brandon.robison

Calculus is not a required course for my degree; I am taking it because it is a recommended/required course for most graduate programs in economics. This is my second to last semester of undergraduate coursework, and in my entire college career, I have never had a more terrible “teacher” than Mr. Phanord.

Our class was scheduled to meet twice a week during the semester; Phanord canceled (or didn’t show up to class) for FOUR of the class periods.

During the lectures we did have, he would spend precious time trying to teach us Latin or French, or talking to us about physics or other science subjects. While I appreciate he was trying to help us with “real life examples” it only resulted in most students being completely confused — even the ones studying science and engineering! Or at the very least, wasting time that we should have been using to study derivatives, integrals, etc. The class is Calculus I — not engineering!

Phanord assigned only even-numbered problems as homework. I realize homework assignment is at the discretion of the professor, but assigning homework for which you can’t check to know whether you’re doing the problem correctly or not is a bad idea. What if I was doing the process incorrectly?

He used strange mathematical notation that appears nowhere in the book, which lead me to think, “Is this guy just trying to show off how smart he is?” (I would ask the same question when he would expound on scientific topics, too, as was previously mentioned)

His grading system is ridiculous; while the final grade is (according to the syllabus) a composite of homeworks, tests, and a research paper (Yes, a RESEARCH paper for a Calculus I class… which is also absurd!), he told us throughout the semester that “Whatever you get on the final is what you will get for the class,” which lead me to wonder, “Why should I worry about turning in homework problems, a paper, or even stressing out for midterm, if my final grade really just depends on the final exam?”

I will never recommend this “teacher” to anyone I know; in fact, I will exhort any individual taking a math course to avoid Mr. Phanord like the plague.

As you may know, I received a C- in my calculus class over the summer, which means I have to retake the class.

My professor now is a guy named Dieudonne Phanord. If you stumbled through that last sentence, don’t feel bad: I don’t know how to say his name either.

Now, this guy has an accent. That wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t go off on seemingly non-sensical tangents. Or if he didn’t try to teach things from chapters 2 and 4 when we haven’t even gone over chapter 1. Luckily, I know the course (having taken it already), so when he starts talking about derivatives and integrals, I have an idea of what he’s saying.

Today, he started telling us what the definition of a derivative is, using limits, even though he hasn’t taught us what limits are.

I was glancing around the class, and all but a few of us (other retakers, I’m assuming) had very puzzled expressions.

He also went off on a tangent about concavity and inflection points (we were doing a review of common functions) even though that discussion doesn’t come up in the book until chapter 4.

Wow.

His tangents are not confined to strictly mathematics, either. He tells us all the time “Since you’re all engineers, blah blah blah” and goes off about something in engineering. Sorry, I’m not an engineer. And I told you that before. He also does the same thing with other fields of science (eg. “Since many of you are physicists…” etc. He hasn’t said “Many of you are economists…” and I don’t expect he will, either)

Did I mention it is a calculus class, and he is expecting us to write a ten page research paper? Yeah. That too.

End rant.

Quick post–

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to do calculus homework. My first real calc class. We are learning about limits right now. Does anyone else think this stuff is fun? A cursory survey of my classmates finds I am in the minority. But anyway, I like it. Am I the only one?

In other news, Ashley and I got married a week and a half ago, Saturday, May 31. Since then, I’ve been in the slow process of moving my stuff over there. Unfortunately, we are remodeling the house and waiting to buy furniture, so I am desk- and workspace-less for the time being. My computer and most of my stuff, therefore, is still at my parents’ house. It should all get moved over within the next 2-3 weeks, though. And then I’ll blog more reguarly, I think.