Title:  “Being All Things To Teach Some”

Time:  Saturday,  11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Abstract: What do you do when you struggle to connect with students as a teacher? While some people seem to have an easy-flowing charisma or bearing in the classroom, I conjecture that many of us feel more as I do—that the path to good teaching is hard, full of false starts and detours on the way. Sometimes, it can feel like we are reaching no one. My journey has involved trying, if not all things, numerous means of connecting with students. At least for me, it takes a large variety of mathematical and general approaches to connect with students and help them deepen their understanding; it takes many ways of listening to them, having humility, and sacrificing prerogatives. This talk will share some of those experiences and means to encourage other mathematicians who have struggled to find their place in the classroom so that they can teach (and reach) not just some but maybe even many of their students.

Bio:  Karl-Dieter Crisman is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Gordon College in Massachusetts and is the recipient of the 2024 Northeastern Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching. His scholarly work is primarily in the mathematics of voting and choice, with a strong current side interest in the life and work of Marin Mersenne. He has led workshops and written about topics like service learning, the SageMath software, authoring in PreTeXt, and inquiry-based learning, and he hopes outdoor education is next. Karl-Dieter has the usual degrees from Northwestern and Chicago and a less usual degree in piano performance from Roosevelt University - something he has found helps connect with art students who don't expect him to be the campus organist.