MTH 95 Syllabus

Teaching Philosophy.

I fully believe that everybody can do math and be successful in this class. In my experience, there are several helpful ingredients to successful completion of a math class: inspiration/motivation, supportive instruction, intentional practice, time, and support (inspired by Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers"). I will do what I can to contribute to your inspiration and motivation for this class, to teach you, to provide lots of opportunities to practice intentionally, and to support you in any way I can. I hope you bring motivation to complete your study goal and time to study and practice.

Furthermore, I recognize that each person has a different history and story of their education. Some positive and supportive, others negative and all on their own, most of us will have had some of each. In my class you are not alone. I will reach out to you as best as I can and you are always welcome to approach me with any question or concerns you have. If I don't have an answer, we will either find it together or I will refer you to somebody who does.

Instructor Information.

Instructor:

Heiko Spoddeck

Pronouns:

he/him/his

Office Hours:

Mon/Wed 9:30-10:30 am/ and Saturday 10 am - 12 pm. Click on the days/times to be taken to the office hours zoom room.

Email:

heiko.spoddeck@pcc.edu

Office Phone:

(971) 722-4179

Hello! My name is Heiko Spoddeck, and I'll be your instructor for this course.

I started tutoring math, physics, and chemistry at PCC 18.5 years ago and have been teaching math for the last 16 years. I grew up in East-Germany, received my MS in Physics at the Technical University Berlin, and have lived in Portland for the last 20 years.

At the PCC, I teach a variety of courses from MTH 20 up through MTH 261, as well as the self-paced ALC/ALM Math Lab courses that range from ALC 20 - ALM 111, as well as ALM 243. The self-paced classes let students review previously learned material, receive support and extra practice for their MTH classes, or learn the material at their own unique pace.

I'm excited to start this course with you, and want to be clear you know how I view my role in this course. I genuinely view myself as your instructor, and not merely a “facilitator.” Even though this is an online course, I'm very much here to teach you, and I want to help you in whatever ways I can. The course is very intentionally set up so that you should have everything you need, but I still expect to interact with you and to have you interact with your classmates. I'm eager to provide any further explanation/examples when necessary, and feel that being able to do this on an individual level with students is one of the greatest strengths of online courses and instruction.

Your next step should be to continue reading this module and thoroughly go over the syllabus. It is helpful to print out the course schedule for the quarter. Once you have done this, get going with the tasks in Module 0 and Module 1.

Best wishes for this term and I look forward to working with you!