Questions from Students

This is becoming a tradition for me. I pass a sheet around class and have students ask anything they want. Here are this quarter's questions:

1. Are you Jamaican?

I am not. I was born in Nigeria, my mother is from Ghana, and my father is an American. I consider myself more Ghanaian than anything.

2. How long have you had your hair in dreads?

I had dreads from 1995-2000. Then I cut my hair. In Summer 2003, I decided to grow them out again. I started locking them in early 2004, and have had them since then.

3. How hard are your tests?

I've never liked this question, because I think how difficult something is really dependent on the student. My tests are not impossible, and if you put in the time studying, they are reasonable. I like to think that my tests are fair.

4. How long do your tests take?

About 1 hour.

5. How long have you been teaching?

I've been at De Anza since 2001. I taught at Michigan State University for 3 years (1998-2001) as a grad student and also as a full-time instructor.

6. Where are you from?

See question 1.

7. Could an Indian looking dude grow his hair out like yours?

Yes. I've seen people of all ethnicities with dreadlocks.

8. Is it ok for EDC students to use that tutoring service instead of the MPS one?

Of course. I think you should use any and all resources that are available to you.

9. Are you flexible on assignments?

As far as grading them? I think I'm a reasonable grader. As far as turning them in on time? I'm not flexible about due dates.

10. What University did you go to?

I got a B.S. and M.A. from Michigan State University. I started a Ph. D. at UC Berkeley, but didn't like it, so I was only there for one semester.

11. What's the meaning of life?

Besides the number 42, the meaning of life is to live it.

12. Ever think about dressing in throwback jerseys?

I'm not really into jerseys. They have never been my thing.

13. When did you grow up?

When I became a teacher, and was held responsible for other people's grades.

14. Can you cook veggies on your grill?

Sadly, I do not have a grill.

15. Why are you so smart?

If I told you, I would have to kill you :)

16. Are you related to the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine?

I'm not related to Zack de la Rocha, but I think he's a pretty cool guy.

17. Where are your parents from?

See question 1. They currently live in the Baltimore, Maryland area.

18. Do you have extra credit assignments?

Not really. You can get extra credit by doing homework problems on the board and explaining them to the class.

19. Have you read Lonesome Dove?

I have not. I'm not much of a reader, unless it's short stories. The last book I finished was In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.

20. Why do people care so much about your hair?

I have have absolutely no idea.

21. How old are you?

I am 30.

22. Do you want to have kids?

Someday.

23. Can I come to your wedding?

Our wedding will be very small, but we are planning to have a big reception next summer. If you want to come to that, let me know.

24. Why did you choose to teach math?

It's a long story. I was really good at math, and chose the major because I didn't know what else to major in, and it came easy to me.

When I was finishing up my B.S., I seriously considered working in industry, as a consultant, and even got a job offer. I decided it was not what I wanted to do, but I didn't know what to do, so I went to grad school, in applied mathematics.

As part of my grad program, to get money, I had to teach a class. It was the scariest thing I had ever done, because I'm a really quiet person (I was voted the quietest person in my senior class, in high school). Anyhow, it scared me, and so I worked really hard at it, and lost a lot of sleep stressing about each day of class. I would wake up at 4 every morning, worried about what I was going to teach that day.

One day, a few weeks into the class, there was a stranger in the back of the room. This freaked me out. It turned out she was the instructor evaluator, who had to make sure people were doing their job correctly.

After class, she came up to me and said "Have you ever taught before?". I said no. She said, "Wow, you're a natural up there. You're an excellent teacher". That was it. I now knew what I wanted to do. I switched from applied math to math education, got my M.A., and became a math teacher. I still lose sleep thinking about classes once in a while, but I love what I do.

First Day of the Year

Today was my first day as a tenured faculty member at De Anza.

The day was uneventful, for the most part. I have a headache now, which is of no real surprise to me, as I've had headaches everyday for the past few days. I just need to get my sleeping and eating habits straightened out. School should do that for me.

I began the day by forgetting to bring the classroom key with me, and had to go back to my office to get it. This caused class to start about 10 minutes late.

It's almost weird to be teaching an MPS class, and not see the usual faces. No Lois and Amy in the front row; Jeff, Junior and Stephanie in the back. It felt a little odd, but I'm sure I will get to know, and like, the students I have this year.

