Schedules

[stoutfellow]

My department's tentative class schedule for academic year 2005-06 just came out.

Every year, in early fall, the department circulates a class list, and asks us for our preferences. This year, procrastinator that I am, I neglected to submit my preferences. Nonetheless, things worked out well enough.

Of course, the really interesting classes to teach are the upper-level ones. But departmental funding depends on SCHs (student credit hours), and so the service courses - general education, and widely needed courses like calculus - are really our bread and butter. Everyone has to teach at least one calculus course per year (and they're usually multi-section courses, so the SCHs can pile up). So, here's what I wound up with.

1) Stat 107: Introduction to Statistical Methods. This is a general education class, and a tough one to teach. Almost every undergraduate has to take it, and most of them resent it. I'd rather teach this than College Algebra, though.

2) Math 152: Calculus II. I've taught this pretty much every year for the past several (although I'm teaching Calc I this term, just for a change of pace).

3) Math 400: Development of Modern Mathematics. This is one of my favorite classes to teach. It was in abeyance - in the catalog, but never taught - for quite a few years until I volunteered to restart it, and it's become quite popular, especially with our large population of high school teachers. The department finally decided to move it from the summer schedule into the regular year, which means I'll have fifteen weeks to teach it instead of eight. (The contact hours are about the same, but the pacing should be a lot better.)

4) Math 435: Foundations for Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry. I'm teaching this right now; I talked about it, a little, in an earlier post. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

5) Math 437: Differential Geometry. I taught this one last spring, and - frankly - didn't do that good a job. Part of that was inexperience; it was my first time teaching that course. I'm not very happy with the current textbook, too, but it'll be a year or two before it can be changed. There's also a problem with the prerequisites. Right now, the only prerequisite is Calc III - multivariable calculus - which is, certainly, needed for this course, but it would help if students also took elementary linear algebra, or at the very least a course in matrix theory. I've talked to the Chair about changing the prerequisites, but there's quite a bit of paperwork involved and it'll be a while before that can be implemented. Still, I'm looking forward to teaching it again; I hope I can avoid the mistakes I made last time without coming up with too many new ones...

Overall, it looks pretty good, I think.

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you've got a decent mix of fun and less fun courses. Lower level required courses don't really inspire enthusiasm among anyone, do they. How are textbooks picked?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

We select textbooks on a three-year cycle; once picked, it's locked in. When the time comes, the Chair appoints a committee of three or four faculty members who've taught the course recently or are otherwise interested, and they look over possible texts. Unfortunately, the text for 437 was chosen just last year, so it'll be a while before we can change. (We could ask to make an emergency change, but the administration frowns on that...)