"In graduate classes you can just give the students the book and the homework and let them teach each other. I wish I could get my undergrads to do that."I did something right today! I've been having issues understanding random processes, and with the math for my coherence class in general. On Monday I took a shot at the homework and got maybe two thirds of it shakily done. So this morning I got out the textbook (a textbook! What luxury!) and highlighted enough of the chapter we're covering that you'd think they just screwed up and used yellow paper. This afternoon I took my homework (which I considered a draft, fully intending to rewrite it later) and my copy of the coherence theory yellow pages to office hours to talk about what was going on. It turned out not to be as bad as I thought.
I'd solved one problem with a backwards method, which I fixed. I clarified the difference between time-average and ensemble average. I listened to a discussion of the one problem I hadn't done yet (the problem statement had a piece of information I didn't understand, and the solution turned out to hinge on it). Then I kicked the shit out of a problem I thought I'd done wrong. I wound up giving a mini-lecture on how I interpreted the Poisson distribution to apply and translated an ensemble average into something that makes physical sense. Then we got to the part where I thought I was wrong, and it turned out to be a sign error. Damn, I'm good.
Then I wrote up this little story for a class I'm in on college teaching, and related it to the readings for this week. In this class, since they are so big on active learning, they love it when you relate the readings to your own experiences. I have been thinking - other disciplines expect students to read before coming to class. Engineers give lectures that are basically what the students would be reading if they were reading before class. Why don't we require them to do the reading, and then just have discussions of example problems during class time? We could directly discuss the thinking process of problem solving. We could still lecture about concepts that need clarification, but we wouldn't have to lecture about everything. Maybe we are concerned that the homework plus the reading will take too much time, but: (a) people in other disciplines already do it, and (b) if we teach this way the homework will be easier because they'll have practiced. I am serious, folks. I am going to try this.
The Elements of StyleI think I'm going to change my haircut. I've had the same "long in front, short in back" style for a few years now, I think. I love it, but it's got a few problems. First, it takes time to make the hair stand up in the back, and I am very busy this semester. Yes, I am seriously considering sacrificing style for an extra 10 minutes in the morning. Very, very busy. Second, it's winter, and if I have a hairstyle that depends so heavily on standing up for its stylishness, hats are right out, and hoods are contraindicated except in extreme circumstances.
I fondly refer to my current haircut as a reverse mullet. It's cooler than that makes it sound, though, because it has a lot of razory spikiness built in. I hope to maintain the razor coolness, but move closer to a short-all-over strategy so I have an easier time wearing it. Maybe when I have fewer classes I'll grow out the front again. Why does anyone ever grow out the back of their hair? If anyone knows, please explain.
We got to carry each other, carry each otherJack has been playing the same "best of U2" CD in for the past few weeks of jiujitsu. In each class we hear it at least three times. That makes six times per week. If I assume it's been going on for three weeks (I suspect it's more, but I am rounding down), that's 18 times in a row that we've heard the same CD. I like U2 too, but damn. Maybe I ought to bring Jack a mix. He'd probably be into some of that Brazilian stuff all the cool kids like. But would it be weird to Paulo, suddenly hearing a bunch of what are basically golden oldies to him?