yewler

I'm working on a Masters degree in Mathematics right now and I'm hoping to study Algebra in a PhD program afterwards. I've talked to my professors and advisor, and they've given me advice as to good schools to look at, but their experience is very US centric, and if I'm being entirely honest, I want to leave here so bad.

I'm not entirely certain what I'm looking for. I don't know if it's a greater sense of community, less insane politics, more commies, or just... An actual chance to help make genuine positive change. It's probably a mix of all of that and other stuff.

So I guess I'm keeping my question a bit open ended, hoping for thought fodder, and I'm asking here specifically for a uniquely commie perspective. What would you do?

I was a little sad to see them go, honestly. I know I was supposed to be the instructor, but I learned a fuck ton from them this semester. It's a remedial math class, so many of the students in my class have had awful, awful experiences with math class in the past. I was determined to not be just the next traumatic math teacher in their lives, and it seems I've succeeded for some! I've gotten 3 emails and 1 in person conversation telling me that this was the best math class they've ever had and they actually feel prepared going into their next math class.

And I mean, it's my first semester. I'm sure I was ass at a lot of stuff. But that's where the learning from my students came in to play. I gave them lots of ways to talk to me about what was working and what wasn't (even anonymously if they wanted) and ended up with something I'm really proud of, and I'm sure is just going to grow as I get more experience.

On top of this, my office mate and I have been developing a huge overhaul to the way we run the grade book in the course that we think will be more conducive to learning and growing than grade chasing (I hate traditional grading with every fiber of my being) and I just got permission from my bosses to test drive it over the summer class I'm teaching. I'm absurdly excited for it, but I'm also quite nervous, since it's something I've never been on the student end of, and no one in my department has any experience doing it. So I'll be treading new territory, and nervous I won't be able to solve some of the challenges that will inevitably come up. Would hate to screw over my students by trying something crazy too fast.

At ant rate, I've officially decided I love teaching.

I can't get enough of Dick Gaughan's album A Different Kind of Love Song, and I'm trying to find similar music. Anyone have any suggestions?

Really just looking for political folk recommendations :)

I teach a low level math class at a state college as part of my graduate assistant duties while I'm doing my Master's. The way this class was pitched to me when I joined was "many of the students who get placed in this class have been deeply traumatized by the education system and we want to introduce them to real mathematics, broken free from the failures of their previous teachers." I was ecstatic. This has always been the kind of thing I wanted to be involved with once I started teaching, and here I was getting to start with it right out of a Bachelor's. Absolutely wonderful.

But I slowly start to find out that the mission statement and the actual implementation of the course are so far from each other. We'll talk about how all the students care about is grades, and how we need to deemphasize the importance of it and focus on the learning, and then we'll turn right around and use grades as a form of coercion, because "these students won't do anything unless there's a grade attached." Well yeah of course, because we're the ones making a bigger deal out of the grade than the actual learning, and the students are just following suit. We're the ones sending that message.

We talk so much about how we want them to think for themselves and not parrot their lecture notes on quizzes, but then we give quizzes that rely on rote memorization and regurgitation.

For every core value we assert in words, we turn around and tell our students the exact opposite in action. We tell them at the beginning of the course that things are going to run differently than any other course they've probably taken, and then we just borrow the form of every standard, tired, and broken attempt at math education, make it 3 times as complicated, and then try to pass it off as revolutionary.

I have tried so many times to bring this up, and I get nice platitudes like "oh that's a really good point" or "thanks for bringing your ideas to the table" or "I hadn't thought of that. Let's discuss it with the group later" but nothing is actually materially changing. My boss actually told me one day that I cared too much about my students. How can you possibly tell me that and not feel bad? Like are you actually joking me?

The particular reason why I'm venting this today of all days is that I was sick on our Friday meeting, and was filled in on the contents after the fact. Turns out I was not filled in on one particular thing that was apparently a very heated argument, and found out about it mid lecture this morning from a student the decision affected. And I'm flabbergasted by it.

