This semester, Brokk Toggerson has been nominated for the UMass distinguished teaching award for the second year in a row. The distinguished teaching award is only awarded to one faculty member each year, can only be won once in a lifetime, and is the only teaching award at UMass for which students are the only possible nominators. Heath Hatch, another of the P131 team, has already won this award.
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Personnel Leadership – It is a thing!
As we wrap up another semester, I am, as is usual for this time of year, thinking about what went wrong and what went right this past semester. I will say that a lot of things have gone very well this semester. My students have exceeded my expectations which is a great feeling. I have even checked with colleagues to see that my expectations have not been slowly changing to “easier” over time. Now, if I could just figure out what we did right so we could replicate it…
One thing that continues to be at the forefront of teaching in a class of 6 sections, 3 instructors, 16 graduate-student TAs, 2 undergraduate graders, 1 undergraduate Supplemental Instruction leader, and 2 undergraduate ExSEL program tutors is keeping everyone on the same page and focused on the same goal – all while not micromanaging.
Something to think about: Aspects of learning physics
One of the reasons that I love this work is that I am continually learning. My students are always forcing me to thing about physics more deeply and in new ways. In the past few weeks, I have come to a new way of articulating what all I am expecting my students to learn in my class. I do not claim that these ideas are in any way new; I am simply articulating these ideas for myself. In this paradigm, there are at least three aspects of learning physics:
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Funds for AAPT SM18 and Presenting to UMass Faculty Senate on OER
The UMass College of Natural Sciences has setup a fund for the professional development of lecturer’s within the college. I plan to use these funds to present our work on self-efficacy at AAPT SM18. These funds mean that we will be able help support Jake to also attend to AAPT SM18 and talk about the graduate TA training course.
In addition, I also presented to the UMass faculty senate today on OER given our work on the P131 textbook. There seemed to be some positive feedback from the other faculty. I hope that other faculty on campus take up this charge. OER are something that we can do as faculty to help control costs for students and make materials that are perfectly designed for our courses.
Book finished!
A version of the book is ready to go for this coming semester and can be seen at UMass Phys 131 Textbook. Feedback on the book can be given at https://goo.gl/forms/AuAmDVXFuOruHJnc2. We are really excited to use this book for the first time this coming semester! We think that continuous nature of the students’ readings will make it easier for students to navigate and know what they need to read.