Thursday, December 31, 2009

names and faces.

i think i will bring my digital camera to the first lecture of my intro to theοry of 1-vari calculu∫ course. it's actually a habit i miss from my grad student instructor days.

i'm not going to make this a new year's resolution, but here's my rhetoric:

if these students think it worthwhile to learn a little analysis,
then i think it worthwhile to learn their names & faces.

on a related note, i feel like i don't know anyone in my department. in my previous maths department as a grad student, there were arrays of photos of names and faces --

in the lobby, profs and postdocs,
in the common room, grad students,

-- and it was easy to meet others. then again, maybe it was a mιchigan thing; i've heard that it's a particularly friendly, social department.

[shrugs]
anyways, onnellista uutta vuotta, everyone!

2 comments:

Leonid said...

WashU and SU have such photos on display (profs, including postdocs, and grads). A&M kind of does (profs only), but it was never updated while I was there.

Is the intro-analysis class so large that you need a camera?

Anyway, Happy 2010!

janus said...

it's not a matter of class size as much as a matter of learning their names effectively. with photos, i can make a photo album. from it, in 1-2 days i have the names committed to memory ..

.. but woe to the students that join the class late .. \-: