Math 592: Tentative Syllabus

John Baldwin

417 SEO; 413-2149

jbaldwin@math.uic.edu

Class meets 4-7:30 Tuesdays in 304 Taft (or across the hall until they fix the airconditioning)

Preliminary Syllabus:

Requirements:

Grade will be based on performance on these assignments.

Tentative course outline:

Various teaching strategies will be modeled and discussed throughout the course. I expect to modify assignments as we see what problems show up in Math 121. I will be visiting your classes frequently.

week 0: calculator familiarity; analysis of syllabus of math 121; what are the topics and why? Assign diary.

week 1: More on calculator, arc length and trigonometry.

week 2: discuss first weeks experience; turn in diary, philosophy of quizzes. What are t.a. responsibilities?

week 3: Proportional reasoning; reading from Arons, the slope of a line and trigonometry. Discussion of first set of observations

week 4: Know your students: contrasting American and other educational systems

week 5: reading assignment: Atlas in the classroom. discussion of reading assignment group work on precalc activity.

week 6: The four fold way; How should one use the calculator; discussion of second set of observations

week 7: Designing tests: with and without calculators/computers; high school and university conceptions of the notion of function.

week 8: intro to maple (go to lab; do first day of a 210 assignment e.g.) analyze results

week 9: first draft of teaching philosophy statement; talk from someone at 4 year school

week 10: reading from Krantz;

week 11: reading from Halmos? - the reform calculus controversy; discussion of third set of observations.

week 12: Article on effect of different representations of mathematics. second draft of philosophy statement

week 13: techniques of classroom management: lecture, small group work, discussion, activities. What are value of each; what must you do differently in different situations.

week 14: reading from NCTM standards (AMTYC?) compare and contrast

week 15: Summary; evaluation of course.