An idiosyncratic assortment of suggestions and observations based on 23+ years of teaching.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Studying is a personal experience<\/i>. To stay successful, it needs to evolve.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n EXPERIENCE <\/font>– the only way to find out what works and what doesn’t is to do<\/i> things and pay attention<\/i> to what happens. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s all problem-solving.<\/b> 201 and 202 are based on 1. <\/b>It is a good way to learn new material.<\/b> I preach 2. <\/b>Practice!<\/b> Problem-solving is difficult 3. Pay attention to how you feel.<\/b> Do some problems make you uncomfortable? (Some certainly make me<\/i> 4. Repetition + variation.<\/b> Once you learn how to solve a 5. Whenever you feel stuck for whatever reason (intellectual, emotional), come see me<\/i>.<\/b><\/p>\n 6. Base your practice on your textbook.<\/b> This is simply a matter of supply and demand. Practice demands lots of problems and your textbook supplies hundreds<\/i> of them. By comparison, I will write only a few dozen problems during the entire semester.<\/p>\n 7. Think it? Draw it!<\/b> 8. A solutions manual is a wonderful\/dangerous thing.<\/b> Get to know your book.<\/b> Only one (fat heavy) book is used for all of 201-202.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Get to know me. <\/b>You don’t have to wait for an emergency. Although a lot of the There’s Since one of the ways to arrange a meeting is for me to send you a note, I’m going use this method right now.<\/p>\n To: All students enrolled in Chem 201, Fall 2008<\/i><\/p>\n From: Alan (8\/08)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Please come see me. (Students who follow up on this invitation are entitled to one free Paradox beverage of their choice – my treat<\/u>.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n I’m not kidding. This is a genuine invitation.<\/p>\n OK, another thing that you might want to know about me: how I teach. I Finally, Install a big red “Emergency Kindness” button on your wall.<\/b> Unfortunately, So how do you handle these problems? What do you do when your life That said, Added Sept 1, 2008: The NY Times (Aug 27, 2008, Health) carried an article<\/a> about Psych Central’s “Online College Survival Guide<\/a>“. This is a collection of essays with advice on diverse topics ranging from time management, stress, procrastination to getting a passport and dealing with loneliness.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An idiosyncratic assortment of suggestions and observations based on 23+ years of teaching….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5216,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/chem201202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
PERSONAL <\/font>– although I find doing X<\/i> works for me, I really can’t say whether it will work for you.<\/p>\n
EVOLVE – what works today might not work tomorrow (but it might the day after)<\/font><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n
\nproblem-solving, showing that you can apply what you know to new
\nsituations. Some thoughts on problem-solving:<\/p>\n\n
\nthe value of memorization, but I am also of its limits.
\nMemorization entails rehearsing the same thing over and over again.
\nThere is no application. There is no novelty. Problem-solving brings
\nother essential information skills into the picture (retrieval,
\nselection, combination, and application).
\nIt provides a context for the information you are trying to learn. Use
\nboth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nand slow because several skills (retrieval-selection-
\ncombination-application) must be performed correctly for the overall
\nprocess to succeed. Practice is the only way I know to make difficult
\nthings easier and slow things faster.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nuncomfortable.) If they do, you might be reluctant to do as much
\nproblem-solving as you should. This is a natural response. You can be a
\nspectator in lecture. Reading is fairly passive
\ntoo. Problem-solving pushes you to be active. If
\nyou are going to solve a problem, you have no choice but to create
\nsomething (“an answer”) that doesn’t yet exist. So if problem-solving
\nmakes you feel uncomfortable, that’s a natural and valid response, but
\nrealize that these feelings may get in the way of practice and practice will, over time, reduce the intensity of any
\nunpleasant feelings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\nparticular type of problem, move on. Change the degree of difficulty. Figure out which problems you can do reliably,
\neasily, and quickly, and which are still problematic.<\/p>\n
\nIf you are lucky, you will be able to solve some problems in your head,
\nbut you won’t be able to rely on this. Fact: when you work a chemistry
\nproblem, you need to keep several ideas (molecular formulas, reagents,
\nalternative answers) in your short-term working memory. Fact: this
\nmemory can hold only 5-7 items at a time (and only with intense
\neffort). Fact: when your mind wanders or you start to manipulate items
\nin your short-term memory, the rest of your memory’s contents will get
\nflushed. So how do you get around this? By drawing. Once you make a
\ndrawing, the information in the drawing no longer needs to be kept in
\nmemory. Here is my standard recommended approach for working most
\nproblems (based on the way I was taught to do algebra problems):<\/p>\n\n
\nI hate sitting in front of a difficult problem when I know the answer
