Success and Tests

I'm so sad that I hadn't replied to this comment earlier 0_o. As it turns out, I didn't not fail the course. I did poorly, but did not fail (I always make mountains out of mole hills so it figures).

I think that a lot of the essence of this post has to do with my idea of success. In most schools students are graded on an A-F system. It isn't always about personal growth/progress but about how you measure up to whatever standard was set. I'm not saying standards are bad, but they don't catch the whole picture.

I have almost always been an academian and to that end have always made grades my measure of success.

Is this bad? Not always.

The A-F system of measurement has it's merits and it's faults. First of all, just to be a decent person you don't have to be good at everything. Now, I'm not saying that you should be happy with A's in some subject and F's in another subject. That is not my point. But people don't get Ph.D.'s in everything for a reason. Just because you are good at math doesn't mean you should ignore other subjects but I doubt there are many people that could be considered a research mathematician *and* a Shakespearean scholar.

To back up a little bit to the initial question posed by the comment "Would you have felt better if you did not fail class? If so, then who controls your feelings? You, or the coincidence of passing or failing a test?" No, I would not feel great about failing a class but that is because I often measure my own success through academic achievements. I do control my feelings to a degree (I mean, if someone hits me I will feel pain and I can't really control that). But I do hope that students feel something when they fail an exam.

I am not saying that failing students should be used as punishment. But there should be some sort of reflection process.

From the teachers standpoint:

• Did a lot of students fail the exam?


• Was the exam fair? Too difficult? Too easy? Too tricky?


• If I was taking this exam and had been a student in my class, would I have passed?


• Has this student improved over the course of this class or stayed stagnant?

From the students' standpoint:

• Was this a good performance for me?


• Did I study/prepare for the exam?


• Was my head in the game? i.e., Did I really try?

There are many factors, some from a "self" perspective, that will influence how one performs on an exam. If you had a good nights sleep, good nutrition, stress levels, and all sorts of other factors.

I may be a "high-achiever" but that doesn't mean I've never failed a test before. But the question I usually have after an exam is whether or not (a) I was prepared and/or could have prepared better and (b) if I thought the exam was fair.

One thing instructors (at least as far as I have found) confuse is the idea of a good exam. In math, yes everything builds on itself. But is it really fair to ask a student to recall knowledge from 2 or 3 courses back and not give them a heads up? Should students taking an abstract algebra course be required to remember pre-cal from long ago? Maybe, but maybe not. Courses should, to some degree, be self-contained. Everything students need to pass should be right out in front of them. It should be an example in the book or something. Don't blind-side students by pulling mathematical structures/problems out of a magic hat. If your book only has theorems, don't ask students for examples without giving them a second reference book that you recommend.

A lot of this comes down to having clear expectations for students. If you want your class to go to the library every day and read out of 10 different abstract algebra books then say so and don't leave it up to ambiguity. Sometimes I wonder if instructors really want students to fail their exams - but I really don't think that is the case. It's not always the teachers' fault and it's not always the students' fault. Sometimes it's neither parties fault! But those aren't the cases I'm talking about.

With fair assessments (sometimes I have had these and sometimes I have not) then I think students *should* reflect on their own practices. But without fair assessments then it is difficult for students to ante-up to their own responsibility and carry the course. An instructor shouldn't assume that because 1 student gets 100% the assessment is fair but I understand the pull away from making assessments too easy as well. It's definitely a hard balance to strike.

Now to make you (the reader's) reflect: What are your thoughts? Should a student feel bad (at least ever so slightly) when they fail? Should instructors/teachers/professors look more closely at their exams?

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Back Again

Ok, this time I'm serious. Nothing is going to stop me from posting at least a few times a week. I've made a secret (not-so-secret) goal of posting twice a day but we'll see how long that happens. A few times a week sounds more realistic for me.

So, in the last (almost) year a lot has happened but I will regale you with the most recent:

• Today I am running Day 2 of Week 3 of Couch Potato to 5K.


• I am growing chives :), although not the most exciting news in the world I should really take a picture so you can see how cute and grass-like they have become.


• Last but not least: I think I am taking this blog in a slightly different direction than before.

To comment on the last one, I think I want to make this blog my "home to various edu-links". I really do think this will benefit you and me... well, some of you (readers). I don't think it will keep me from ranting every once in a while about something that upsets me, but I do think it will give me a task and keep me on some sort of mission.

