EXCERPT FROM LETTER TO THE DEAN OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ABOUT MY TEACHING FROM A PARTNER AT A NATIONAL INVESTMENT FIRM ABOUT A COURSE HE ATTENDED:
“…My purpose…is to congratulate you on the quality of the course and on the quality of the instructor…this high level of quality, clarity, and sophistication made available to the students was a direct result of his leadership and knowledge.
Dr. Feldman taught this course at a very detailed level. His raw intelligence, detailed knowledge of the subject and pleasant teaching style made the class challenging, yet enjoyable. Dr. Feldman was not satisfied to simply teach the mechanics of how to solve the problems presented in this class, but spent a great deal of time in ensuring that the students …understood the details of why the mechanics work…
Many of the students…were very gifted…I firmly believe … these students are going to owe Dr. Feldman an enormous debt of gratitude…As they progress in their subsequent professional careers, his mentoring, both in method and substance, will prove to be invaluable…”
FROM A STUDENT WHO TOOK A SUMMER COURSE I DESIGNED AND TAUGHT
“…My differential equations course [at MIT] was very pertinent to [Professor Feldman’s Course]. I had a better understanding of the MIT course…I did very well in that class as a result….the text [and Professor Feldman’s] notes and problem sets/tests have proved to be a great resource…”
A FEW COMMENTS FROM STUDENTS WHO TOOK A COURSE IN DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS FROM ME IN 2011.
“You could really tell how much Professor Feldman cared for the students. It’s not often that you get a professor who is so concerned with how well the students are doing and who works so hard to ensure that they will succeed. I really appreciated his efforts in this area.”
“This guy was great! He obviously loves math, teaching it, talking about it, doing it… When an instructor is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his subject, then his students can’t help but learn.”
“… I thought I learned a good deal about differential equations, but more importantly, I found that my problem-solving and analytical math skills were greatly enhanced by this class. The material was challenging, but I found that if I put in the time to think it through, I could understand it in great depth.”
“Professor Feldman [had a] positive attitude and respect…for his students… he said that the material was difficult but that as smart students we could handle it and then congratulat[ed] us if we did well on an exam or ask[ed] why we struggled if we did. I also appreciated him posting his lecture notes online.”
“I just wanted to mention what a fantastic professor Professor Feldman is. He really is dedicated to teaching the material to his students and really wants to see them master not only the material but also the problem-solving skills needed to be good engineers. He is open to people asking questions during lecture and often poses questions to the class during the lectures…this is something that professors of my other large lecture classes rarely do, and yet something that I found immensely helpful in following the lecture. Professor Feldman is also willing to meet with students during office hours to help them understand the material. He does care that his students learn. He actually took the time to email me to congratulate me on improving my test score–something that none of my other professors of large lecture classes would do. I think this shows how much he dedicates himself to this class.”
“He teaches like he’s tutoring, so if you ask questions sometimes the most meaningful part of the lecture comes out of this. What’s more he made us laugh when he tried to bring in examples from real life about how things work. His best moments lecturing were when he was talking about explaining the differential
equations concepts to his wife. He tried to put the concept into plain language and it really helped. I almost wanted to ask “how would you explain this to your wife” for some subjects.”
COMMENTS FROM VARIOUS OTHER CLASSES
“I was glad that the instructor consistently linked back what we were learning to broader mathematical concepts. It provided a larger picture of what we were doing and frequently made the topics more understandable, as I fit them into a broader context.”
“Prof Feldman was very engaging and explained the material well.”
“Good stories to connect material to real life.”
“maintained relaxed classroom environment, wanted students to do well”
“The professor’s drive to make sure all students understood the material, explaining it twice or more to be sure”
“The course covered statistics at a level which was much deeper than I had originally suspected possible.”
“I feel that I learned to think more mathematically and work my way through a problem, even if I was not entirely certain what to do at first.”
“I loved the fact that I can now work on an unfamiliar problem and solve it, just by thinking mathematically instead of looking something up. I feel learning to think through it logically will greatly help me in the future.”
“The instructor was really passionate about teaching the material and Math in general. He answered every question fully and made sure to clearly explain important concepts. I ended up learning much more than I was required to and much more than I expected in this course.”
“Seeing statistics from a mathematical viewpoint made so much more sense than the “cookbook” teaching done at the 300-level, where too little attention is paid to intuition and rigor.”
“Homework assignments were helpful in learning the material but were not overly time
consuming”
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