{"id":2078,"date":"2017-09-02T16:43:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T20:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2017-09-02T16:43:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T20:43:14","slug":"another-first-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/phdplus\/2017\/09\/02\/another-first-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Another First Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The view from the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Colorado College.<\/p><\/div>\n

Monday was the first day of classes for me, and also the first day of a new job.\u00a0 This fall I started as an assistant professor at Colorado College<\/a>, a liberal arts college of about 2000 students in Colorado Springs, Colorado.\u00a0 Colorado Springs is about 60 miles south of Denver, at the base of the truly awesome 14,000-foot Pike\u2019s Peak.\u00a0 Colorado College is great: beautiful setting and campus, my colleagues are interested in their work, but also laid back and simpatico, and the students are creative, curious, and motivated.\u00a0 It is like many other schools in those ways, though of course CC has its own distinctive personality that I particularly like.\u00a0 However, one truly unusual thing about Colorado College: the school year here is broken not into semesters or quarters, but into 8 blocks of 3.5 weeks each.\u00a0 Students take one class per block, with all of their attention on that one course (at least in theory).\u00a0 Professors teach only one class at a time, too.\u00a0 But the teaching is intense\u2014most classes meet for around 3 hours every weekday morning, with office hours, problem sessions, and\/or labs in the afternoon.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to spend 5-6 hours a day in intensive student contact, plus there\u2019s always preparation for the next day and grading.<\/p>\n

The intensity is intense.\u00a0 Did I mention it was intense?\u00a0 That word comes up constantly when describing the \u201cblock plan\u201d.\u00a0 No question, this schedule can be tiring.\u00a0 Luckily, each block is followed by a block break, two and a half days plus a normal weekend, when students are completely free to go camping, read novels, play video games, binge watch TV, or whatever.\u00a0 Of course, if you\u2019re a professor, you might spend a couple of those days grading and a couple getting ready for your next course, which doesn\u2019t leave much of a break when you\u2019re teaching successive blocks.\u00a0 Again luckily, professors don\u2019t teach during every block\u2014different departments on campus have different teaching loads, but professors generally teach from 4 to 6 out of 8 blocks.\u00a0 In non-teaching blocks, professors keep up with service, but have a remarkable amount of freedom to travel for research, go to conferences, or do field work.\u00a0 So professors also have some real breaks built in.<\/p>\n

When I tell people about this system, they often tell me that they think it is crazy. \u00a0I assure you, I have thought it was crazy at moments as well. However, I knew what I was getting into when I came, since I spent two years as a visiting assistant professor at Colorado College.\u00a0 That was a really positive experience, and I am very happy to be back here this fall.\u00a0 Yes, there are aspects of the block plan that are difficult, for both students and teachers.\u00a0 I think exhaustion is the biggest issue, followed by time management. Many people ask me whether knowledge retention is a problem\u2014how do students remember anything when they completely switch focus every 4 weeks?\u00a0 My experience has been that this is no more of a problem than on the semester system; Calc 2 students everywhere will claim that they have never heard of the chain rule.<\/p>\n

The fact is that there are also many aspects of the block plan that are deeply rewarding and advantageous to teaching and learning. For example, the fact that students have only one class means that very few students totally blow off the class they are in. It happens, but very rarely.\u00a0 Taking students on field trips and getting out of the classroom is much easier.\u00a0 Something about the bigger chunks of time spent together can make it easier to build strong relationships with students. If a student is really passionate about math, they can take several courses in succession, moving through the entire calculus sequence, linear algebra, and number theory in one year if they like.\u00a0 Though students have other appointments, it\u2019s generally ok if class goes over by a few minutes sometimes.\u00a0 Seeing the students every day means I get far fewer emails.\u00a0 Non-teaching blocks make extended research travel possible during the semester, without having to cover or cancel classes.\u00a0 For me, all these positives more than make up for the difficulties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Getting off campus with classes is a great perk of this job. Colorado College has a satellite campus near Crestone, Colorado. I took this picture there a couple years ago when I took my students to “Number Theory Camp”.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, to return to the moment: I have been teaching for 5 days and I am more than a quarter of the way through a Linear Algebra course.\u00a0 I have 23 students, I know all of their names, and class has been exceptionally fun so far. We have covered solving linear systems, row reduction, geometric interpretations of solution sets, spans, linear independence, and linear transformations, and we have already done one Mathematica lab.\u00a0 The first test is Thursday of next week, and will also cover matrix operations, invertibility, and determinants.\u00a0 I have done almost nothing for the last week and half but prepare, teach, meet with students, and grade. I am soooo excited that it is Saturday.\u00a0 But, of course, I woke up at 7 AM thinking about how to explain linear transformations differently.\u00a0 I always obsess a bit when I am teaching, and it is one of my great life projects to learn to let go of whatever just happened in the classroom and live in the present.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s one reason the block plan works for me, though\u2014it leaves me less time to obsess, since I\u2019m spending so much of my time during the block actually teaching.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Really missing my friend, collaborator, and Villanova office neighbor Katie Haymaker right now.<\/p><\/div>\n

One week in, things are mostly excellent here.\u00a0 I love being back in Colorado. I have to say that I also miss my friends, colleagues, and students from Villanova.\u00a0 I miss being part of the Graterford program, my students at Community Learning Center, the energy and food of Philadelphia, and the dense mathematical network of the east coast. \u00a0I LOVED living in Philly and working at Villanova. Starting over is exciting but moving is horrible.\u00a0 It takes a long time to make connections in a community, to have real friends and feel at home, and, having finally made those connections, it is really sad and hard to leave those people and start all over again in a new place.\u00a0 So why did I leave, even for a great job like this?\u00a0 A big reason was to be close to my partner.\u00a0 I had been in a long-distance relationship for the last three years, which was simply not sustainable for me.\u00a0 I am also much closer to my family here. \u00a0The importance of these factors overrode the sadness of leaving for me.<\/p>\n

This constant starting over is one of the worst parts about early career life in an academic job.\u00a0 It is poignant to move again, when many of my friends from grad school and all my past jobs are buying houses or having babies or forming bands.\u00a0 And here I am again, giving away my plants, shoving half my belongings into storage, moving into a new office, and going to new faculty orientation to meet the rare other people my age that are looking for new friends.\u00a0 However, there are so many great people in exactly this position, and at least this time I have already started over once in this place\u2014I mean, I have a dentist at least!\u00a0 Friends, community, and a sense of belonging can\u2019t be too far behind.<\/p>\n

Starting a new job? Interested in the block plan or teaching in some other unusual way? \u00a0Please share in the comments.<\/p>\n

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Monday was the first day of classes for me, and also the first day of a new job.\u00a0 This fall I started as an assistant professor at Colorado College, a liberal arts college of about 2000 students in Colorado Springs, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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