Yes, this is kind of like my mission statement: "Will give readers more fabulous content and less personal gibberish" - sounds good, doesn't it? That's the draft I came up with this morning. Maybe this afternoon I'll feel a little differently.

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Happy Birthday to Me

/discuss :)

I will post an update to this later today, already at 8:42 am there have been some interesting things that have happened to me today and some interesting things planned. I also have some Birthday ranting to do, but I will leave all of this to a time when I am not rushing out the door to go to work.

Hope you guys (the readers) have a great day, I know my day will be... interesting...

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I <3 Mambo

Well, I do love to dance but I am actually talking about Math Teacher Mambo a new blog I found via my Google Reader.

I've been using my Google Reader to help me look for jobs on Craigslist because I am graduating in August and moving to CA. Yes, after a long hiatus I am moving back home. Not to live with my Dad (although I love him, no I cannot stay there) but to stake my own claim and be by myself. After all of the divorce stuff I really need a change.

But, this is a very entertaining blog and I'm certain to put it on my sidebar (once this week ends). Finals are almost over, I've given all of mine and found out that one of my finals has been changed to a Take-Home Exam... Take-Home = (usually) much more difficult than anything they could have given in class so I'm afraid to open it.

My flight takes off tomorrow for CA for a couple of weeks so I guess I'll just be LaTeXing it over the weekend. Horray for a wasted weekend... Especially since this will be my first "fun" weekend in a while.

Must go into the office and turn in a million and a half things before I leave and grade finals and get final grades input into the computer. Let's see how they did on the final and what those grades turn out as.

So... on that note I think I'll head on over to school and work on some Combinatorics and Complex Analysis. I must pull off miracles today so that I can leave tomorrow with a good peace of mind.

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Do you feel lucky punk?

Just something fun to watch, I thought I'd post it because I kind of liked it.

It almost makes me think of things I would like to say to my students, but then I think about how much stress they must be under and how serious they are trying to take my class... ok, so maybe I'm day-dreaming. But I really am trying to be nice they just are not reciprocating.

More on that later, for now watch action movie lines:

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Changing Education?

Just a quick response to an article I read on The Apple...

The article entitled "Wanted: A few bad teachers" is a quick report about a campaign lead by Rick Berman from the Center for Union Facts. This particular campaign intends to pay "bad" teachers $10k to leave the profession...

Now, a few essential questions come to mind when I think about this particular issue:

1. What makes a "bad" teacher?


2. Who judges whether or not a teacher is "bad"?


3. Are the teachers being forced out of their positions, or will they just be "encouraged" with the $10k and asked by their district to leave (surely the bad publicity will also be encouragement but, I don't know if they are "outting" teachers with this or not)?


4. Will this really improve education? Is this the big problem?

Now, to explore each of these questions would probably require at least 1 post each. So I encourage you to respond to my comments, although a big fragmented right now, so that we can start a dialogue about this issue.

1. What makes a "bad" teacher?


This question is hard to answer. According to what I gathered from the Blog from the Center for Union Facts called Labor Pains, and some of their other statements, it seems that a bad teacher is judged by their student performance on standardized tests.

I think most educators are in education because they want to do good. They want to positively impact education. Since everyone is working towards a common goal then why not support the goal and use unions as a tool to expand your goal? If what you really care about is education, as Mr. Berman claims then why not put the funds towards a teacher enrichment program or educational development?

Oh, I know why. Because it is the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset that we are dealing with here. A fixed mindset assumes that "smart" people or "good workers" are that way because they are already that way. They will always and forever to continue to be that way because they are "smart" or "good" (whatever each of those words means...). But a growth mindset (which is what we base all of our educational system on) says that a person can grow to have the attributes they want to have, such as being "smart" or "good".

So, although education says that students can learn their multiplication tables and people can grow to understand history and the rules of the English language, if a person is a bad teacher then they will continue to be a bad teacher and should leave the profession.

I get it, make education cut-throat like industry and maybe we will attract better teachers because if you are a "bad" teacher then you don't belong there.

I will admit that there are some people who have a magic touch. There are those individuals who really bring a subject to life with their enthusiasm and there are those who can really explain things to everyone. But, not everyone in a classroom is like that. Not everyone who is effective is like that.

