Doing a bad job and being okay with it

The whole "lower your expectations" thing is really hard to do.

First day of remote instruction: done. It was weird. I don't know if it was good or bad or just weird.  I'm not used to being bad at my job, and I feel really bad at my job right now.  I'm sure this is a universal feeling among faculty and students, but it's also very personal for each of us.  I want to help students find the joyful parts of math, and it seems extra impossible right now.

On the "life" front, I've got a lot happening that's also making it hard to focus on doing the job.

The question I keep coming back to is, "How long can I sustain 'all hands on deck' without getting sick?"

Sorry -- no cheerful updates here.  Just wishing things could go back to normal.  I miss the feeling of community and I didn't realize how hard it would be to do class remotely without it.

Exponential Growth - activity for kiddos

Do you have a bag of dried beans and a watch/phone that can time seconds?  Then you can talk to your kids about exponential growth as you talk about why COVID-19 is so frightening.

Materials:
128 (at least) dried beans in a pile, bowl, stash, or whatever.
1 plate or bowl.
Timing device

One player is the shouter (keeps track of time) and one player is the doubler (counts beans).
Discuss in advance how often your beans will double (I recommend 5 seconds to start).

The doubler puts one bean from the stash on the plate. The shouter starts keeping track of time; when time has elapsed, shouter shouts, "Double!"

For the doubler:
Round 0.
Put one bean from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 1 bean)

Round 1.
Put another bean from the stash on the plate, count the beans. (Plate: 2 beans)

Round 2.
Put 2 more beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 4 beans)

Round 3.
Put 4 more beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 8 beans)
[this should have been pretty leisurely so far]

Round 4.
Put 8 more beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 16 beans)

Round 5.
Put 16 more beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 32 beans)

Round 6.
Put 32 more beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: 64 beans)

...

Round \(n\).
Put \(2^{n-1}\) beans from the stash on the plate. (Plate: \(2^n\) beans)

You get the idea.  This game gets frantic pretty quickly, and that is the kind of overwhelmed state exponential growth should invoke: "this is getting really big really fast!"

To compare to other modes of growth, you can do growth rates like Round \(n\): put \(n\) [or \(n^2\) if you have a fast counting doubler] beans on the plate -- see how much longer it takes for this type of growth to get frantic.

Enjoy!

(This is an activity I developed as part of my Project FULCRUM fellowship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln when I was a graduate student.)

Remote Semester Orientation

Advice from Abbi Jutkowitz, Film Editor, who has worked from home on and off for 5+ years, and worked from home exclusively for the past 8 months (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1631659/), in collaboration with Courtney Gibbons, Math Professor, who has worked from home for the last week (https://people.hamilton.edu/cgibbons).  To download this advice: RemoteSemesterOrientation.pdf

Womp womp!

I managed to put a sad trombone sound effect (royalty-free) into a video.

That's it, that's the whole news.

Principles in conflict?

Last summer, I taught in a correctional facility. There were no iPads, no smart boards or projectors or computers. No internet at all and no smart devices. If I wanted a box of chalk with a few colors, I had to get permission to bring it in and was required to bring it out.

The students in my class didn't have computers. They had a textbook (it had to be approved by the facility), access to a small library of books contingent on a bunch of circumstances, one or two pencils, and paper they mostly had to purchase for themselves unless I got permission to bring some in.

That summer made me rethink my reliance on the bells and whistles: online videos, fancy animations, etc. I made a pledge in my teaching log (yep, still have a paper and pencil teaching log!) to make sure that whatever class stuff I develop is doable with pencil, paper, and discussion. I also pledged to keep my courses as self-contained as possible: between the class and the textbook, students would have the necessary tools (physical, like pencil and paper, and intellectual, like strategies, outlines, examples, and suggested steps for starting problems) to complete assignments -- or at least make progress until the next class meeting.

I have been just okay at keeping those pledges (better than if I hadn't made them), and I find that it's hard to keep them with the shift to remote instruction. My litmus test is, "Could I teach this course at a correctional facility with minimal changes?" and suddenly the answer has shifted from "kinda" to "not even close."

I'm trying to figure out how to bring my principles into alignment. Suggestions welcome.

Learning curves

There's nothing like looking at a finished video and thinking: "Wow. What a piece of sh*t."

Between driving 8 hours in the past two days (with another 4-5 tomorrow), trying to work with a delightful baby demanding more dancing around and being held upside down, telling my parents to take COVID-19 seriously (Mom, that's you: 6 feet from other people, no handing over your phone or taking someone else's, no matter how cute the baby pictures are), etc etc -- not exactly a highly productive time.

But! Some small victories: our campus has a license for Adobe Premiere Rush and I worked through the quick tutorial. I made another few minutes of content. I'm ready for a remote meeting later today. We made french fries for breakfast. I scripted a few really awful math jokes to intersperse in my course video playlists. When I say really bad, I mean: "Why couldn't the base field have puppies? Because it was fixed." (A little Galois humor! Like gallows humor, but French.)

Unfinished business: I've written about 5 drafts of an email to my advisees. I hope to finish it and send it soon. Probably a faux pas to start with, "What the actual eff?!" but it's the most honest opener I've got at the moment.

Challenges and silver linings

We're all facing challenges as we adapt to CDC guidelines and their implications for our work and social lives.  As I put together my plans for my courses, I'm reminding myself this applies to my students and me.

The Twitter math scene is a really supportive place.  I've found some video lectures appropriate for my modern algebra classes and I'll make some to fill gaps.  Best practices, ideas, remote workshops -- all of these and more are happening as people come together.  I'm glad my social media use has led me to this wonderful community.  I'll add some folks to follow in my next post!