I spoke to my office mate, and he informed me that there was a misunderstanding in the wording of the quiz, and that we had mistakenly asked a different question than we meant to. And apparently the decision was made to um. Use this quiz as a learning opportunity to drill in what we actually expect for the final? And thus we should give no credit if they answer the question we asked instead of the one we meant to? Um? Hello? In what universe does marking off points for a correct answer on a quiz for inability to mind read correlate to increased motivation?

(To be fair, the situation wasn't entirely this cut and dry. An argument was made that one word of the problem should have been a hint at what we wanted. I, however, don't understand this on two fronts: our directions to students on a graded assignment shouldn't be hidden behind a hint. And additionally, the particular word in question, I don't think added any additional information anyway. Given the correct answer and the ones the students gave, the hint word applies equally to both, and I honestly don't see how anyone could say otherwise. (The word was "explain" and both answers were an explanation. Just the more correct one was more verbose). So you know what, I take it back. This is pretty cut and dry bull crap. Pointing to the word explain seems less like a reasonable assertion that the point of the question was clear, and more as a retroactive justification for offloading the effort that would be required to genuinely rectify the situation and prepare the students for the final, onto the students grades instead of our own responsibilities.)

I mean, these students are my people. I have always wanted to reach students broken by the education system and show them the joy of learning again, and it pains me that this class uses the language of my passion and misses the mark so incredibly. And I'm essentially powerless against it because all I'm doing is running someone else's class for them, to their specifications.

I'm teaching exponential relationships to my class tomorrow morning and one of the applications of this understanding is obviously debt.

We just got finished discussing linear relationships last week, and it got me thinking: why is the accumulation of interest not linear? You've only borrowed the principal, so in my mind, if you're going to have interest, it would be proportional to the amount of the principal you haven't paid off yet.

Thinking like a lib (or maybe not since I can't understand the way it actually works), the lender would be unable to access a certain amount of money that they previously did have access to, and thus would be privy to a proportion of that amount. As you pay on the principal, that amount should go down because they have more access to the money they previously had access to.

What purpose does your interest creating more interest serve other than simply to siphon money from the ones that need to borrow and those that have enough to lend?

Obviously that is the reason, but I'm just curious if there's an actual reason they have, or if they really are just that blatant.

I started out as a lurker on here and didn't really say much, and still really read more than I interact. But over time I started recognizing a lot of the same usernames, and it really just hit me that you guys are some of the most empathetic and loving people I've come across on the internet, and it makes me happy to share a website with you. No one loves people like commies, I swear.

On a more personal note, the few times I've come on here to rant, you guys have treated me with such dignity and respect, and came with such helpful advice, and that means a ton to me.

This might be a super sappy post, but you know what, I don't care. Making the switch from Reddit to lemmygrad was the best social media decision I ever made, and you guys have helped me out a lot, just by being a community that isn't afraid to care about people. It's wonderful to see on a daily basis that there are communities out there like that. You rock.

I'm in my campus library studying with one of the other students in my program and there's a group of students behind us engaged in conversation. They're far enough away that I can't pick up exactly why they're talking about this (it could be they're disagreeing with a prof or a classmate or they're working on a paper together, idk) but I'm overhearing snippets every now and then. My favorite one so far being "Marxist theory is less about class analysis and more about how to control your subjects."

The wild part is every time someone says something deranged everyone else in the group applauds them for their "great thinking." Like no lmao you're just regurgitating the same propaganda almost everyone else also believes. You're not saying anything worthwhile bruhhh. I can smell the insides of their colons from across the room because of the amount of stuff they're collectively pulling from their asses.

It was so easy to make friends during my undergrad because I lived in the dorms. But I lost half of them due to a messy situation with my ex girlfriend, and the other half doesn't live in town anymore.

Now I'm 22, working on my Master's, and I feel like I have no one.