User:David W Gillette

I am David Gillette, recently retired from teaching mathematics at a community college in the USA.

My four years of undergraduate study were done in physics, at Wheaton College in Wheaton IL. The BS was awarded in 1964. My year and a half of graduate study were completed in 1966, at Oregon College of Education. This campus is now known as Western Oregon University. I earned a Master of Arts in Teaching in mathematics.

Next I spent a year and a half teaching math and science in a private high school in Salem OR. Then I joined a computer education project for two years. Our aim was to introduce computer concepts into several high schools in the mid Willamette valley. From there I was drafted and served two years in the USMC, running computer equipment in Santa Ana CA.

In 1971, I began my stay at Chemeketa Community College in Salem OR. Over 32 years of full-time work I my emphasis was on developmental mathematics (preparing or providing review for students, readying them to accomplish university level math.) I also taught precalculus algebra and trigonometry, calculus, and introduction to discrete math. I taught a few computer programming courses in Basic and Pascal, in the early years of the microcomputer.

After retiring from full-time teaching in 2003, I worked just less than half-time for two years, before retiring completely in 2005.

Current articles

Elementary functions

Birthday coincidence

Solving cubic equations