This past quarter, I had the good fortune to teach CMPS 160: Introduction to Computer Graphics as a visiting lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. Since this was my first actual teaching gig I was slightly apprehensive at the start, but it ended up being a wonderful experience. In particular, I think it’s worth publicly mentioning that the Baskin School of Engineering treats its temporary faculty incredibly well. I had an amazing and diligent TA (Darren Fitzpatrick), state-of-the-art facilities, an ever-helpful administrative staff, and free reign in molding the course to suit my intellectual and pedagogical predilections.
What really made the experience so worthwhile, however, was the students. UCSC is not a particularly highly ranked school for computer science, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going in. Perhaps I just got lucky, but the 24 students in my class were, almost to a person, a joy to work with. They were highly intelligent and interested, asked incisive questions in lecture, came to office hours when they needed to, had fun in class without letting it derail the discussion, and rose to meet my (eminent? lofty? towering?) expectations in a truly inspiring manner. Several of the final projects, to be frank, absolutely blew me away. My only reservation in this regard (and, perhaps, the reason for the department’s ranking) is that most of my students were lacking what I would consider to be a sufficient background in the mathematical and theoretical underpinnings of computing. It’s cool, though: we pretty much fixed that by the time the quarter ended.
Today I received my student evaluations for the course. A few of the comments were too good not to post:
“This class was fantastic…even if I end up failing.”
“Also, he is easy to relate to because he is a giant nerd, which is highly appropriate.”
“At what point did you learn the word draconian and how soon afterwards did it become your mantra?”
“If you continue teaching don’t lose your sense of humor and throw your hands around more…it helped me stay awake.”
“Less revelry in our suffering would be a good thing.”
“Jerry — you should seek out Mr. Roisen at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. He is almost as evil as you, except he teaches AP Biology and makes you color human/plant biology in strictly different colors.”
Did they get me, or did they get me?
If you only see one movie this summer, it should be this one.
