My calculus review: an update!

I'm going to get better about blogging, and I'm saying that here because saying something to people is psychologically proven as a way to help you stick to your goals. (E.g., if you want to lose 10 pounds, tell your friends that you're going to lose 10 pounds in the next 3 months!) Anyway—calculus is going great!

I'm way past "review" and far into stuff that I didn't remember at all. I'm almost 90% finished with Khan Academy's AP Calc AB course, and I tutored one calculus student throughout first semester. One thing I appreciate now about calculus is that it potentially involves almost everything from Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Trig, Precalc. There's something fun—and I really hope I can pass this on to my students!—about the sense that calculus is truly the culmination, the raison d'etre, of everything that came before.

I'm not trying to gloss over occasional brief struggles, but the overall message is that learning things, especially tough things, is naturally and inherently rewarding, and part of my job will always be to keep it that way.

-Matt