Back in high school, a lot of students spent the waning seconds at the start of their math class wandering aimlessly, hoping for some sort of excuse to not attend. Perhaps, they thought, one of the hallway’s fluorescent lights would drop on their head or a heavy backpack would knock them over. Whatever the case, they hoped for an accident requiring hospitalization. After all, it is math, one of the most hated and terrifying disciplines.

Now in college, those students still head to math class, preparing for a subject that they still consider the mother of all pains, proceeding with heavy, dragging and reluctant footsteps.

However, students of Wesley Snider, math instructor here at Douglas College, have good reason to frolic to lecture.

Wesley, also the chair of the math department, makes learning math less intimidating. His lectures are interspersed with humour, and are supported by clear and understandable lessons. And what’s more, he is one of the nicest and most approachable professors out there.

So naturally, it seemed like a good idea to interview Wesley and ask him about his teaching and things like “ratemyprofessors.com”, favourite music, television shows and other fun things. Fortunately, he was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions—with a lot of candidness too!

Other Press: Have you ever visited ratemyprofessors.com, a website that enables 
students to rate teachers?

Wesley: Yes, I have. I recall checking it from time to time when it was relatively new. I don’t look at it so often anymore. I think perhaps the novelty has worn off.

OP: Has it ever been mentioned among your coworkers?

W: Yes, although usually in a joking way. If an instructor has a particularly low class average on an exam, a colleague may suggest—in mock horror— that the instructor’s rating on ratemyprofessors.com will take a beating. The site is primarily a source of entertainment. The whole chilli pepper thing is amusing.

OP: You rate 4.6 out of five overall and a three on “average easiness.” What do you say to that?

W: Well I don’t take the site too seriously. Every few years I give my students an instructor/course evaluation in order get feedback on my performance.

The problem with the website feedback is that one usually gets the extremes. The only people who are going to log on to comment are those that love you or loathe you. I haven’t seen any comments to the effect of, “Yeah, I guess he’s satisfactory.” When you think about it, those with the greatest motivation to bother with logging a comment are those that have an axe to grind. I suppose some people feel that they can exact some revenge for a bad grade they received. Perhaps it’s a form of catharsis.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that there seem to be a lot of errors in the comments. The course numbers sometimes refer to courses that don’t exist, or the comment will make mention of something that leads me to believe that this student was never in my class.

Having said that, I would be perfectly pleased with a three on the easiness scale if my students felt that I was helpful and explained things well. I’m not there to make everything easy for them, but to help them to learn the material. I don’t know very many instructors who would be unhappy with the reputation of being tough but fair.

OP: Do you consider your grading fair?

W: The subject of grading is a complicated one. How one grades depends on what one feels is important. This is an area which sees significant differences between instructors, and sometimes this leads students to believe they are being treated unfairly by one instructor or another.

Some instructors place more importance on a correct answer and not so much on the method of obtaining the solution; others place all the importance on the method with little regard for the actual answer.

For some, neatness and organisation matter little as long as the concepts are understood; for others neatness and organisation are learned skills necessary for clarity of thought and all-important to success in mathematics.

None of this is fair or unfair, however. The notion of fairness in grading hinges on expectation. One’s grading may be unfair if the students could not reasonably be expected to know what is important and what is not. I sometimes hear that my grading is unfair because a student had a correct final answer but didn’t receive full marks, even though I’ve explained that the final answer is worth only one mark of the possible four or five for the question, or that I took off marks for improper notation even after I’ve taken the time to explain the importance of notation in mathematics.

I don’t think that students always agree with my method of grading, but I do think my grading is fair in that I believe it to be consistent with what I’ve stressed in class.

OP: What kind of student were you in college? Studious? Boisterous?

