Ew.  Blogger has me using the “new interface.”  I do not like it.  I’ve been using the old interface for YEARS now, so I’m pretty resistant to change.  Also, the new-post page that I’m typing in right now is really bare and it’s creeping me out.  My screen is a big white & light gray box of nothing.

Oh well, I guess that means I just have to fill it with words or something.

I guess the big news I have is that I passed the qualifying exam I took last month!  I used an exclamation point there, but most of the excitement has faded.  I’m happy and relieved.  But I just haven’t been able to keep up the excitement I felt the first day or two after I found out.  The result reinforces that I can do this, and that this is what I should be doing.  It’s not a foolish endeavor that I have no chance of completing, like I worried it might be before I actually started.  When I started grad school, a lot of professors helped me set realistic expectations about how difficult and sometimes-demoralizing grad school in math can be, so I was expecting to grind through the next few years with a lot of speed bumps and tears.  It hasn’t been easy, but I think coming in with realistic expectations has helped me put in the appropriate amount of work to make success possibly achievable.

I’ve also started teaching, like, for real.  My students seem pretty good (we’ll see after the first exam).  I’m still a little behind in the material I wanted to have covered by now because I spent a LOT more time on preliminary stuff (syllabus, etc) on the first day and not as much time talking about actual mathematics.  But I’m blowing through material now at a good pace.  I should finish Chapter 1 this week, and then be able to make up the time in Chapter 2.  Or, I hope I make up the time in Chapter 2; I have to cover all of Chapters 1 and 2 before my fixed date for the first exam.  Oh, and I made up a 10 page worksheet over prerequisite material for the students to do for extra credit and I’m having them turn it in this Friday.  I’m really intrigued to see if they know what they’re doing or if they’re totally lost.  All the homework and quizzes for the class I’m teaching are controlled centrally by the department and are done through an online platform, so I don’t get to see their abilities, work, ideas, or progress except for on exams.  It’s super nice not to have to logistically deal with homework and quizzes, and it’s good for the department to have control over continuity since so many students take this course with so many different instructors every semester and they all have to be prepared for the next course, but there are still some drawbacks, especially as an instructor.

Also, our student evaluation of teaching comments were made available last week, and my students from last semester had a lot of really nice things to say about me and how I teach.  None of the criticism was helpful in a way that I could do anything to change it, but a lot of the compliments were specific things they liked about how I taught that I worked really hard to be good at, so it’s nice to know it was appreciated.

Finally, a random thought: At Ursinus, we didn’t get Labor Day off; we had classes on that day every year.  My freshman year, I was fake-outraged.  HOW CAN THEY MAKE US GO TO SCHOOL ON A HOLIDAY?!  But then I sort of got used to it.  So, now that I’m at a normal public school now, it’s pretty awesome to get things like national holidays off.  I have laid around in sweatpants in my apartment all day watching TV.  Pretty sweet gig.

Tomorrow it’s back to school, though.

I think I’m going to try to post more often now.  Once the semester really kicks it into gear, I may not have the time, but I think I’ll still try to tell myself I can post short updates even when I don’t feel like being thorough.  I can tell a little anecdote about my day.  My days are FULL of anecdotes.  You don’t even know.  But anyway, my reason for this new goal is that I am planning on ditching my Facebook account this week so I think it would be best if I feel connected to the outside world in SOME way, and this blog will be what is left.  YOU’RE WELCOME.  It’s going to be awesome, don’t worry.