Teaching

 

Teaching Experience



Assisting the supervision of graduate students: During the period from June of 2003 to May of 2004 and since October of 2005, I have been working at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The institute is the first Japanese university exclusively for post-graduate studies; M. S. and Ph. D are the only degrees awarded. During this period, I have been organizing seminars for the (graduate) students of Professor Hiroakira Ono, the faculty member with whom I am collaborating. Additionally, I have been assisting with the supervision of these students by suggesting research projects and by providing partial guidance with their thesis.

Instructor /Teaching Assistant: During the years 1999-2003 and 2004-2005, I worked for the Department of Mathematics of Vanderbilt University as an instructor with full teaching responsibilities.

            During the year 2004-2005 I tought two classes per semester. In particular, in the first semester I tought two accelerated Calculus courses and during my second semester I tought the courses Abstract Algebra and Introduction to Mathematical Logic to third and fourth year students.

My workload for 1999-2003 was one class per semester plus one summer class. During this period I taught first year calculus (three hours per week) and accelerated calculus (four hours per week) courses. My teaching duties included construction of teaching material, based on the adopted textbook; lecturing; leading and supervising group work in class; selecting and constructing suggested homework problems and in-class worksheets; holding office hours; maintaining a course web page; conducting review sessions; and designing, administering and grading exams. In recognition of my success in the classroom, I was awarded the B. F. Bryant Prize for Excellence in Teaching by the department in 2002; I was the first non-native speaker to receive this distinction.

During 1998-1999, my first year at Vanderbilt University, I had only limited instructional duties, as they are described in the Graduate Teaching Program of the Department of Mathematics. I was a teaching assistant for one class per semester, and worked with an instructor, my mentor. I had to attend his lectures and discuss with him his presentation approach before and after class. Additionally, I had to hold weekly office hours for the students in class, assist with the construction and grading of exams and lecture four times per semester.

   
Courses Taught:


233 Abstract algebra: Course tought in Spring 2005. Content: Set theory, Group theory, Ring theory, Lattice theory.

 

250 Introduction to Mathematical Logic: Course tought in Fall 2004. Content: classical propositional logic, intuitionistic logic, relevance logic, elements of classical predicate logic.

 

150A First-year Calculus: Course taught in Fall 1999, Fall 2000 and Fall 2001. Content: functions, limits, differentiation of algebraic functions, applications of differentiation, integration.


150B First-year Calculus: Course taught in Spring 2002. Content: differentiation and integration of transcendental functions, methods of integration.


155A First-year Accelerated Calculus: Course taught in Fall 2002. Content: functions, limits, differentiation of algebraic functions, applications of differentiation, integration, applications including extreme points, areas, volumes, centroids, and work.


155B First-year Accelerated Calculus: Course taught in Spring 2000, Spring 2001 and Summer 2001. Content: differentiation and integration of transcendental functions, applications, methods of integration, coordinate geometry, polar coordinates, infinite series.


Tutor: In addition to my regular instructional duties, I worked at the Learning Center of Vanderbilt University for the fall semester of 2000. My workload was two hours per week. My duties included tutoring students in all levels and all mathematics courses available at Vanderbilt. I had to provide assistance, on an individual basis, to students on the material covered in their class, as well as on their assigned homework.

      During the spring semester of 2003, I worked for the School of Engineering of Vanderbilt University. I held reinforcement sessions for engineers and provided additional assistance.

During the summers of 1996, 1997 and 2000, I worked in a private tutoring school, in Greece. I tutored high school and university students on Euclidean geometry, high school algebra, calculus, linear algebra and statistics.

 

 

Educational activities



From Here to Infinity: A Foundation for Calculus: In 2001, I was a member of a group of graduate students in the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University that wrote a short supplement for first year calculus students, under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Jo Ann Staples, the faculty member coordinating calculus teaching. The material includes a review of high school algebra and trigonometry needed in the calculus series. We tried to present in detail the areas where students have the most difficulties and emphasize the points where usual mistakes occur. We added examples and a list of suggested problems, with an answer key at the end. During the first three weeks of the fall semester of 2001, all first year calculus courses covered material from our supplement. The attempt was considered successful, so in 2002 the material was revised and the second edition has been used since then.

 

Undergraduate Seminar: A group of four graduate students of the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University, including myself, founded the Undergraduate Seminar in Mathematics in the fall of 2001. Our motivation came from our view that undergraduate students are presented with a relatively limited range of mathematical topics. The university curriculum mainly offers courses that are standard and traditional. As a result, the students are not exposed to mathematics areas usually taught at the graduate level. Moreover, they are not presented with the intuitive and fun aspect of mathematics or with applications to our lives. Our goal was to present interesting parts of mathematics simplified so that they can be understood by undergraduate students. Our intention was to convince students, through a series of talks, that mathematics is applicable and can be enjoyable. Fifty-minute presentations were given once a week, mainly by fellow graduate students. A short reception preceding each talk helped attract students and create a friendly atmosphere. The speaker and the organizers were available for questions at the end of the presentation. We were gratified to find out that the students became interested, and kept coming accompanied by friends. As an indication of the impact of the endeavor to the student body, a talk that I presented was attended by more than one hundred students. We set up a web page with information regarding forthcoming talks, links to information about past presentations, and an e-mail list for interested students. Student suggestions were regularly collected and influenced the choice of future speakers.


Mentoring: The Department of Mathematics of Vanderbilt University has a sophisticated mentoring program for new teaching assistants. I found the program very helpful for my preparation as an instructor of mathematics. Each mentored student attends classes of his/her mentor on a regular basis, has before and after class discussions, assists with the design and grading of exams, and gives four lectures in the class per semester. The mentor is responsible for guiding the mentored student with respect to his/her teaching, discussing instruction techniques and advising the mentored student. I had the privilege of mentoring new teaching assistants, from the fall semester of 2000 to the fall semester of 2003 and I received awards for my contribution to the mentoring program.

 
General Assembly member: I was a member of the general assembly of the Department of Mathematics of Aristole University of Greece, as a student representative for the last two years of my undergraduate studies. The assembly consists of all faculty members of the department and 18 undergraduate students. The students do not have voting privileges, except on certain issues, but are allowed to speak and submit their proposals, especially on educational issues.

   
Evaluations committee: During the spring semester of 1998, I served as a member of the committee of the Department of Mathematics of Aristotle University that was responsible for the revision of the evaluation forms for the instructors in the department. The committee consisted of two faculty members and two undergraduate students. Our task was to design the evaluation forms to be used for the subsequent academic year and submit our proposal to the general assembly of the department.

My teaching philosophy.
 
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