, some like the mouse, etc, but
I just end up feeling overloaded with information and can't make a
decision! Just give me one way to do it, and I'm happy.

The teacher's favorite conversations involved pop television shows,
sex, his wife's body, sex, strip clubs, and taking young women to
the beach.


EWWWWWW YECCHH!! What a TOTAL CREEP! That is disgusting.

When was this? You've probably already said, so forgive me if I missed
that info. But it's hard to believe he could get away with this now.
You said he's still teaching, right? I wonder if he's still telling
those same offensive stories. I'd be bringing him to court for sexual
harassment. One of the legitimate uses for our legal system!

I'm so sorry you had to deal with someone like that while trying to
learn.

Joyce
  #8  
Old August 10th 06, 07:37 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 3,999
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

Dan M wrote:

I was a math major until I could not learn German, French or
Russian and chose to change my major.


Since when are these languages required for a math degree??


Depends on the school. At the University of California, Riverside if you
want to pursue a Masters in math, you must be fluent in German, French,
Russian, or Hebrew (at least that was the case when I last looked into it,
10 or 15 years ago).


Interesting. Is this just for a masters degree? Not for undergrads,
right? Never heard of this for bachelors degrees.

I know a lot of important work in math has been done in the countries
where those languages are spoken, so I guess you need to be able to
access the original works in the native language - is that the idea?
But I'm surprised that most of them have not been translated already.

I wonder what's being done in Israel these days that puts Hebrew on the
list? That country hasn't been around very long, so these must be pretty
recent developments.

Joyce
  #10  
Old August 10th 06, 07:47 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Dan M
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Posts: 506
Default For you Job Hunters OT, maybe

Interesting. Is this just for a masters degree? Not for undergrads,
right? Never heard of this for bachelors degrees.


I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't imagine that those languages would be
required for an undergrad degree. At the time I was interested in the
Masters program, so that's all I looked in to.

I know a lot of important work in math has been done in the countries
where those languages are spoken, so I guess you need to be able to
access the original works in the native language - is that the idea? But
I'm surprised that most of them have not been translated already.


I believe that's the general idea. If you're fluent in one of those
languages you can follow the publications in that language without having
to wait for a translation.

I wonder what's being done in Israel these days that puts Hebrew on the
list? That country hasn't been around very long, so these must be pretty
recent developments.


It's been many years since I've tried to follow developments, but I know
that a lot of the advanced crypto work being published a decade or so ago
was coming out of Israel.

 




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