When I was a kid, I thought my math teachers were geniuses who instantaneously understood every math topic the first time they saw it. I was never that talented, and I am not now. As a GCU math teacher, where we have embarked on this strange online adventure of never seeing each other face-to-face, I begin each course with sharing a short online video about myself. I want my students to know there is a real person behind the GCU email address, and that I am not someone who understood all the math I encountered the first time around - or sometimes the second. So I have some empathy when my students don't understand everything the first time too.

When I first began teaching at GCU, my kids asked me whether I was sure there really is a GCU and it is not just a post office box and a website. Perhaps some GCU students wonder the same thing. I didn't have a convincing answer until I visited the campus. I toured the campus, bought a GCU shirt, met some of the staff, and most importantly I posed for a picture with Thunder, the GCU mascot. So I post that picture in each course, with an explanation that I am the one without the antelope antlers, just in case there is some confusion.

Faculty Spotlight:

Jerry Tuttle has a Bachelor's degree in math from Queens College and a Master's degree in applied math from the University of Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and he works as an actuary for an insurance company across from Ground Zero and the World Trade Center in New York City.

In addition to teaching math courses for GCU, Jerry is the webmaster for a non-profit organization that reads the daily newspaper aloud for low-vision people and he writes fictional short stories. Neither his three sons nor his girlfriend have the slightest interest in math.