The online masters degree program from the university of Waterloo is going alright, but I seriously lack the motivation on weekends to do the course assignments. Apparently I'm not the only one. Colleagues from Sino Canada school are also working on this program (math masters for teachers) as well as from Dalian Maple Leaf. We've formed an ad-hoc collaboration group but none of us are enthusiastic about the ongoing bugaboo of written assignments. This latest course on calculus foundations is interesting, but we've been saddled with a proof-happy professor. It is bringing back nightmares from the last course on proofs, and making me loathe mathematical proofs even more than before I started this program.
No wonder students hate proofs, if the teachers feel the same way. That's why my plan is to get those courses over with first and leave more of the applied stuff towards the end of the program.
The simple fact of the matter is that we all have other things to do right now, and proving theorems is not one of them. Needless to say, the coursework has to be done. This weekend, I hate to say it, has been shot to hell. Things will get better in a week's time once it has been submitted. The last time this happened was during my Thailand cycling vacation when a previous written assignment had to get handed in.
No comments:
Post a Comment