Teaching Math

This is a talk I gave a while back about teaching math as a career.

Transcript

1. Teaching Math as a Career Michael Butros Mathematics Instructor Victor Valley College
2. Educational Background: • Associate of Science from Victor Valley College, in Math and Science, June 1991. • Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Irvine, in Mathematics, June 1994. • Master of Science from Northern Arizona University, in Mathematics, August 2000.
3. Teaching Experience: • Tutor at VVC, 1/1989 - 6/1991. • Tutor at UCI, 1/1992 - 8/1994. • Tutor at ASU, 1/1995 - 6/1997. • Tutor at PVCC, 1/1995 - 6/1997. • Assistant Director of the Math/Science Center, Scottsdale CC, 1/1995 - 1997. • GTA at NAU, 8/1997 - 8/2000. • Instructor at VVC, 8/2000 - Present.
4. Why I Choose Teaching Math: • Love of the subject. • Teaching presents challenges. • THE FACT THAT AS LONG AS I AM A TEACHER, I HAVE TO CONTINUE TO BE A STUDENT. • The emotional rewards. • The financial rewards.
5. Challenges in Teaching Math: • Helping some students overcome their fear of math. • Teaching in a diverse classroom. • Accommodating different learning styles. • Use of technology. • Distance learning. • Knowing the level of your students.
6. Methods: • HAVE FUN. • Create a comfortable learning environment. • Incorporate the word “WHY” in your lectures. • Be able to explain the same concept in as many ways as you can. • Use technology when appropriate.
7. Example 1: A picture is worth a thousand words. k xk x • The graphs of x raised to a power ranging from 1 to 20. ! • Xk, k=1..20.
8. Example 2: The relation between numbers and fractals. • The Sierpinski Triangle can be used to show the how Pascal’s triangle can lead to this fractal.
9. Example 2 (continued): • These are the first thirteen rows of Pascal’s triangle
10. Example 2 (continued): • The Sierpinski triangle can be obtained from Pascal’s triangle by shading the odd numbers in the triangle.
11. Example 3: More Pascal Triangle • Add the diagonals to get the famous Fibonacci sequence.
12. Example 4: Calculus • The following program calculates an approximation for the area under the curve of some function using the right-box sum.
13. Example 4: (Continued) • This is another approximation for the same function with higher degree of accuracy.
14. Example 5: A little more advanced graph. • The Mandelbrot Set: one of the reasons math and art are believed to be connected.
15. Methods (continued): • Relate old material with new material. • The importance of word problems. • Discuss success strategies: – Note taking . – Time management techniques. – Exam preparation/taking tips.
16. Lee Iacocca: • “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.”