I think this statement sums up my teaching philosophy as a whole, mostly because it is so difficult to even seem engaging to a group of students when your sole responsibility is to do homework problems on the board. Last Thursday, I was so tired by the time recitation came around that I felt like I was going through the motions, as it were. The thing is, I like the solutions to the assigned problems that I draw up for class, and I think that they're interesting and enlightening and helpful to undergraduates who want to learn how to do these problems efficiently while getting a wild grasp of these introductory physical concepts.
Taking a similar course as the one I'm teaching as a senior in high school was what got me excited to be a physics major in the first place...even though it was mostly due to the fact that I rocked that class's face off. I guess I had the false impression early on that the study of physics is extremely easy. And that misunderstanding was exacerbated by the fact that the first two years of undergraduate physics is really easy as well.
The frowny and pouty version of myself must be extremely boring to listen to, that pretty much sums up how Thursday afternoon recitation went last week. I forced a couple smiles though for those that braved the torture of sitting through an hour long review for next week's exam after having suffered through an hour of extremely boring recitation with me.
2. Yelling and standing in the bleachers during the course of an Aggie football game will leave you feeling wilted, spent, and strangely fulfilled. Yelling, "Whoop!" feels so good as it leaves your throat, and it's good for your soul too.
If this sounds like good sex to you (well, people yelling "Whoop!" in bed seems rather disturbing), maybe it's because there is a similarity.
3. Completing problem sets for graduate level quantum mechanics is a labor of love. The moment when a wave of realization hits you as to the nature of a problem's solution is very intellectually gratifying. Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between.
4. "Can lay in your bed all day? I'll be your best keep secret and your biggest mistake..." -- Fall Out Boy
5. I miss being caught out in the rain on Main St. and candlelit dinners at Hobnob.
6. "Don't pet me, I am working."
There was a seeing-eye dog in church this morning. Reading that tag on him made me think up some morbid thought involving hapless twits petting seeing-eye dogs and horrible things happening to the person they are assisting as a result. It also made me consider my own inabilities at multi-tasking and that my own attention span must not be all that much greater than that of a dog's.
That dog is so cool.
7. "Get off your knees ump, you're blowing the game!!" -- random Red Sox fan in the movie Fever Pitch
This is definitely one of the greatest epithets concerning baseball umps that I have heard in a long time.
I thought this movie was pretty good. It's based on a Nick Hornby novel (of High Fidelty and About a Boy fame). I keep seeing his movies but haven't read a single one of his books. Maybe I should get on that.
8. Cleveland Indians: 3.5 games back of the White Sox in the Central Division, .5 game up on the Yankees in the Wild Card race. I'm watching the game on mlb.tv, and they're beating the Royals by 2 after 4 innings of play.
9. I rub my baby blue koala bracelet between my thumb and index finger for good luck.
10. Grading lab reports is tedious... Especially when you really don't have any scoring rubric so to speak of and are grading reports based on how warm and fuzzy they make you feel after you are done reading.
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