Comments for Confused at a higher level

Comment on Refusing to throw stones by rob

rob — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:16:16 +0000

i still remember when bruce thomas replied to a question a student had about going from one step to another in a derivation he was doing on the board.

he said: “that step comes from reading the book.”

good advice to take.

Comment on Almost done by Procedural, analytical, relational, innovative « Confused at a higher level

Procedural, analytical, relational, innovative « Confused at a higher level — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:57:42 +0000

[...] today … an article that caught my eye, and which I almost put in the comments section to my previous post on lessons learned/things to remember for my write-up on my attempt to re-vamp intro [...]

Comment on Almost done by arjendu

arjendu — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:35:44 +0000

Further note to self. Here’s what Robert Reich had to say recently about ‘learning’ vs ‘learning to learn’:

“Q: As an educator, what skills/courses do you recommend to your students to ensure their job security? What if you’re too old to be an auto mechanic, but loathe the thought of getting an M.B.A.?

A: I tell my students there’s no job security in the economy they’re entering, but if they want employability security — a good chance of maintaining a fairly good paycheck — they need to master a domain of knowledge during their undergraduate years adequately enough to enable them to continue to learn on and off the job from then onward. The old domain will become obsolete, but their learning skills won’t. ”

And that’s part of what I am reinforcing with my particular take on the way I run classes.

Comment on Almost done by arjendu

arjendu — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:33:43 +0000

Ah. 10 points of their total score is reserved for ‘interactivity and engagement’, which includes my grade on the quality of their questions. Makes them sit up and take notice after a while. But I am lucky with the students I have — studying is the only thing they are supposed to do.

Comment on Almost done by agm

agm — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:26:57 +0000

I’m curious. What incentive did you set up for your students to actually crack open their textbook? Mine are community college students, and it seems that my students generally are not of same caliber as Rice’s or Carleton’s or are surmounting challenges that could easily crush (or merely reduce to the same level of performance) students at the elite schools. Feeding your family, water heater blowing up, being rear-ended on the way to school after a 12-hour shift (a small selection of the more drastic things that happened this semester). They just wouldn’t read the book much.

Comment on Quantum jokes by Everything is energy

Everything is energy — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:48:18 +0000

fun!

Comment on National Society of Black Physicists/National Society of Hispanic Physicists Joint Annual Meeting 2008 by arjendu

arjendu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:50:10 +0000

My pleasure, Cacey. Good luck at Chicago.

Comment on National Society of Black Physicists/National Society of Hispanic Physicists Joint Annual Meeting 2008 by cacey

cacey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:39:47 +0000

Thanks for the comment about my talk at NSBP

Comment on $1.5 Million to spend by arjendu

arjendu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:20:16 +0000

Oh goody, 1 more famous person I know :-).

Comment on $1.5 Million to spend by Christopher Tassava

Christopher Tassava — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:58:39 +0000

That’s the attitude we like to hear from our seats in CFR! Of course, the only point to having some money is to use it to garner more.

(If an interview on MPR makes a guy famous, I was famous already! Capella is rising — and profitable — star in online learning)