I teach in the afternoons on Monday and Wednesday this quarter. I think I was spoiled by teaching Tuesday/Thursday afternoons last year. I eased into the week, by not having afternoon responsibilities on Monday. This quarter, Monday is....bam! Over 4 hours of teaching.

Lauren got back from Cape Town yesterday. There was a woman from South Africa who had been on the same flights she was on. We gave her a ride to the hotel where she would be staying. It was kind of cool, because I has been listening to This American Life, on Saturday, and the title of the show was The Kindness of Strangers. The woman was very thankful, but I didn't see it as being a big deal. She needed to get to Cupertino, we were going in that direction, makes sense to give her a ride, don't you think?

The end of the Summer

Tomorrow is my last day of "Summer". I have to go back to work, starting on Thursday. My "Summer" started in mid-August, so the 6 weeks of no teaching is finally coming to an end.

I don't really have much else to say on here right now. So....that's it.

Fall

I was reading someone's blog the other day, and they wrote about Fall. It hit me that I have not seen a real Fall in five years. People asked if I would miss the seasons by moving to the Bay Area (for the record, the Bay Area does have seasons). I always said no, and most of the time, I don't miss the seasons. I definitely do not miss Michigan winters.

I do miss Fall every once in a while. The leaves around here don't change quite the way they do on Charles Street, driving into and out of Baltimore. There is nothing around here that looks like Fall, standing on a bridge that goes over the Red Cedar River, on the MSU campus.

It has felt like Fall here over the past few days. Almost like a midwestern Fall. I was walking on campus yesterday, and there were dried pine leaves all over the place, and the wind was brisk. It was chilly. It felt like...I can't even describe it. I felt like I was in college again, on a mid September day in East Lansing, Michigan.

I've been walking around Mountain View quite a bit over the past few days, and I think that has added to the feeling, because, in college, I walked everywhere. I've been walking just to walk. I realize I walked about 3 miles today. I went to the Red Rock coffee house (they still don't have brown sugar - I requested it months ago), did some work, and then walked back home.

Before I left home, I wanted to take pictures looking outside. Something about the way the sun came into the apartment made me feel happy to be where I am right now, in life.

Multiply

I got a Muliply site a few weeks ago. I heard about it from Lauren's dad, who always seems to know about the latest cool web and technology stuff.

The thing I like about the site is, it lets you post pictures and video, as well as other stuff, like a blog. I've gone crazy with the video postings, posting videos of the only thing to film around here - Geordi.

If you're eager to see Geordi videos (and me scoring a cool goal in a soccer game), go to my Multiply site.

Precalculus, Gnarles, and Prejudice

I have been able to plan out my 49A class, in less than two weeks. I still have to do things like put together a syllabus and decide what order to do things in, but I went through all the chapters to be covered, and created class notes for all of them. Crazy!

Speaking of crazy, I'm listening to Gnarles Barkley right now. I didn't think I would like the CD, because their song Crazy drove me crazy, with the amount radio play it got over the summer. The rest of the CD, though, is not bad. I didn't buy it. I don't buy CDs. I go to the library, get what I want, and put it on itunes. I don't know why I'm reviewing a CD.

Speaking of reviewing things. I saw Pride and Prejudice a couple of weeks ago, and have been meaning to blog about it. It's, maybe, the most beautiful looking film I've ever seen. I was blown away by the look of the movie. I have to admit, I wasn't watching the movie for plot very seriously; several times I had to ask Lauren what was going on, and who was who. Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie and you're into the way movies look, see it!

Because I like to post pictures on here as much as possible, here is the veiw from the 6th floor of the King Library, in San Jose. I did some of my Precaluclus planning there.

Killing Time

So, when Lauren was in Indiana, I had a lot of stuff going on. I was teaching 4 days a week, soccer on Friday, and for some of that time the World Cup was going on.

This time around, I'm kind of bored. I still have soccer on Fridays (although our game was cancelled at the last minute today), and I'm taking a leadership class that meets for 4 hours on Tuesday evenings, but the days are rather dull.

I went to see Monster House yesterday, to kill time, and because I'm a geek who likes to see movies in 3D. It wasn't as good as I expected. It was alright, but nothing spectacular.

At least college football season starts this weekend. That's always a good way to kill time. I have to say, that's one of the things I miss about living in East Lansing. There was always a vibe, on the days leading up to a game. It was not just on the campus, but in the town. Out here, nobody seems to care about college athletics, which is kind of a shame.

Here's are arial shot of Spartan Stadium. I used to sit in the lower right of this picture, on the lower level.