Teaching in Nepal

I wish I had seen this earlier ::


http://www.gonomad.com/alternatives/0010/davis_teaching.html

About the great rewards, I agree fully. In fact, I can list out some other rewards too (e.g. Nepalese gifts like "Dhaka topi" , "khada", and lovely objets d'art). And, the experience itself is a great reward.

Thank you Nepal.


partha

PS:: What did I tecah in Nepal ? See here ::
http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/cryptoatkath.htm

Looking for great blogs ??

Looking for great blogs written by teachers like you and me ? Looking for some inspiration ?

Start here :: http://edublogawards.com/2009/best-teacher-edublog-2009/

partha

An amazing teacher

I came across the website of Prof. GARY T. LEAVENS (leavens@eecs.ucf.edu) of the Universsity of
Central Florida, USA. He has an amazing variety of achievements. His web site is an inspiration and gold mine for all of us teachers. Let us try and emulate his way of inspiring people.

Prof. Leavens website is at ::

http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~leavens/homepage.html

partha

Problem solving books in mathematics

A good compilation of maths books is at :
http://ansomniac.blogspot.com/

This compilation was made by the same student from IIT Kharagpur, who was so very upset by the quality of his teachers (see my blog post "Lament of a student". Instead of brushing him aside as a "grumbler", I am happy that I decided to listen (that is what teachers should be doing).

I am sure this list should be useful for many of my colleague teachers.

partha

Open source projects......

Here is a neatly categorised list of open source projects:
http://www.fossfind.com/

Should be of great value for students and for my teacher-colleagues who may be looking for good projects,

partha

The teacher who makes a difference

The teacher who makes a difference

is like

The spark that ignites a flame

The seed that makes a forest

The drop that makes an ocean

The dream that makes a man !

(Partha --- June 2010)

Begging for books

One of the challenges of teaching in India, is the lack of basic essential material for teaching :: books and journals. We do have bookshops, but they stock only run-of-the-mill books. Books which sell out fast. If you ask for a book which is even slightly higher than the average reader's intellect, you will have to face disappointment. It is not just money, it is just a lack of appreciation for anything above average. So what do I do ? I beg. I beg shamelessly. And I have friends all over the world who understand, and buy me the books I need so badly.

I have received today an exceptionally beautiful book on Lambda calculus, donated by a very close friend (I call him NVS, my children call him "karate master"). Thank you NVS.

If you are reading this blog, from any country outside India, and you wish to help an Indian teacher, just send me a signal. The books you send will be used, for teaching young Indians, so that one day India will also reach a stage where a teacher does not have to beg.

partha

Forget the chocolates, send me some books

Teach yourself LaTeX

One more offering from Prof. Partha -- an easy way to learn LaTeX. Visit the site at:
http://www.profpartha.webs.com/teachlatex.htm.

Like I said before, teaching is the only place where the urge to give is much higher than the urge to take. How true !

partha

Why I love to teach maths

It is amazing to see how many people love to teach maths. I found one more person in this tribe:

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/category/math/

It is amazing how few people love to learn maths, and really make efforts to learn.

This observation confirms my theory :: "teaching is the only profession where the urge to give is much more than the urge to take". Right ?

partha

More maths material

I disovered yet another source of learning material for maths ::

http://www.numbertheory.org/ntw/gateways.html

And, I found a quotation in one of the links::

"Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics"--Siméon Poisson

Describes exactly why I like maths.

I strongly recommend the abov site to all my students and all my colleagues.

partha

Forget the chocolates, send me some books

One of the challenges I face, living and teaching in a "developing" country, is the difficulty in accessing good books. Either they are just not available, or they are astronomically priced. There are of course no good libraries where a freelancer like me can go and borrow books. So what do I do ? Simple -- I beg.

My first CDROM on Linux was obtained by begging on the internet. A kindly soul from the US of A donated a set of Slackware CDs and led me into the world of Linux. I will never forget that gentleman (Mr. Naidu). My first book on Linux was also a gift of someone (Mr. Thaths-Chandrasekhar) who responded to my appeal on the internet, several years ago.

I am sure some of my students and my friends who are abroad, are probably reading this blog. I am sure the world is also full of kind hearted people like Mr. Naidu and Mr. Chandrasekhar. I am sure some of you will be willing to donate a book or two, to a honest and sincere teacher in India. I can send you a list of books which I am dying for. Just email me.

Thanks a lot. GOD bless you.

partha