January to April. I taught a full fledged course at IITB for the first time . It was a PG elective. I taught Complexity Theory. There are many many aspects of my teaching experience that I will like to talk about. But before I start on that, let me say that I was extremely lucky to get some very motivated and hard-working students the first time I taught. I was asking them to regularly scribe notes and they have done a great job. I am yet to make a pass on many of these scribe notes. I'll put up the notes as soon as I make at least one pass.
Teaching was very very time consuming. The experienced people told me that this will be so for the first few years. (Years? Really?) In the beginning I took almost 8-9 hours to prepare one lecture. Also, first 15-16 lectures were basic complexity. Here I knew the material, but I spent most of my time preparing how I should present the material. While for the last 7-8 lectures I taught a few things I had never explained to anyone before. Here, I spent most of my time reading the material. As a result, the presentations were not up to the mark. Creating assignments, quizes, exams also took a lot of my time. In the entire semester I didn't get much work done. So I guess I have driven the point home. It really was time consuming.
It was a pleasant experience. Every time after the class I came back feeling happy that I am getting to do what I really like, i.e. teach. Again the experienced people told me that this was pleasant only because my class consisted of motivated students. And I will really know whether I "love" teaching or not once I teach a class of 89 where half the students don't even wish to know whatever I blabber about. I agree that this may be true. Only time and teaching a UG core course may bring me down from my ivory tower!
Speaking of ivory towers and academicians residing happily in them: I have spent a good portion of my semester thinking about this. Is this right, is this wrong? Of course, given my overall nature, I haven't decidedly tagged it as either right or wrong. The most generous answer for me would be, it is my choice what I work on. It is my prerogative and my research interest is my personal matter. The most critical view would be: I blame myself for getting what and how much I possess because I have a job and a house to stay in, all the facilities an ordinary person cannot afford, and so on and so forth. Again, as per my usual attitude of not going to any extreme, my view on this is a weighted sum of these two extremes. I have concluded that there is no doubt that I am in an ivory tower. I pay taxes as a very minimal pay back to the society. Is there anything else I should do? "Should" is a strong word. But is there anything that I will like to do? The answer is yes. In what form? The answer is under processing. The first few thoughts are: by teaching better in IIT. It is a way to serve the society to bring up well groomed students. And then may be requesting my engineering college (Sardar Patel college of engineering) to allow me to teach there a subject every other semester. Do I need to change how I do my research in order to serve the society? The answer is: I should be vigilant to see whether a problem can be solved with my skills and that helps the society in some way. But generally not be bogged down by this as a primary concern. Do what you like and do it well, and it will surely help someone outside of you. (Ahem! Why so serious, son?) Believe it or not, I have thought a lot, A LOT, about this for the whole semester. It is nice to see that finally my thoughts have crystallised. (This may have seemed like a diversion from the topic, but finally all my answers have come down to a single answer: "teaching" and so I say that this is not a diversion.)
Finally I will like to talk about some mess ups while teaching and lessons I learned for the next time. Here again I will like to thank my students for being tolerant. (I may be speaking too soon. I am yet to receive my feedback forms. Who knows how brutal they have been in accessing me formally! .. :)) There were a few proofs I messed up real bad. The good thing about teaching a course, as opposed to giving a talk, is that you always get another chance. You get the next lecture to undo your mistakes. The mess ups were mainly because there were times during the semester when some other issues cropped up and I could not give enough time to preparing. Some other times, they were because of Toda's proof :) (For those who don't know this, it is one proof which I still don't understand very well and feel I should teach even the next time.) The lessons I learned are: make full notes of the lecture before you go in for teaching. (Of course, this is only for myself. If you manage it without this, then this doesn't apply to you.) For the sake of the students, chalk out the entire course map (even to the final deadly gory details) well before the course begins. Be ready to accept your mistakes while teaching. I really like one quote I read in one of the comments left on R J Lipton's blog which fits exactly in this context:
On this note, I will take your leave. More later.
