Activities, Writings, and Videos by Debra K. Borkovitz
When someone shares a syllabus with me, it’s usually to show me the course content, not the attendance policy, but these days I also think about the message the syllabus sends to students with chronic illnesses or medical crises. That … Read More
Last year I had surgery that resulted in unfortunately placed stitches; in order to avoid tearing them, I couldn’t sit or bend at the waist (and for the first two weeks, I couldn’t shower and had to minimize standing and … Read More
Note: This is the second post in my series on teaching with a chronic illness. Here is the introduction to the series. When you have a chronic illness and a job, by definition you work when you are sick. Before … Read More
Last semester, I taught my first two classes wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat tilted to cover half my face, with the lights turned off. The students thought I looked cool.
Is teaching math to kids easy? Should any reasonably intelligent person who can do “plus, times, minus, and divide” be able to start teaching elementary math tomorrow, skipping college math and all those waste-of-time education classes? Could most smart people, … Read More
Last night I went to see the play Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze, written and performed by Gioia De Cari. Gioia and I were friends at MIT – we both started the Math PhD program … Read More