Today's weather: High = 21 Low = 17
Drizzle
This past summer I got accepted into an online project-based masters program called MMT which is Masters of Mathematics for Teachers. It is offered by the University of Waterloo back in Canada and has just started last year. The program, I must say, is *top notch* so far and my experience has been the same as several math teacher colleagus from other offshore schools in China who are also doing this (Dalian and Wuhan)
I came across this program while perusing the Waterloo website for solutions to the annual math contests that we run at our school. At the time I figured, what the heck, this program looks realy cool, let's check it out. This was also encouraged last year while meeting Waterloo reps who made the trip all the way to Shangers to do math workshops for the students at our school. To make a long story short I applied and got the references in. I originally wanted to do the program starting last January term but it was too rushed, and so opting for a September start was a much wiser choice.
For others interested in the program, point your browsers here:
A list of the courses can be found here
Here is what I like most about the program, from the outset:
"The MMT is designed to provide current and aspiring teachers of mathematics with the opportunity to expand their knowledge base. In addition to providing a deeper understanding of mathematical foundations relating to core secondary school curricula, students will also be exposed to significant areas of applications of modern mathematics. The primary focus of the program is on mathematics and its applications rather than on pedagogy, but it will also challenge its students to look for new and innovative ways in which they can bring their newfound knowledge into the classroom."
Maple Leaf at Dalian and Wuhan was offering a masters in pedagogy which I turned down, opting to wait things out until a better alternative came forward ... such as the MMT!
At the time, teachers in Dalian and Wuhan campuses were lunging for the masters for the sake of a masters, but I wasn't about to jump on this bandwagon for the simple fact that I already took courses in pedagogy and ESL teaching strategies. Big woopie ding, it says "masters degree" but that title is meaningless unless the courses are of relevance. For me, this math masters is right up my alley as it focuses on the content knowledge, and in a sense, brings me back to university to complete the math gap that I missed out on.
Right now I'm workng on the computer software course. It's a lot of work, as I'm essentially doing computer programming, but the online courses are very well organized. It takes about 1-2 hours of extra work per day but you'd be amazed at how easy it is to carve out that time. It's really a simple matter of coming home from school and doing masters work instead of vegging out on the couch and watching 5 kuai DVDs.
Since this is a project-based masters there is no need to write a thesis, unlike my Dalian and Wuhan counter-parts who did the pedagogy masters. Suckers. The timeframe is 2-3 years to complete this masters, which is very likely. If all goes well I'll be done in 2 years then ready to take some time off and ride a bicycle around the world.
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