Teaching was very very time consuming. The experienced people told me that this will be so for the first few years. (Years? Really?) In the beginning I took almost 8-9 hours to prepare one lecture. Also, first 15-16 lectures were basic complexity. Here I knew the material, but I spent most of my time preparing how I should present the material. While for the last 7-8 lectures I taught a few things I had never explained to anyone before. Here, I spent most of my time reading the material. As a result, the presentations were not up to the mark. Creating assignments, quizes, exams also took a lot of my time. In the entire semester I didn't get much work done. So I guess I have driven the point home. It really was time consuming.
It was a pleasant experience. Every time after the class I came back feeling happy that I am getting to do what I really like, i.e. teach. Again the experienced people told me that this was pleasant only because my class consisted of motivated students. And I will really know whether I "love" teaching or not once I teach a class of 89 where half the students don't even wish to know whatever I blabber about. I agree that this may be true. Only time and teaching a UG core course may bring me down from my ivory tower!
Speaking of ivory towers and academicians residing happily in them: I have spent a good portion of my semester thinking about this. Is this right, is this wrong? Of course, given my overall nature, I haven't decidedly tagged it as either right or wrong. The most generous answer for me would be, it is my choice what I work on. It is my prerogative and my research interest is my personal matter. The most critical view would be: I blame myself for getting what and how much I possess because I have a job and a house to stay in, all the facilities an ordinary person cannot afford, and so on and so forth. Again, as per my usual attitude of not going to any extreme, my view on this is a weighted sum of these two extremes. I have concluded that there is no doubt that I am in an ivory tower. I pay taxes as a very minimal pay back to the society. Is there anything else I should do? "Should" is a strong word. But is there anything that I will like to do? The answer is yes. In what form? The answer is under processing. The first few thoughts are: by teaching better in IIT. It is a way to serve the society to bring up well groomed students. And then may be requesting my engineering college (Sardar Patel college of engineering) to allow me to teach there a subject every other semester. Do I need to change how I do my research in order to serve the society? The answer is: I should be vigilant to see whether a problem can be solved with my skills and that helps the society in some way. But generally not be bogged down by this as a primary concern. Do what you like and do it well, and it will surely help someone outside of you. (Ahem! Why so serious, son?) Believe it or not, I have thought a lot, A LOT, about this for the whole semester. It is nice to see that finally my thoughts have crystallised. (This may have seemed like a diversion from the topic, but finally all my answers have come down to a single answer: "teaching" and so I say that this is not a diversion.)
Finally I will like to talk about some mess ups while teaching and lessons I learned for the next time. Here again I will like to thank my students for being tolerant. (I may be speaking too soon. I am yet to receive my feedback forms. Who knows how brutal they have been in accessing me formally! .. :)) There were a few proofs I messed up real bad. The good thing about teaching a course, as opposed to giving a talk, is that you always get another chance. You get the next lecture to undo your mistakes. The mess ups were mainly because there were times during the semester when some other issues cropped up and I could not give enough time to preparing. Some other times, they were because of Toda's proof :) (For those who don't know this, it is one proof which I still don't understand very well and feel I should teach even the next time.) The lessons I learned are: make full notes of the lecture before you go in for teaching. (Of course, this is only for myself. If you manage it without this, then this doesn't apply to you.) For the sake of the students, chalk out the entire course map (even to the final deadly gory details) well before the course begins. Be ready to accept your mistakes while teaching. I really like one quote I read in one of the comments left on R J Lipton's blog which fits exactly in this context:
One of the big misapprehensions about mathematics that we perpetrate
in our classrooms is that the teacher always seems to know the answer to
any problem that is discussed. This gives students the idea that there
is a book somewhere with all the right answers to all of the interesting
questions, and that teachers know those answers. And if one could get
hold of the book, one would have everything settled. That’s so unlike the
true nature of mathematics.
— Leon Henkin
On this note, I will take your leave. More later.
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