New year, new me!... Sorta.

With Labor Day ending my focus is (slowly) shifting from Mai Tai's, road trips, and reading for pleasure to the start of a new term and new position. I am now a tenure-track Mathematics Instructor at Clark College, in Vancouver Washington. Having taught college classes since 2006, my path has not been a straight one: BS in Mathematics, MA in Mathematics, working at a few textbook publishers, teaching at seven different colleges, trying out instructional design at a new online college, starting my own business, closing my own business, and (amazingly) now find myself at the second-largest community college in Washington. I taught a couple summer classes to ease into the position, and everything feels right. All my past mistakes have remade themselves into current success. My courses are well designed, have a clear structure and purpose, and I feel confident in the pedagogical and andragogical decisions I make. At the same time I am looking forward to the tenure process and sharing it here.

My current 4-month plan:

Teaching

• MATH103 College Trigonometry - With a focus on skill-based outcomes, I feel this class would be an excellent candidate for flipping, but I don't know if I have the time to commit to such a project. I have in-class activities for each class that we work through together, but am not sure if I can refit them to this other instructional method. The main thing I would have to add is more instructional text and possibly videos. I know the college has video equipment, but again time really is the issue. I don't like using others' videos for valid reasons (different methods, wording and phrasing, quality) and invalid ones (ego, wanting to provide 'everything' for students). 
• MATH111 College Algebra - While there are a number of skill-based outcomes, there are also a few conceptual-based ones that need to be addressed. This being the case a bit more in-class work could be a good idea. The class meets two times a week for 2 hours 20 min, so one single instructional method would not be appropriate. I may have lecture for the first hour, and a group activity the second hour plus. This would require quite a bit of work, but I am hoping to leverage some OER materials. 
• MATH151 Calculus I - A fairly typical course that meets five days a week for an hour. I am looking forward to developing my course materials (lectures, quizzes, etc.) here a bit further, but also to have group activities for each Friday. I really want students to start developing effective ways of working with others in STEM-focused areas. Because of this goal these activities need to have an incentive, which is why I'm including them in their grading. I haven't decided upon what grading scheme to use (participation, completion, individual based, group based, etc.), so if you have any suggestions feel free to share. 

Common Instructional Methods

• Washington Mathematics Assessment and Placement (WAMAP) - This is a state-wide system for homework questions. I am looking to use this system for online homework for all of my classes. 
• Pre-Quizzes - These are short (1-3 questions) 5-minute timed quizzes at the very start of class. This past summer I graded all of them which made them a bit more intimidating than I want. These will now be participation based with three levels of grading; 0 for no attempt, 2 for a minimal attempt, 5 for full attempt. There are three purposes to these quizzes: 
• Activate prior knowledge that they need for that day's lecture or activity. This could be anything from a previous course, assumed knowledge of pre-skills, and material we covered already in the course. 
• Provide feedback to students as to their standing in the course. Right after students attempt the Pre-Quiz we review it as a class. If it is clear they didn't get things correct they know they should put a bit more time into this material or review those pre-skills. 
• I do put a five minute timer on the overhead so this also acts as a bit of 'exposure therapy' for more math anxious students. The goal here is to get them used to this timed environment and be comfortable answer questions in it. My hope is that when test time comes they don't completely dissociate and use the skills they have developed to cope with these Pre-Quizzes. 
• In-Class Activities - Primarily for skill-based material, these packets take the place of lecture. They usually include a brief description of the property or idea we are applying and a number of questions. I present one or two of these questions, I then ask students to try a few on their own, and we come together as a class to discuss them. In the past students have been fairly isolated in attempting the questions, but I would like to help build more of a learning community around them. If you have any suggestions feel free to share. 
• Group Activities - I would like to do these more often, but they do require quite a bit of time developing. I am looking to use these in my Calculus I course on Fridays as a capstone to the week. These would have more challenging questions and (hopefully) require students to work together. 

Tenure

I have no idea what to expect or prepare for, so my only goal here is to review the policies around tenure and meet with my committee. I will share what information I feel comfortable with, and what the committee feels comfortable with as well.

Professional Development

• Coursera - I went a little nutty last night and registered for a few classes, so I may have to do some curating of what I actually want to spend time on. I signed up for a number of mathematical classes (Fundamentals of Fluid Power, Data Analysis and Statistical Inference, Model Thinking) but also some education and research focused classes (American Education Reform: History, Policy, Practice, Qualitative Research Methods) and you know, a fun one, Soren Kierkegaard - Subjectivity, Irony and the Crisis of Modernity.
• Training at Clark - Being a new faculty member there are a number of trainings I am scheduled for; policy and procedures, the Clark Learning Community, and LMS-specific sessions. Hopefully I'll be able to share what I learn here. 
• I have been thinking about going through a graduate text to keep that feeling of 'I have no idea what I'm doing.' I need to be empathetic to students so I know what to say and do to help them get out of that space. I never got a firm grasp on homology, so if you have any suggestions for a text or a self-paced course on it let me know.

While I am feeling reinvigorated by all these new projects, ideas, and plans, I am feeling fairly confident in myself at this specific moment of time. Not because I know a lot, but because I have made enough mistakes to know what not to do. 

If you have any advice, comments, suggestions, criticisms, or general thoughts feel free to share below. Thank you for reading!