MATH 579: Teaching College Mathematics
Boise State University, Fall 2009

Homework


1) Write a short paper (but at least one page long) about the best teacher you've ever had. Then repeat for the worst teacher you've ever had. These papers should be in Word or LaTeX or some other common word processing format. Email your efforts to me at brill@math.boisestate.edu before class meets on 31 August.


2) Schedule for video-taping 10 minute lesson plans. 14, 21, and 28 September.

3) Assignments for preparing syllabi. due 11 September.

4) Classroom observation questions. These need to be submitted to me within 48 hours of the observation. When you submit these, be sure to make it clear who is observing and who is being observed.

5) Here is the list of MATH 143 instructors that you may observe. You need to observe at least one of them and email your responses to the "Classroom observation questions" above to me before class on 5 October.

6) Write a complete lesson plan (for a 50-minute class). The material for this lesson plan should include and extend the material that was your 10-minute presentation earlier in the semester. due 12 October.

7) Write a quiz covering the material that was in your lesson plan in 6) above. The quiz should take an average student 10 to 15 minutes to complete. due 26 October.

8) Write a test that includes the material that was in your lesson plan in 6) above. Clearly, this is not enough material for a *test*, so you should use other related material as well. Perhaps the best way to go about this is to obtain a precalculus book, and write a test that covers the *chapter* that includes the material of your lesson plan. The length of the test should be appropriate for a 50-minute class. due 9 November.

9) Write a course evaluation form that would be suitable for any Boise State mathematics course. The idea is that the students would complete such a form near the end of the semester. The form has two goals. The first is that administration should be able to review the forms and get some idea of the efficacy of the instructor. The second goal is that the individual instructor should be able to review the forms and get meaningful feedback about what he/she did well, what he/she did not so well, and how he/she can improve his/her performance in the future. due 16 November.

10) Please observe one more MATH 143 class. Parameters for this visit include



MATH 579 main page
Stephen Brill's home page

This page was most recently updated on 23 November 2009.
http://math.boisestate.edu/~brill/teaching/m579_f09/hw.html