Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Another day past.

I felt skittish in my Calc I classes today, and awkward. I felt elsewhere, out-of-place, out-of-sync.

MATH 280 made up for it, though. I was definitely at home in Karpen 033 this afternoon.

This afternoon, I started thinking about what I'd like to talk about at a Writing Across the Curriculum conference.

What do I have to say?

What am I qualified to say?

Hey, even if I have to say so myself, I think I'm pretty damned good at teaching math students how to write math...but is that enough? I don't know how hardcore into the scholarship of teaching and learning I'm expected to be in order to "have something to say."

I'd like to talk about my rubric-building exercises: how does one set out to teach math students to teach themselves what to look for most in quantifying quality in math writing? How does one teach them that, given a few ground rules and a little practice, they are as qualified as I am to render an assessment of a proof's goodness?

Good enough?

Hmmmm...there's a kernel of irony here, isn't there?: maybe I've just got to teach myself that I am as qualified as anyone else is to render an assessment on the goodness of my own writing-instruction methods, at least in the context of my own classroom.

Is it that easy, or is that just a bunch of relativistic hooey?

Ah, fugeddaboutit.

I'm going to go rustle up something to eat.

To be continued, for sure.