Teaching
Teaching Experience
Graduate Student Instructor
The European Economy: Econ 440
Student comments:
"Nate was one of the best Economics GSIs I've had. He was very knowledgeable about all of the material and explained everything clearly in class. He was also always willing to make time to meet outside of class or office hours to answer any questions. I had him as my GSI throughout the whole semester, but appreciate all of the work he did taking on extra discussion sections in the middle of the semester when the other GSI was no longer able to keep teaching. He was very kind and understanding and also acknowledged other viewpoints or counterarguments to the readings we discussed to provide context."
"Nathan is a really great GSI, he always has nuanced answers to our questions and is able to explain the often dense readings very clearly."
"Through the discussion sections, you could tell that Nate knew the material and was passionate about the engaging the class in the course. He was always available in office hours – holding both in person and virtual office hours. In OH, he explained any lingering questions from the readings which helped enormously with understanding the material deeper. Also, I appreciated how Nate stepped up after the other GSI couldn't complete the class."
"Nate is a great GSI and good guy in general. He facilitated discussion well, even when some students were reluctant to participate, and was kind and helpful outside of class too."
American Industries: Econ 330
Student comments:
"Nate is an excellent instructor and really made complex readings digestible for students. I learned a lot in this class due to Nate guiding us through some very complex topics. He is really good."
"Really enjoyed Nathan's instruction, he was engaged and encouraged students to be thoughtful about the content covered in lecture"
"Nate is a great GSI and good guy in general. He facilitated discussion well, even when some students were reluctant to participate, and was kind and helpful outside of class too."
"Good discussion session. Nathan did great at keeping the class engaged especially for a 9 AM, which can be challenging. He was clearly comfortable with the material, and expanding on points."
"Great GSI. Appreciate the availability of office hours. Genuinely seemed to care that we understood the material."
Ethics in Economic Behavior: Econ 490
For this course, my duties were primarily grading and holding office hours. I did not receive formal reviews.
Intermediate Microeconomic Theory: Econ 401
Student comments:
"In my past experience, I found the discussion sections for my econ classes pretty useless. However, this was one of the most helpful sections I have ever had. Section was super important for asking questions, and for clarifying and reinforcing the material covered in lecture."
"Great GSI! Cares a lot about helping students!"
"Nathan Mather always answered my questions, via email or in–person in–office hours. He really helped me out, I have no idea what would have happened if I hadn't been able to frequent his office hours. Thanks, man."
"Good engaging discussion section"
"Overall, Nathan was a great TA. He did his job well, and did everything to his ability to help students succeed"
Principles of Microeconomics: Econ 101
Student comments:
"Nathan was simply a great teacher. I've heard horror stories of bad GSIs, and he was the complete opposite. I learned a lot from what he talked and I liked how he runs things. Absolutely wonderful guy whom I would love to have in the future, assuming he does any other teaching work here. I wish him the best of luck in receiving his PhD."
"He teaches us the general way of thought on how to solve the questions, I think that is super helpful. He is also really nice, always answer questions after discussion."
"Nathan is a really good teacher and seemed to genuinely care about the success of his students"
"Nate was a superb GSI for my ECON 101 section. He was chill and explained concepts well, especially graphical ones."
"Encouraging, helped make sure I understood concepts and questions thoroughly"
"The quality of instruction in this course was great. Nathan helped clarify any misunderstandings I had about material covered in lecture."
"Overall, I believe Mr. Mather was a great teacher and was good at explaining the material."
"It is difficult to have a full discussion over zoom but I believe Nathan rose above those difficulties."
Teaching Consultant
As a teaching consultant for the public policy department, I created course guides and problem set solutions for PUBPOL 529: Statistics in Public Policy, PUBPOL 571: Applied Econometrics, and PUBPOL 639: Quantitative Methods of Program Evaluation. These guides outline how to complete required tasks for the class in R. I would love to adapt and expand the material I created for a more general R guide in a class of my own.
See a sample here
Tutoring
From the Fall of 2015 to Spring 2017 I tutored for the UW Madison Athletic Department between 5 and 15 hours a week. I tutored a wide range of courses, including introductory and intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics, agricultural economics, agricultural finance, statistics for economists, econometrics, environmental economics, and behavioral economics. While tutoring does not provide the depth of experience as teaching, I gained experience teaching a wide variety of courses.