I asked a friend of mine what he thought about this article and I asked him why he thought Mr. Berman did not put the $100,000 towards teacher development. He told me that teacher development is already attended by the good teachers. But don't all teachers have to log in a certain amount of hours of in-service and professional development? I was always under the impression that they did.

Mathematically speaking, the number of teachers in the world is a finite set indexed by the natural numbers. By the Well-Ordering Principle there must be a least element, often named the "bad" teachers. Yes, students in the US are not competing in the global market the way they should be but if you take out the "bad" teachers and don't have new people to fill those spots because everyone is afraid of being labeled a "bad" teacher (because new people make mistakes more often since they are still learning what to do and what not to do in a classroom) then that increases class sizes. Increased class sizes certainly do not help students (which wasn't classroom size one of the main issues that teacher unions protect which Mr. Berman's agency is against?) because they do not get as much individual attention.

I could go on, but I really want to know what you (the readers) think about this. More posts on this issue will come later. For now, I have to study for my last comprehensive examination (Algebra). Have a great day and post lots of comments so the dialogue can commence!

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Fear of Failure

Who wants to fail? I mean, seriously - who *wants* to fail a class?

Sometimes I wonder this about my students. There are those that show up every single day and will only miss in the case of a real emergency, turn in all the homework, do ok on the quizzes and pretty average on the tests - they will pass on to the next course. Then there are those who have spotty attendance, turn in some homework and do pretty badly on all the exams and near the final they wonder why they are not going to pass.

I realize that I have given 2 very blanket characterizations of students, but to your surprise I am (for once) not talking about my own students.

Yes, I am talking about myself. I had a class this term that became the back-burner for everything else. Well, when I think about it I think this happened with 2 of my courses - and I was only taking 3! My personal life has, yet again, become the center of my universe. The divorce is almost complete, I got the papers from the lawyer but she saves everything as a .docx (stupid Microsoft Vista... grrr...) so I will need to convert the file before I do anything. My second job has been completed, it really was a kind of contract work, so now (at the end of the first week of finals) I am able to really concentrate on my coursework... too little too late for Analysis. So I am expecting a failing grade in this course.

Now, I know this is my fault. Especially since somewhere in the semester I adopted an awful phrase to comment on how useless/idiotic/stupid I felt when it came to Analysis.

Although I cannot take my own advice, I always tell my students that attitude has almost just as much to do with success as ability when it comes to mathematics. When you go in with the attitude that a lot of work can have a really good pay-off then almost any problem can be tackled (or at least for the level my students are at and even the level I am at). So, what is the problem?

For students that put anything personal in front of academics there is a big problem. How can you effectively work on mathematics when your mind is elsewhere? Unless you are doing (and this is totally subjective according to the problem-solver) mindless problems then you cannot expect a good result from spending "hours" studying if you are not really there mentally.

In effect, earlier in the semester I was afraid of failing because I had never really failed myself like this. But the strict deadline I had for myself and the timeline I was looking at was unrealistic for my life circumstances. I need time to process all of the things that have gone on in my life and time to really develop my life the way I want it to be. I need time to grow up.

Does it seem a little ridiculous for someone who was married to ask for time to grow up? I do not think so. Sometimes we do rush into decisions. We make the best decision with the time and resources available to us. For me, it was the best decision at the time I made it with the information I had. But, I do not have to justify my decision to anyone except for myself.

Currently, I had been banging my head against the wall trying to do more than I realistically could get done in any reasonable amount of time. I over-booked myself to deal with my pain. I couldn't break down and cry for days at a time if I always had things to do. This is my coping mechanism - being busy. But I don't always have to be busy with things that will burn me out.

I am going to take things easy next semester, drop down to 2 classes instead of taking 3 and really take things at a good pace. This will give me time to look over the material carefully, really plan things out well for myself and see where things end up. I *might* stay at 3 classes and take an undergraduate analysis class so that I can really do well in the analysis class the 2nd time around (sigh), but I will decide on all of that in January.

Hopefully I will be able to update more during the winter break on what is going on in my life but since I am visiting my dad and he does not have a computer (or even the internet) then we will have to see.

Before I was afraid of failure, now I welcome it as a time for change for myself. I need to change the way I do things and this is the right time to do that. I need this for me. I guess, in many ways, I needed to fail.

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Neat little POW site

Puzzle of the Week site for anyone who is interested.

Someone called a co-worker of mine and asked them to find someone who could do the problem :).

Hence result :).

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