Edited by Kate Blackham, Monday, 29 Jan 2024, 11:35
Sent off my application for the mathematics PhD yesterday. Not expecting anything to come of it but I don't want to get to 70 and look back and wonder if I could have earned a PhD. I've been thinking about my old A level mathematics teacher who was, let's say, difficult. She used to make her further maths students cry during her lessons. The other students called her a dragon. With the benefit of hindsight I think she was bitter and was disappointed not to have done better for herself and sad that she ended up having to teach mathematics to children that weren't as able as her. We were beneath her and wasting her time.
I don't want to end up like my maths teacher. My husband says I'm silly and will absolutely not end up like her. That she was different. But I don't know. Surely bitter people don't start out bitter, bitter comes from disappointment and frustration. Who was she before she turned herself into a dragon?
I don't want to be an angry, resentful teacher taking it out on my own students.
I also think it's really, really important to have multiple irons in the fire. To not get obsessed with one thing (I'm autistic that comes naturally) that I'm blind to alternatives that are even better.
My copy of A&G arrived today (the members magazine for Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society) with a fascinating and potentially really useful article about mathematical astronomer John Couch Adams.
NOTE TO SELF: Follow up the relevent references if I get invited to interview.
I was also thinking to myself how useful A&G and PhysicsWorld (the IOP magazine) are to me. Often the articles are not at all relevant to what I'm doing, but every now and then I read one which I can refer students to in a tutorial especially about the real-world applications of science in one of the areas I do a tutorial on. And A&G helps me keep up-to-date with content when I'm moderating the SM123 students' Space topic forums. All good stuff to mention in any FHEA application (which I guess - along with my cosmological beliefs of Christians project - is the next thing to focus on so that a PhD rejection is less hard-hitting).
John Couch Adams
Sent off my application for the mathematics PhD yesterday. Not expecting anything to come of it but I don't want to get to 70 and look back and wonder if I could have earned a PhD. I've been thinking about my old A level mathematics teacher who was, let's say, difficult. She used to make her further maths students cry during her lessons. The other students called her a dragon. With the benefit of hindsight I think she was bitter and was disappointed not to have done better for herself and sad that she ended up having to teach mathematics to children that weren't as able as her. We were beneath her and wasting her time.
I don't want to end up like my maths teacher. My husband says I'm silly and will absolutely not end up like her. That she was different. But I don't know. Surely bitter people don't start out bitter, bitter comes from disappointment and frustration. Who was she before she turned herself into a dragon?
I don't want to be an angry, resentful teacher taking it out on my own students.
I also think it's really, really important to have multiple irons in the fire. To not get obsessed with one thing (I'm autistic that comes naturally) that I'm blind to alternatives that are even better.
My copy of A&G arrived today (the members magazine for Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society) with a fascinating and potentially really useful article about mathematical astronomer John Couch Adams.
NOTE TO SELF: Follow up the relevent references if I get invited to interview.
I was also thinking to myself how useful A&G and PhysicsWorld (the IOP magazine) are to me. Often the articles are not at all relevant to what I'm doing, but every now and then I read one which I can refer students to in a tutorial especially about the real-world applications of science in one of the areas I do a tutorial on. And A&G helps me keep up-to-date with content when I'm moderating the SM123 students' Space topic forums. All good stuff to mention in any FHEA application (which I guess - along with my cosmological beliefs of Christians project - is the next thing to focus on so that a PhD rejection is less hard-hitting).