Due Monday, March 27

Marge Simpson in a wedding dress saying, "We are now 11 seconds behind schedule!"

As mentioned several times in class, you have a number of classmates this semester who are putting a real and effective effort toward this class. Unless you are working closely with your classmates, this effort might be invisible to you. What steps is everyone taking to perform at the level that they performing? In this week’s assignment, you will submit an OpenLab post describing in detail all the activities you do in order to succeed in this class.

Anyone who completes this assignment will earn participation credit. If you feel like you are not devoting enough time to this class, you might be tempted to stretch the truth in this assignment. Don’t. The point is to share honestly so that everyone in the class can see what everyone else is up to, and to share ideas for how to proceed with the rest of the semester.

If you are struggling in this class, chances are you are just not spending enough time on it on a consistent basis. This is very common and nothing to be ashamed of. There are lots of resources online that suggest how much time to spend on a class and how to organize that time. Read this blog post; it has helpful suggestions for scheduling your time each week and it says:

One way to evaluate how much time you will need outside of class, is to consider that each credit hour or unit you take will require an additional 2-3 hours of work outside of class, assigned or otherwise.

https://classtracker.com/blogs/news/how-to-create-a-weekly-plan-that-will-make-you-successful-in-college

This would mean that you should plan to spend 6-9 hours per week on this class, outside of class time, though math classes often require more time than that.

Instructions

Submit a post with title My Week in MAT 2680; select the category My Week in MAT 2680. Include a detailed description of how and when you work on activities for this class outside of class time.

Option 1

Do you already have a structured schedule that you follow for a typical week? Do you plan out when you will read the textbook, when you will read your notes, when you will complete WeBWorK, when you complete OpenLab assignments and when you will review for tests? If so describe in detail your schedule in your post. Share what is already working for you and what tweaks you have made to your schedule. You can include details about your other commitments outside of this class if you wish.

Option 2

If you don’t already have a structured schedule, then use this week to track the time you spend on any individual tasks for this class. Include as much detail as you can in your post, for example:

  • Wednesday, 9pm-9:30pm: completed 2 WeBWorK problems; used class notes, textbook, and Discord conversations as resources.
  • Tuesday, 11:30am-12:30pm: attended WeBWorK party, worked with classmates at the board to complete 3 WeBWorK problems with help from Professor Poirier.
  • Thursday, 9:15am-9:30am: reviewed Tuesday’s lecture notes while riding the subway to class.

At the end of the week, evaluate which activities worked the best for you and how you might tweak what you did this week to schedule the activities for upcoming weeks. You can include details about your other commitments outside of this class if you wish.

After you have posted your own schedule, read your classmates’ posts. Find one idea from a classmate’s schedule that you’d like to incorporate into your own. Comment on their post to let them know which idea you are stealing.