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Friday, Aug 31, 2007 12:38AM / Standard Entry
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20 years ago (I'm showing my age here! lol ) when I took Calculus I class, I had Dr. L. He's an older gentleman of full time university staff, been around forever and pretty high up in the math department. He thinks women can't handle higher math such as Calculus and he lectured directly to male students in the classroom, never once looked at any of the female students; it's as if we don't exist. During the office hours when we have questions and shows up to ask him, you hear him carrying on joking with the male students and when the female ones enter his office, he puts on a 180 turn around attitude, as if we're a bother. Calculus was not fun to me 20 years ago. Dr. L was a brilliant mathematician, but he wasn't a good teacher when it comes to explaining to us all the knowledge he's got inside his head. We're often lost and struggled every step of the way.
I took Calucus I again after 20 years, it started last Monday and it's Monday and Wednesday of each week. The teacher's fine, I liked him well enough, but by the 3rd class (this Monday), I find that he's not at all prepared for the lecture (new textbook this year) and he is lacking in geometry area in math. There's another prof teaching Calc I, so I immediately took action and sat in on her class Tuesday morning after asking for permission. Before I even gotten to talk to her, one of her student outside her office waiting for another student to finish with his questions informed me that they skipped Chapter 1 all together, which reviewed Algebra and Trig, and started with Calc part already with Chapter 2. That meant I sat in on her 3rd class starting lecture on Chapter 2, section 5. After the sit-in lecture, I switched teachers. It's departmental rule to have both professors' signature as well as Assistant Dean's signature when changing teachers of the same course. Luckily, both prof were still on campus and I managed to get everything taken care of on Monday.
Prof J. had lecture dates all planned out and printed for us in calendar form, including review days and test days. She had homework assignments assigned and printed out for students that have unstable internet connection and cannot do the online math lab homework. She also had notes from each of her lectures saved in case anyone missed a class can make a copy, I took advantage of that along with borrowed notes from classmate (Thanks M!!) and spend the last 2 days playing catch up. She was organized, old school about high expectations on our ability as students to have turn in homework assignments along with Chapter review problem sets with answer key showing everything step by step. I am more than impressed considering the testbook is brand new. She had been working very hard in preparation to teaching this class.
I managed to use both set of notes, the Calc book for this course and another Calc book that's on my book shelf from years back and caught up between Chapter2 sections 1 through 4. Today, we finished Chapter 2 and I walked out of the class bouncing with happiness and excitement. I never thought Calc was fun 20 years ago, didn't think it's possible to feel this elated. Everything was explained fully and clearly and everything made sense and Prof J. made it fun!
The first test for Chapter 2 is next Thursday. Granted, this means I have to catch up on all the homework assignments and study for the test, but it's worth all the work right now to have a good teacher to have Calc I solid since I am planning to take II and III. I'm psyched!
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