Mathematicians in weird places

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Adriana Salerno

Yesterday, Kiran Kedlaya was competing on Jeopardy!. I, along with many of my friends, was very (and maybe unreasonably) excited about this. There is something really exciting, always, about seeing someone you know on TV, or on stage, or in a concert. I’m not really sure why that is. In my case, I think it’s that I know these people and admire them and I’m happy that more people will share in this admiration. But I think in this instance, I was even more excited because he’s a mathematician. We don’t get enough good publicity, and it’s great to have examples of people who are great mathematicians and are also great at something else. So this got me thinking about other situations with math people who have been in the non-math spotlight. Continue reading →

Posted in mathematicians in mass media, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

A Necessary Evil?

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Adriana Salerno

This semester, I have found myself grading homework more often than working on any of my other academic duties. Some weeks, I have spent upwards of 15 hours just on grading, and I still have to prep for two classes, hold office hours, and supposedly get some research done. This is mostly because of choices I made at the beginning of the semester that I couldn’t later change. But it got me wondering about how important (or not) grading is for students, pedagogically speaking, and whether it is really all that helpful for them to get this kind of feedback. Continue reading →

Posted in grading, teaching | 3 Comments

The Sky(pe) is the Limit

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Adriana Salerno

Me as one of the heads in Futurama.

Last week, I went to California to speak at a seminar at UCSB. This created a small problem for me:  I would miss both of the classes I teach on that day. Having someone substitute teach a Calculus I class is no big deal. In fact, a common practice is to “swap” classes or exam proctoring with other faculty members who will have to travel for conferences or seminar talks. But I am also teaching Real Analysis, IBL style, and that is a little more difficult to get someone else to do. I decided to teach a long-distance class instead (my talk did not conflict with my class meeting time) using Skype, a free video-chatting tool. Continue reading →

Posted in Contingency plans, technology for teaching | 1 Comment