The Teaching
I've been teaching for a month now, and I can confidently state that students in class seen from the teaching side are exactly like they are seen from the student side. Hoo boy.

I have students who are really, really bright. I have really bright students who are hardly trying. I have students who are bright and keep quiet. I have snotty students who present themselves like this whole thing is beneath them; students who are gunning for the A because they are pre-med. Students who are curious and so come up and ask questions after every single class. Students who simply want face-time on the professor and so come up and ask questions after every single class. Students who are unbelieveably ill-adept. It's all good.

After two home work assignments, we are having the first exam on Monday. I've very disappointed that I'm going to be out of town to give a talk, so I've handed off proctoring the exam to my extremely capable TAs Cindy Tam and Thomas Lindner. They're both really great. I have one student who approached me to ask: "You said you would attach a sheet of formulae at the back of the exam. Could you post that on the web before the exam so we know what we don't have to study?". Um, no. You know, asking the professor how you can study as little as possible for the exam is not impressive. The sheet of formulae is a lifeline to those students who have difficulty with them --- it's not permission to not swim.


- posted by Unknown @ 2/07/2004 03:11:00 AM