Some Feedbacks from My Students
[last update: 09/09/09]
[maintainer: Jianqiang Zhao]
Dear ... :
I am writing on behalf of Dr. Zhao, whom I believe deserves tenure. Dr. Zhao was my professor for two semesters of Real Analysis and I am currently in his Abstract Algebra class. I have had other classes with Dr. , and of the math faculty I have found Dr. Zhao to be the most approachable for help. While I was in his Real Analysis class I was amazed by Dr. Zhao's level of commitment to teaching. I can remember numerous instances when I would visit his office for help long after his scheduled office hours and he was always happy to assist me. During second semester of Real Analysis he set up a weekly extra help session in his office which was immensely helpful. Near the end of the year I actually stayed in his office working until 2 am and he was happy to help the entire time. I've never had a professor who was as willing to put in so much extra effort to help me learn. I tutor mathematics for the department three nights a week, and so I am familiar with Dr. Zhao's assignments in many of his lower level classes, and I must say that he is very demanding teacher. However, the problems he chooses are similar to the problems one encounters in higher level math classes; for instance, in his Calculus section he regularly assigns the questions that require proofs rather than the more common computational problems. I feel that the students who bring Dr. Zhao's questions to me are forced to think about aspects of mathematics which I did not get much experience with in the Calculus class I took at St. Petersburg College. I feel that this gives them a more thorough understanding of the subject than I received from the more computationally oriented class I took. I feel that Dr. Zhao is an excellent teacher and a great asset to this school.
P. C.
Dear
Dr....:
My name is ... and I was fortunate enough to have had Dr. Zhao as a professor for Complex Variables before I earned my B.S. in Physics from Eckerd. I heard that Dr. Zhao has come up for tenure and I felt that it was my duty to write this letter to recommend him. He has had a very beneficial effect on my understanding of some of the most challenging mathematics I ever attempted. Dr. Zhao demonstrated the quality I admire most in teacher, one that separates so many Eckerd professors from their peers. He took a personal interest in his students, and gave freely of his time and energy with a genuine desire to see them excel. Dr. Zhao gave me and indeed all the students in my class personal attention whenever we soght it, helping us to master incredibly difficult material with patience and understanding even after hours in his office.
During the course I took with Dr. Zhao it became clear to me in some small measure the truly vast understanding he has over his field. I was awed by his ability to recall and provide complicated formulae from memory, oftne deviating from his prepared notes to elucidate some finer point or another or in response to a student's question. The resonas we had all decided to take his course mattered to him and finding many physics students interested in the application of complex variables to physical situations, he adapted his approach and in the process gave me extrememly valuable insight into omnipresent physical formulae, such as the Dirac delta functions, that I would never have had otherwise despite its repetition in many classes within my major. Finally I must praise Dr. Zhao's work ethic. On more than one occasion I found Dr. Zhao hard at work in the NS computer lab, running computer simulations and exploring research questions in mathematics, at 1:00 in the morning long after everyone else had left, demonstrating his commitment to his research. I believe Dr. Zhao will benefit Eckerd College and his students greatly in the years to come should the shool decide to confirm him for tenure.
N. C.
Prof. Zhao,
I am just writing to let you know that I took the exam at 2-5pm on Wednesday. I thought that, all in all, it was a very fair exam (not too difficult, not too complicated, but at the same time not that straight-forward). It is strange in a way, because as I was taking it, I could see that it was relatively easy, but still I don't think that I managed to do that well in it.
Anyway, this is just to thank you for the time you devoted to the students in your section. In retrospect, I am glad that I took this course, because even though I do not feel at ease applying the material in a fast manner (I think what you pinpointed it down to was correct ... lack of training), I understand it well. The latter fact alone is fulfilling more than one ways!
I really want to point out that the lectures were given in an amazingly
clarified way, which made studying the text-book all the more easier. I was
surprised to read last year's "review" of your section as I came to
find myself thinking "this is
(Side note: I had told you that I had devoted/invested a tremendous amount of time in studying for Chem35 ... well I am happy to report that it paid off ... I got an "A" in Advanced Organic Chemistry! ... I still cannot believe it!!!)
One small suggestion if I may...again in retrospect, I believe that weekly quizes do help immensely in the long run ... I often found myself falling back in Math whenever a "big" midterm in some other course was coming up. Please, in the future, do give weekly quizzes because they help keep the students focused. Math0018 material is easy to comprehend, and that makes it much easier to fall in a false sense of security of knowing it. Maybe if we had quizes, even just upsurdly easy ones (just so as to get the students to prepare well and not necessarily to flunk them...), it might have helped people more. I talked to almost everybody in the section and it seems that the common sentiment was that no one felt as if they had devoted a fair amount of studying to this course. In a way it sucks, because this is by far the best course of Math I have ever taken, yet the circumstances (the other courses) were such that I feel that I COULD have, and SHOULD have gotten more out of it.
