Hello Math Majors,
I hope you are doing well as we work through the fourth week of the Spring 2023 semester. On Monday, February 20th, the class schedule for the Summer 2023 semester will be published on MyRed, and you will gain access to the Summer 2023 semester in the Enrollment Scheduler. On, Monday, March 6th, registration for the Summer 2023 semester will start, and the Fall 2023 semester schedule will be published on MyRed. You will also gain access to the Fall 2023 semester in the Enrollment Scheduler on March 6th. Now is the time to start thinking about and making plans for the upcoming semesters.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about four different things that I believe you need to do to help fully engage with your classes: 1) maximizing course attendance, 2) reading textbooks and other course materials, 3) completing weekly reviews of course materials, and 4) visiting course instructors during office hours. This week I want to focus on the importance of reading your textbooks and other course materials.
To be honest, I did not learn how important textbook and course material reading was until I started taking online, graduate level courses, which isn't the best time to learn something like that. You can complete a significant amount of learning through reading, and learning how to complete readings well will serve you throughout your life time. Depending on the course, you may find that reading is the most time consuming part of your studying for the course. There are a variety of methods for completing required and recommended readings for a course, but regardless of the method you use, I would encourage you to try to read the course material before it is discussed or presented in class. The Center for Academic Success and Transition teaches the SQ3R Reading Method, which is explained at https://success.unl.edu/documents/SQ3R%20Handout.pdf. Personally, I like to read the text in full, and then I re-read the text in pieces as I work through discussion questions or important topics as listed on the syllabus. Overtime, you will learn what works best for you when it comes to completing course readings.
In College, your course instructor can be better thought of as guide to learning the course topic rather than a direct teacher or source of knowledge. Professors choose course textbooks and reading meetings as they feel that those documents are the best sources of knowledge (this is a complex thing to determine) about the course topic. Then, they expect you to spend time reading and studying these materials before they hold class meetings about the materials. The course instructor will then cover the most important elements of the readings in class presentations or discussions. Additionally, the course instructor may focus on the most difficult portions of materials to understand. This method gives the course instructor time to answer questions and discuss implications rather than needing to drill over or force memorization of the topic. This method of course instruction can often lead to confusion as there can be occasions were it doesn't feel like the instructor is teaching. It can also make practical problems about the material more difficult since those problems may not be covered during course meeting times. This is why an instructor's office hours can be so important, which we will discuss next week.
For the Spring 2023 semester, I am taking in-person, Zoom, and phone meetings in 45-minute blocks from 8:30 am to 12:15 pm and 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm every weekday outside of my drop-in advising hours, and I am taking drop-in meetings via Zoom only on Mondays and on Fridays from 1 pm to 3 pm.
You can schedule a meeting with me by using the Student Success Hub via this link, by calling the College of Arts and Sciences Academic and Career Advising Center at 402-472-4190, by calling me at 402-472-4319, or by emailing me at dpellatz@unl.edu. You can find instructions for how to access and schedule meetings in the Student Success Hub system here. You can also find information about my virtual only drop-in meetings at https://cas.unl.edu/drop-in-advising-schedule.
Best wishes, Doug
Math Department Events
The Math Department has many upcoming events that might be of interest to you along with a weekly (or almost weekly) colloquium series. A listing of all upcoming Math Department events can be found at https://events.unl.edu/math/upcoming/.
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