0.5 Credits Down, 3.5 To Go!

Today's weather:  High = 9  Low = 1
Sunny
 

At this point, it's not entirely certain if I actually passed the second 0.25 credit course for my online masters degree, but it's highly likely that I did.  Calculations showed I needed to get 45% on the final written assignment to pass, which I'm confident I did, but will know for sure this weekend.

 

Even so, this latest course 'mathematical proofs' was by far the hardest one.  Conversations with other colleauges who have done this same course showed they also found it tough.   Through a celebration dinner last night I learned a lot more about the course, and the fact that one needs 4 credits to graduate.

Most of the online courses are 0.5 credits which last a little longer than 3 months, and can be taken in any of the three semesters  (Jan-Apr,   May – Aug, or Sep to Dec).   There are a few "half courses" that count for 0.25 credits, such as the two that I just completed.   Software, and proofs.

 

As tough as it's been so far, the discouraging part is that I'm only 1/8 of the way through the program.  It doesn't take a math major to figure that if I keep up this pace, it will take up to 4 years to complete the degree.   This is way off my original prediction of two years,  which in hindsight, I have no idea where that number came from.  It could have come from people who actually quit their jobs and did a masters full time, which, traditionally, does take two years.    Or potentially from colleagues who are doing "ed masters" or education degrees while working also, often in two years.

 

Regardless, it is going to be a long slog to get this degree, and I will have to revise my earlier plans.   I'm no doubt going to stick it out, as this particular type of masters is right up my alley.  In response to others' inquiries, I have no desire to do an "ed masters" as frankly, I consider it to be fluff and a waste of time and money.   The one that was offered by Maple Leaf, for example, in ESL pedagogy, sounds nice in theory but you can learn all that stuff on the job.

 

The advantage of the current masters I'm doing  (MMT:   masters of math for teachers)  is that it's online and also project-based.  But the disadvantage is that it's a ton of work.  Based on the time commitment involved, a lot more work than other masters programs.   People often ask me whether this has anything to do with teaching, as there is hard core math content involved and not a lot of pedagogy. 

 

As mentioned above, actual teaching is learned on the job, not with a masters course.  The idea with the MMT is to increase the teacher's content knowledge of common high school math topics.  For example, we learn in-depth calculus proofs while the students don't, but knowing the proofs helps to get a deeper understanding of the material which helps for teaching it.