I don't want to tire you by writing anything else, so let me just say once again: Thank you for being my instructor! I hope that the semester is ending smoothly for you, and I wish you all the luck in receiving your teaching certification!
I am going to be around next week. Would it be possible to meet one afternoon?
Yours respectfully,
A. J.
Dear
Prof. Zhao:
I'm sending this email to thank you for the help you gave me this past semester. Generally speaking, the lectures were very helpful because it was difficult understanding the transition from 2 to 3 dimensional calculus. For me, it is difficult to learn straight from a textbook because the graphs are already completely drawn; when the graphs are drawn step by step and each component of it is described while drawing it, understanding the information is easy. (The lecture on spherical coordinates was particularly good in that context.)
Because a sufficient amount of the course dealt with finding volumes, I think more emphasis should be placed on teaching students HOW to draw the 3-D graphs themselves before attempting to set up the integral. Although this skill can be learned through practice, it would be nice if this is taught during a lecture early in the semester.
Another way to facilitate students' understanding of calculus is to provide students with examples where it is applied in physics or reality. I was puzzled during the lecture when the gradient was introduced; although I knew how to use it in problems, and although the book described it on a graph, I did not know what it really was. I know that in pure math, sometimes things cannot be explained in 'real life situations' because math is just too far ahead of technology and science, but I think it's possible for calculus.
Props are always good, whether they are overhead slides, or even just colored chalk. During the final lecture of last year, you introduced a completely new concept called the Mobius Stripe. That simple folding and twisting a plain paper was much better than trying to explain what it would look like in words.
N. M.
Dear Prof. Zhao:
I'm sending this email to thank you for the help you gave me this past semester. Generally speaking, the lectures were very helpful because it was difficult understanding the transition from 2 to 3 dimensional calculus. For me, it is difficult to learn straight from a textbook because the graphs are already completely drawn; when the graphs are drawn step by step and each component of it is described while drawing it, understanding the information is easy. (The lecture on spherical coordinates was particularly good in that context.) Because a sufficient amount of the course dealt with finding volumes, I think more emphasis should be placed on teaching students HOW to draw the 3-D graphs themselves before attempting to set up the integral. Although this skill can be learned through practice, it would be nice if this is taught during a lecture early in the semester. Another way to facilitate students' understanding of calculus is to provide students with examples where it is applied in physics or reality. I was puzzled during the lecture when the gradient was introduced; although I knew how to use it in problems, and although the book described it on a graph, I did not know what it really was. I know that in pure math, sometimes things cannot be explained in 'real life situations' because math is just too far ahead of technology and science, but I think it's possible for calculus. Props are always good, whether they are overhead slides, or even just colored chalk. During the final lecture of last year, you introduced a completely new concept called the Mobius Stripe. That simple folding and twisting a plain paper was much better than trying to explain what it would look like in words.
The following is my suggestion regarding this class. Basically, I thought your class was taught very well. My only suggesting really is to try to have a bit more discussion/class involvement, which I realize can be difficult with calculus, especially at 9 am. But i thought that you were very clear and understandable in your lectures, and most of the time i left class really understanding what was going on. thank you.
W. Y.
Dear Mr. Zhao,
I think that overall your lectures were very effective in terms of covering all the material in a timely and coherent fashion. I liked especially that we spent a good portion of the class time going over specific example problems - I think that was the most helpful aspect of the lectures. My only suggestion would be to spend a little more time going over some of the trickier proofs (since sometimes the book was a little hard to follow - e.g. in the case of proving that the limit for a multivariable function exists). For me, I think I benefited the most from help sessions at the resource center and office hour visits; I especially appreciated your patience and your flexibility in terms of setting up appointments.
Thanks again and good luck with your teaching certificate!
Sincerely,
B. E.
Hi prof. Zhao,
I think this semester has been great. As for your lectures, I definitely found them worth my time and beneficial to understanding the material. I found that you were extremely organized when it came to presenting material and that you gave the appropriate examples that helped us to understand better how to apply the concepts. The lectures were definitely worth the time to understand the material a great deal better than just with the book.
As for the review sections, those were helpful also because if I wasnt able to complete any problem on the review problems, the sections explained exactly how to do those problems so that I had at least some understanding of every type of problem when the exam time came. Having the review problems ahead of time was very helpful so that I could pinpoint what I needed the most help on so that the review session could be extremely beneficial to me.
I found your class extremely organized and well taught. I learned a great deal...
Thanks again for your wonderful job....
J. P.
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