Wish List

Dear Santa,

This spring I'm going to be teaching both the gen-ed class and Calculus 2. For Christmas, I'd like you to bring me some students who have the basic skills necessary to pass my class.

I'd like for my calculus students to know that . Please let them understand that (-1)ⁱ (-1)ⁱ⁺¹ = -1. Oh, and the chain rule. If I could have students in Calc 2 who can consistently use the chain rule, that would be fantastic.

In the gen-ed class, my requests are more modest. I'd like for my students to understand that even numbers are divisible by two. Additionally, I'd like for them to understand that if you take any whole number and multiply it by three that your result is divisible by three -- and that if you add one to a number that is divisible by three that your result is no longer divisible by three. I know that you already brought them all calculators; can I ask for them to be able to use their calculators? If I give them the amortization formula, the loan principal, the interest rate, and the number of years, please let them be able to use their calculators to evaluate the expression.

If it's not too greedy, I have a few more requests. I'd like for all my students to be able to learn information by reading it from a textbook and for them to understand that hard work is usually necessary (but not always sufficient) for learning mathematics.

Thanks so much for listening to my requests,
Becky Hirta