This is definitely my favorite semester of teaching so far in my career.  I’ve been looking forward to it for a while because it’s the first semester I’m teaching only courses for our department majors (not courses for the general population).

I’m teaching 3 classes: Transitions to Advanced Mathematics (an intro-to-proofs course for math majors & minors), Algorithms (a required course for IT majors that also satisfies the programming requirement for math majors), and Database Management (for IT majors & minors).  I’m also meeting weekly with a student one-on-one for an independent study to explore a research question that I got interested in last fall based on a talk I saw at an AMS (American Mathematical Society) sectional meeting.

Each of the three classes is super fun and satisfying in its own way.  It’s also giving me more insight into myself and my own preferences and aspirations – what is fun for me and what I like about my current job.

The proofs course: I can feel myself not being as good at teaching it as the person who taught me intro to proofs (discrete math) when I was an undergrad.  So in the past week or so I’ve been really channeling that professor and trying to remember what it was like to write my first proof and what kind of feedback I needed to become a better mathematical writer.  The course is going to be a really fun learning experience for both me and the students.

The database course: Seriously, this class is so fun.  It is by far my favorite thing I’ve ever taught.  I felt that way last time, and I still feel that way this time.  (And I feel like I’m doing a much better job this time.  I have better flow from topic to topic.)  Computer classes require a lot more prep (than math classes) ahead of time on the part of the teacher if it’s going to be a good class.  Or that’s true at least when “the teacher” is me.  Some of that prep is tedious and annoying and difficult, but most of it is interesting and fun.

The algorithms course: This has been the most difficult course to design this semester.  I’m running it as a course with no prerequisites, even though most computer science programs require at least two semesters of programming fundamentals before a course on algorithms.  So, a lot of the textbooks (and other materials/resources available) are “too hard” for the types of students I have in the class.  Not because they’re bad students or unintelligent students, but because the books are written for students with 1 or more full years of experience in computer science and I’m mostly teaching students with zero years of computer science.  So they just don’t have the background/preparation/experience needed to comprehend these books.  It’s like handing Chaucer to a kindergartner. Well, it’s less extreme than that example, but somewhere on the same spectrum as that analogy.  And the math abilities of the students in that course are all over the place.  I have everything from senior math majors to students who haven’t taken any math past high school Algebra II, and that was 10+ years ago.  It’s tough to come up with assignments that engage the students with more experience without unfairly alienating the beginners.  I thought I’d totally failed at that balance on the first homework assignment I gave them, but I was very impressed with their work on that assignment (which has already been turned in and graded).

What I’m learning this semester is that I really like teaching computer classes.  They’re way more work than math classes, but that work is more fun for me.  If I ever had to leave my current job, I would look for a new job that included partly or completely teaching computer classes.  If I ever ended up teaching in a proper computer science program (which is not the case at my current school), it might even still involve all the fun math bits I like.  (In my current department, we have two majors: math and information technology.  IT involves all the computing parts of CS without any of the math parts of CS.  But that’s okay because here I also get to teach math classes.)

That’s not to say I don’t still love math.  Teaching intro to proofs is fun, and I’m sure teaching linear algebra and abstract algebra and maybe even intro to real analysis are all fun too (although I can’t speak from experience on those).  And the calculus sequence can be fun – successfully tackling Calc 2 integrals is satisfying, and Calc 1 & 3 have lots of fun geometry and pictures.  And I don’t think I’m “too good” to teach College Algebra or Intro Stats or any other non-STEM major courses.  Those courses can be fun.  And those courses are WAY less time consuming for me, because the material itself is so easy, and I already know how to teach it well.

Also, all my current research interests are in math.  It’s what I went to grad school for, and it’s the only research community I know.  I wouldn’t even know where to start on a research question in a computing field – I can’t even name you a single possible research question (solved or unsolved) in a computing field.  So I can’t leave math entirely.

But this semester I’m learning something new about myself – that I can’t ever leave computing again entirely either.  I double majored in math & CS as an undergraduate and loved it.  Then I went to grad school in math and didn’t write a single line of code (or even pseudocode!) for several years.  Then I got a little programming involved in my math research and I realized how much I missed it.  Then when I got this job, I relearned a lot of stuff, and learned a lot of new stuff (especially about Linux and system security/administration), and started teaching some of that stuff to students.  It’s just now sinking in how much this is a part of me, and it’s a part I don’t ever want to completely cut out again.