A rather significant milestone with this program. I've now achieved 1 credit out of 4. For those interested, the MMT description can be found here:
It is an online masters degree in math for teachers, however, don't let that name mislead you. The program is not designed for teaching pedagogy, and I knew it from the outset. Rather, the focus is on mathematical content. The courses have been specifically picked for high school teachers. That is, if we can master the content at the level of the program, then it helps greatly in the lower-level content that we teach the students in class, by leading to a deeper understanding.
So far the courses I've taken have been: Mathematical Software, Proofs, and Calculus Foundations. The last one is more like a course in mathematical analysis, despite the name "calculus" which is a bit misleading. I'm going to set aside some time during summer and re-learn the material in the last two courses. I got the marks OK enough, but the content has been very difficult to grasp, as pure math and theory is not my strong point. However, it's important to learn, so I'm going to take the time and do it.
Next up on deck is the History of Mathematics course which promises to be interesting. After that it's mathematical modeling, more theory, then the much-awaited finance course, which will probably be the highlight of the whole program. I'd also like to take a stab at probability, number theory, and geometry.
If all goes well then I'm done this program in June 2014. It's a steady slog, but 2.5 years seems to be a reasonable time frame to complete a masters online while not compromising work. That's an important date for other reasons as well, when I'll most likely quit BC offshore school teaching and do a career change.
The price of this program is very reasonable. I've been paying out slightly more than $950 per half-credit, so it's probably going to cost just short of $8000 in total.
Those people who go home to Canada, stop working, and take physical masters degrees on campus are throwing money down the drain in more ways than one. Not only is the cost much more for actually showing up on campus to do a degree, the lost opportunity to work is what really eats away the cash, given the higher living costs in a western country.
However, doing a masters and working at the same time is quite brutal to be frank. I'm enjoying this 3-week slack time until the next course kicks off in May.
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