What is it?

This is my third blog. The first, the Tired of Grinding Project was a record of my online poker playing as an opportunity for my own study of the game. I tried to make a parallel blog, The Hand History Project as a place for me to compile a bunch of hands that I played well to help me to reinforce the things I'm doing correctly and to help me to identify errors.

I have not posted on the first blog in nearly two weeks, but I also have not played any poker during that time. I still intend to keep that blog going. The hand history project is going to be a dud in my hands forever. I don't like how I started things off, and I don't intend to try again for a while. I think I would need to come up with an alternate system if I ever wanted to see anything result from there.

I like the idea of blogging. I like keeping records of things; it helps fight against selective memory and self-deception. I like forcing myself to express my thoughts in words; I tend not to believe that I can really understand something unless I can explain it well to someone else. I like the idea of being able to write down my thoughts at almost any time from almost anywhere (I almost always have internet access, but I'm not always near my own computer).

I am nearing the completion of my Ph.D. in math at UC San Diego and head out to Nevada State College, where I will begin a career as a college professor. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm looking to be a primarily teaching professor, not a research professor. After spending 5 years doing math as my primary focus, I have discovered that I don't like it enough to continue doing it indefinitely. However, having been a TA for 5 years, I can say that this is something that I am very certain will hold my attention.

Therefore, I am starting this blog. There are three major goals of this blog:

1. I want to record my thoughts about teaching. This includes reflections on things that I read, conferences I attend, or just general thoughts that float through my head. I will also occasionally have a new/experimental idea that I want to jot down somewhere for future reflection and potential implementation.
   
2. I want to record my teaching experiences. I taught a class less than a year ago, and I have already forgotten most of what happened during that class. I have some records that I can look up, but those will only tell me informational things about the class and very little about what I thought about things at that time. In other words, I can't get inside my head when I look back at those times. This blog will help me to remember.
3. I want to build up a good habit of professional reflection to become better at what I'm being paid to do.

That's all I have to say on my first post.