W: I was a boring student for most of my college and university days. I have always been easily distracted and I found I was incapable of both focussing on what my professors were saying and taking notes at the same time. I tried just listening and not taking notes but that didn’t work very well. Instead, I would concentrate on the notes but after about ten minutes I would be hopelessly lost as to what the professor was going on about. If you asked me right after lecture what had gone on in class, I would be unable to tell you, but I had the notes! I would then have to read the textbook and the notes, and then the text again, and then try the questions, go back to the examples done in my notes, etc. This made for a much longer learning process than those of my classmates who actually (at least partially) understood what was going on during class and didn’t have to start from scratch after lecture.

Needless to say, compared to my peers, I did more work and got less sleep. It wasn’t until my fourth year as an undergraduate, and then as a grad student, that I actually had the time to have any fun. But those stories wouldn’t be suitable here.

OP: When did you decide that teaching math was the right route?

W: I never thought about teaching until I was a TA in grad school. I had never had the opportunity before that and then you are just sort of thrust into it. You show up one day never having taught, and the next day you’re standing in front of a room full of people —no training—pretending that you know what you’re doing. There they are, all wide-eyed and nervous in their first week of university, and there you are feeling just the same. It was absolutely terrifying. After a while, I began to quite enjoy it. I felt like I was actually helping people to overcome difficulties. It made me feel good.

OP: Is the humour you use in class preconceived or spontaneous?

W: Mostly it is spontaneous and, therefore, sometimes incomprehensible. There are a few jokes that I use over and over again because they are well suited to some particular parts of a lecture and I can’t resist—though they were spontaneous the first time.

OP: What is your favourite math formula?

W: Euler’s formula, though there are many of those. Here we have five fundamental numbers all related to each other via one simple relation. Brilliant… nothing like it.

OP: Has a student ever gotten straight As in your calculus class?

W: Yes. I had a student get a final mark of 99.2 per cent. She lost a mark and a half on the first exam and did perfectly in everything else, including the comprehensive final exam. We get some excellent students here.

OP: What’s the most unusual thing you’ve had to deal with as a teacher at Douglas College?

W: Students, I suppose. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. We are all unique, some more unique than others. Even with our small class sizes a mathematics instructor can have over 250 different students in a year. So I’ve had around 4000 students in my classes over the years. One can’t help but run into a few “unusual” specimens of the human race.

OP: What advice do you have for students taking or going to take your class?

W: Most of my advice would be the standard stuff: read your text before coming to class, make sure you actually come to class, make sure you pay attention in class, etc.

However, I also think it is important that students take responsibility for their education. Far too often I see unsuccessful students that haven’t taken full advantage of the resources available to them—resources put in place to help them succeed. Some students will go through the semester, failing every evaluation, and never once speak to the instructor.

One of the benefits of coming to Douglas is the accessibility of the instructors. A student may come to see me and find that I’m no help at all—fair enough, at least they tried. However, many students need to be more proactive about the learning process, adopting a more ambitious attitude before the class ever starts. That may be difficult. It may mean that a shy person has to put up a hand in class, but that may also be the price of success for that individual.

OP: What music do you like?

W: It varies. When I have to focus I prefer classical. It’s hard to sing along to Vivaldi. AC/CD is better for driving and many other things. I’ve been enjoying Radiohead lately… and The Chieftains and The White Stripes.

OP: Favourite television programs?

W: The Simpsons, those British mysteries and anything with Ricky Gervais in it.

OP: How many more years will you be teaching?

W: Given that the odds are stacked against my winning the lottery and that I’m unqualified for any other job, I suspect I will be teaching for many years yet. I would have said another 23 years, but since there is no longer any mandatory retirement age at the College, I suppose I could keep going until I drop dead in the corridor.

OP: Favourite meal?

W: I don’t have one. I love food in general. Unfortunately, as I’m no longer a young man, I cannot eat everything I want but am relegated to eating those things that are relatively healthy for me. If I ate whatever I wanted to, I would likely only be teaching another two years… before I dropped dead in the corridor.

So there you have it, the confessions of Wesley Snider. If you get the impression that he’s an interesting person from this interview, try taking his classes! You won’t regret it.