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about it, those with the greatest motivation
to bother with logging a comment are
those that have an axe to grind. I suppose
some people feel that they can exact some
revenge for a bad grade they received.
Perhaps it’s a form of catharsis.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that
there seem to be a lot of errors in the
comments. The course numbers sometimes
refer to courses that don’t exist, or the
comment will make mention of something
that leads me to believe that this student
was never in my class.

Having said that, I would be perfectly
pleased with a three on the easiness scale
if my students felt that I was helpful and
explained things well. I’m not there to make
everything easy for them, but to help them
to learn the material. I don’t know very
many instructors who would be unhappy
with the reputation of being tough but fair.
OP: Do you consider your grading fair?
W: The subject of grading is a complicated
one. How one grades depends on what one
feels is important. This is an area which sees
significant differences between instructors,
and sometimes this leads students to believe
they are being treated unfairly by one
instructor or another.

Some instructors place more
importance on a correct answer and not
so much on the method of obtaining the
solution; others place all the importance on
the method with little regard for the actual
answer.

For some, neatness and organisation
matter little as long as the concepts are
understood; for others neatness and
organisation are learned skills necessary
for clarity of thought and all-important to
success in mathematics.

None of this is fair or unfair, however.
The notion of fairness in grading hinges
on expectation. One’s grading may be
unfair if the students could not reasonably

be expected to know what is important

and what is not. I sometimes hear that my
grading is unfair because a student had a
correct final answer but didn’t receive full
marks, even though I’ve explained that the
final answer is worth only one mark of the
possible four or five for the question, or
that I took off marks for improper notation
even after I’ve taken the time to explain the
importance of notation in mathematics.

I don’t think that students always agree
with my method of grading, but I do think
my grading is fair in that I believe it to be
consistent with what I’ve stressed in class.
OP: What kind of student were you in
college? Studious? Boisterous?

W: I was a boring student for most of my
college and university days. I have always
been easily distracted and I found I was
incapable of both focussing on what my
professors were saying and taking notes

at the same time. I tried just listening and
not taking notes but that didn’t work very
well. Instead, I would concentrate on the
notes but after about ten minutes I would be
hopelessly lost as to what the professor was
going on about. If you asked me right after
lecture what had gone on in class, I would
be unable to tell you, but I had the notes! I
would then have to read the textbook and
the notes, and then the text again, and then
try the questions, go back to the examples
done in my notes, etc. This made for a much
longer learning process than those of my
classmates who actually (at least partially)
understood what was going on during class
and didn’t have to start from scratch after
lecture.

Needless to say, compared to my peers,
I did more work and got less sleep. It wasn’t
until my fourth year as an undergraduate,
and then as a grad student, that I actually
had the time to have any fun. But those
stories wouldn’t be suitable here.

OP: When did you decide that teaching

math was the right route?
W: I never thought about teaching until I
was a TA in grad school. I had never had
the opportunity before that and then you are
just sort of thrust into it. You show up one
day never having taught, and the next day
you’re standing in front of a room full of
people —no training — pretending that you
know what you’re doing. There they are, all
wide-eyed and nervous in their first week
of university, and there you are feeling just
the same. It was absolutely terrifying. After
a while, I began to quite enjoy it. I felt like
I was actually helping people to overcome
difficulties. It made me feel good.
OP: Is the humour you use in class
preconceived or spontaneous?
W: Mostly it is spontaneous and, therefore,
sometimes incomprehensible. There are a
few jokes that I use over and over again
because they are well suited to some
particular parts of a lecture and I can’t
resist—though they were spontaneous the
first time.
OP: What is your favourite math formula?
W: Euler’s formula, though there are many
of those. Here we have five fundamental
numbers all related to each other via one
simple relation. Brilliant... nothing like it.
OP: Has a student ever gotten straight As in
your calculus class?
W: Yes. I had a student get a final mark
of 99.2 per cent. She lost a mark and a
half on the first exam and did perfectly
in everything else, including the
comprehensive final exam. We get some
excellent students here.
OP: What’s the most unusual thing you’ ve
had to deal with as a teacher at Douglas
College?
W: Students, I suppose. I don’t mean that in
a derogatory way. We are all unique, some
more unique than others. Even with our
small class sizes a mathematics instructor
can have over 250 different students in a
year. So I’ve had around 4000 students in
my classes over the years. One can’t help
but run into a few “unusual” specimens of
the human race.
OP: What advice do you have for students
taking or going to take your class?
W: Most of my advice would be the
standard stuff: read your text before coming
to class, make sure you actually come to
class, make sure you pay attention in class,
ete.

However, I also think it is important
that students take responsibility for their

 

 

education. Far too often I see unsuccessful
students that haven’t taken full advantage of
the resources available to them—resources
put in place to help them succeed. Some
students will go through the semester,
failing every evaluation, and never once
speak to the instructor.

One of the benefits of coming
to Douglas is the accessibility of the
instructors. A student may come to see
me and find that I’m no help at all—fair
enough, at least they tried. However, many
students need to be more proactive about
the learning process, adopting a more
ambitious attitude before the class ever
starts. That may be difficult. It may mean
that a shy person has to put up a hand in
class, but that may also be the price of
success for that individual.
OP: What music do you like?
W: It varies. When I have to focus I prefer
classical. It’s hard to sing along to Vivaldi.
AC/CD is better for driving and many
other things. I’ve been enjoying Radiohead
lately... and The Chieftains and The White
Stripes.
OP: Favourite television programs?
W: The Simpsons, those British mysteries
and anything with Ricky Gervais in it.
OP: How many more years will you be
teaching?
W: Given that the odds are stacked against
my winning the lottery and that I’m
unqualified for any other job, I suspect I
will be teaching for many years yet. I would
have said another 23 years, but since there
is no longer any mandatory retirement age
at the College, I suppose I could keep going
until I drop dead in the corridor.
OP: Favourite meal?
W: I don’t have one. I love food in general.
Unfortunately, as I’m no longer a young
man, I cannot eat everything I want but
am relegated to eating those things that are
relatively healthy for me. If I ate whatever
I wanted to, I would likely only be teaching
another two years... before I dropped dead
in the corridor.

So there you have it, the confessions of
Wesley Snider. If you get the impression

that he’s an interesting person from this
interview, try taking his classes! You won’t
regret it.

 

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