Hello Everyone,
It has been so busy here at UDM. I have not had time to post. But today I feel the need to write and share my thoughts.
As a mathematics professor it gets easy sometimes to think the worse of students. I have been lucky this term to see some very good students making progress. I get happy when I see weaker students make progress in their math courses and as a consequence they feel more confident about themselves. That is wonderful.
But today I had a positive encounter with a student in a nonacademic situation. It was lunch time and I went to the loft to get my salad and bottle of water. I went to the cashier and he rang up my items and told me the total. I looked in my wallet and discovered that I had no money. I could not even charge the total to my credit card because there was no credit card reader available. So I was stuck. Then out of the blue a kind hearted student, her name is Rachel, told the cashier to put my items and hers on her Titancard. I tried to tell her that her kind act was not necessary, but she insisted and afterwards I thanked her and I again insisted that I pay her back. But she told me that was not necessary and just to enjoy the rest of the day and my lunch. I thanked her again and we both smiled and continued our day.
I just want to thank Rachel again for her act of kindness. Even though it was no big deal, 4.00 dollars, her act was worth a million to me. Thanks for your kindness. I hope to return the favor for someone else.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
End of Term
It is finally the end of term. Grades are in and now I have a little time to think and o get ready for the Christmas holidays.
I like Christmas alot. What I enjoy the most is finding time to spend with my parents and my brother and all my friends. I think that it what is all about.
As I have stated in my profile I am an academic. Here at UDM we have a relatively heavy teaching load of three courses a term. At other institutions similar to UDM the teaching load is more.
This term I taught Calculus I and it was a bit of a frustrating experience. On one hand there were very good students and they just needed me to answer questions and to help them guide them along to solve problems. Then there were the students that could not care less about the material or learning. What was frustrating were the number of students that tried hard but were not ready to be in college. If you have read the papers lately you would have found that the Detroit Public School system is one of the worst school systems in the country. The students that manage to survive and manage to get into college come in terribly under prepared. They mean well but they underestimate the effort, the amount of material and the level of performance necessary to succeed and they end up not doing well. I try very hard to help but to no avail. I do not know what are the answers to the education crisis. All I know is that the public school system should be top notch. A school system should be able to find the talents of each student and help them grow. Teachers should be in a sense philosophers and be expected to engage in professional development their entire career. They should publish and participate at conferences and do real research. It is only until that we expect of teachers a high level of expertise that we will begin to attract the best and the brightest.
I like Christmas alot. What I enjoy the most is finding time to spend with my parents and my brother and all my friends. I think that it what is all about.
As I have stated in my profile I am an academic. Here at UDM we have a relatively heavy teaching load of three courses a term. At other institutions similar to UDM the teaching load is more.
This term I taught Calculus I and it was a bit of a frustrating experience. On one hand there were very good students and they just needed me to answer questions and to help them guide them along to solve problems. Then there were the students that could not care less about the material or learning. What was frustrating were the number of students that tried hard but were not ready to be in college. If you have read the papers lately you would have found that the Detroit Public School system is one of the worst school systems in the country. The students that manage to survive and manage to get into college come in terribly under prepared. They mean well but they underestimate the effort, the amount of material and the level of performance necessary to succeed and they end up not doing well. I try very hard to help but to no avail. I do not know what are the answers to the education crisis. All I know is that the public school system should be top notch. A school system should be able to find the talents of each student and help them grow. Teachers should be in a sense philosophers and be expected to engage in professional development their entire career. They should publish and participate at conferences and do real research. It is only until that we expect of teachers a high level of expertise that we will begin to attract the best and the brightest.
Monday, November 30, 2009
My first entry
Hello World,
My name is Lazaros and I am an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Detroit Mercy.
I am starting this Blog for the fun of it and so that I may communicate with the world my thoughts and ideas.
My name is Lazaros and I am an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Detroit Mercy.
I am starting this Blog for the fun of it and so that I may communicate with the world my thoughts and ideas.
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