Getting Back on Track: A Blog Re-Launch!

I've been reading quite a few different educational blogs (and Twitter accounts) lately which have all served to motivate me into re-launching my own educational blog.  So, here goes:

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Since I'm starting from scratch (though I won't be deleting any of the previous drivel that I published), I should first introduce myself.

I'm a 30 something (ok, 30 exactly) math professor at a liberal arts college who doesn't have a Ph.D. (and after taking graduate math classes at two different schools, I no longer want a Ph.D.).  The only downside to the extra letters that aren't on the end of my name is that college teaching positions are tenuous at best.

Over the last seven years, I have taught a variety of courses at three different institutions including:

• Pre-Algebra
• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• PreCalculus
• Calculus I
• Calculus II (scheduled to teach in spring 2014)
• Combinatorics
• Intro. to Statistics
• Mathematics of Games & Gambling

It's an eclectic group of courses, but most of them were a lot of fun to teach.  I'd also like to think they were fun for the students, though I in some cases I have my doubts.

It's those doubts that are impetus for this particular blog.  My Fall 2013 schedule looks something like this:

• Calculus I (two sections plus two labs)
• Mathematics of Games & Gambling

It is my goal to make my three courses as fun for the students AND as rigorous as possible.  Can those two ideas coexist?  Well, sure, I believe they can or else I wouldn't be attempting it!

As the summer progresses, I hope to start posting some of my course ideas.  Eventually, I hope to have a vibrant blog following where ideas get bounced back and forth (and by all means, feel free to disagree with me).  Until then, I'll blog like no one's reading.*

*not hard to do when no one is actually reading