\nis right over there in the solutions manual. If I get stuck, I like to
\npeek at the answer. Bad idea, you say? Not necessarily, but it could
\nbecome
\na bad habit<\/i>. If you see that you can only solve problems by peeking, you haven’t really learned to solve problems.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
<\/b><\/p>\n\n
\nmost-used information in the course. The front cover contains
\ninformation on the most important reactions: acid-base (Ch. 3) and
\nnucleophilic substitution\/elimination (Ch. 6-7). The back cover
\ncontains charts for interpreting IR spectra (Ch. 2) and NMR spectra
\n(Ch. 9).<\/li>\n
\nThese maps, also located at the end of each chapter, are powerful tools
\nfor seeing relationships between ideas. Some teachers believe that
\nstudents can benefit from making their own concept maps. If you would
\nlike to try this but need a little help, come see me. If you prefer
\nexpert help, check out this cool web site<\/a> (note: mind map = concept map) and let me know what you think.<\/li>\n
\nshow you a problem and a worked-out answer. In other words, these
\nillustrate how a chemist works through a problem. The remaining
\nproblems are of varying difficulty and you should incorporate all of them<\/i> into your problem-solving practice.<\/li>\n
\nYour book is huge. Finding information can be tedious. You can make
\nthis easier by pasting little self-adhesive flags on key pages. It also
\nhelps to write short topic labels on the flags.<\/li>\n
\n
\nroutine stuff I do (leading classes, writing, grading, etc.) is pretty
\ntime-consuming, I hope to spend several hours each week meeting with
\nstudents, so please come by my office and say “hi”. You can do this
\neven if we have already said “hi” in conference or lab.<\/p>\n
\nno set pattern for meetings. I have office hours, but I am also
\navailable outside of those hours. Some students like to drop in
\nunannounced, others like to set up appointments, sometimes I contact
\nstudents I want to see. I meet with individuals and with small groups.
\nMany conversations are tutoring sessions, but sometimes we just chat.
\nThere is really no set pattern. The only constant is that I would really like to meet
\neach of you, and if help is needed, provide it.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\nI’m a big believer in the written word – books, handouts, web pages –
\nand this affects how I teach. For example, I expect you to learn all of the material in your textbook<\/i>
\n(at least, for the assigned chapters). Another consequence is I write a
\nlot. I am currently writing study guides for each of the chapters. The
\nguides will be posted online and will list all of the basic
\nskills\/concepts that you should retain from each chapter. They will
\nalso list textbook problems that practice these skills\/concepts.<\/p>\n
\nbelieve in the spoken word too, but mainly because I think direct
\nhuman-human contact is so valuable. Spoken communication seems like a less
\nreliable way to pass along information, especially in quantity. If a speaker stumbles or a
\nlistener’s attention wanders, something gets lost. I don’t
\ntry for complete coverage of the material when I lecture. Instead, my
\nlectures are intended to: <\/p>\n\n
\nI believe “teacher” and “student” are only administrative
\nlabels. During our time together, we will all learn, we will all teach,
\nand we will all be changed, hopefully for the better. You will teach me
\nand I will learn from you. One way this happens is when I gaze out over
\nthe sea of faces in lecture. Much better are one-on-one conversations.
\nI am also hoping that you will add comments and questions to this blog.
\nI should add that
\npositive and negative feedback are both<\/i> useful.<\/p>\n
\n
\nAre you one of those smart, hard-working people who demand a lot from
\nthemselves and push themselves to excel? I bet you are. You
\nprobably wouldn’t be at Reed if you weren’t that type of person.<\/p>\n
\nthat
\ntype of person can be brutally hard on
\nthemselves when things don’t go well. That’s a problem because there
\nare a lot of ways in which things might not go well:
\nsleep through your alarm, fall behind on your to-do list, don’t finish
\nall the pages in your reading, lose your laptop, get stuck on a
\nhomework problem, have an uncomfortable “silent” moment in
\nconference, spill half of the liquid in your beaker on the floor,
\ncompletely bomb a 20 point problem on a 100 point exam. These things
\nare just the uncomfortable facts of everyday Reed
\nCollege life. We all hope that they won’t happen, but when they do (and
\nthey always do), they turn you into a smart, driven, high expectation
\nperson with a problem.<\/p>\n
\nand your expectations collide? If you are like most people, you probably beat up on yourself. Hard<\/i>. I know this from personal experience. I have a very<\/i>
\nhard time taking any of my advice regarding unrealistic expectations,
\nwork habits, sleep patterns, etc., and there are many faculty just like
\nme.<\/p>\n
\nhere’s my advice anyway: problems are real, but not one of them can be
\nmade better by smacking yourself around. You wouldn’t kick a person
\nwith a broken leg, so why should you respond to the insults and
\ninjuries of life by mentally kicking yourself? When your spirit hurts,
\npay attention to it and tend to it the same way you would take care of
\na broken leg. Be kind to yourself.<\/i> If you think it will help, paint a red ’emergency kindness’ button on your wall and press it as often and long as necessary.<\/p>\n