Tuesday, January 12, 2010

sometimes you find the answer, in the morning.

maybe it would have been better, had i elected to teach .. [winces] .. earlier in the mornings.

i recall one semester, years ago, when i taught a calculu∫ ii "lecture" at 8:30am. [1]

there were even days when i woke up at 6:30, went to amers (because they were the only place open), drank coffee, wrote my lesson plan, and went off to teach.

by 10am i was drinking coffee again. soon after that, i would leave the whole day to research .. which amounted to chasing a lot of my own bad ideas.

there were some days when it was hard to start on anything -- teaching is tiring -- but for the most part, it wasn't terrible.

i wouldn't mind those same large stretches of time again. i might even be productive, during those times!

as for this term, my first lecture is at noon. there never seems much time to do any good thinking.

maybe i should just .. [winces] .. wake up earlier. \-:


[1] at the time i was teaching under the harνard/refοrmed calculus system, which emphasizes group learning and de-emphasizes lectures.

i wasn't a model lecturer, though. sometimes none of the students seemed to get a certain concept; subsequently i'd give a short lecture/example, then put the (reluctant) students back to their groups.

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