It seems that this semester I have a surprisingly large number of students who are absent a lot for anxiety issues. I think I don't quite get it, don't quite really understand how difficult their level of anxiety is. I just want to say, "get your rear in gear and get to class." But I don't, because I think their issues are way more difficult than I comprehend.
I admit I've sort of lost track of how often their absences are self-reported anxiety. And how often they're absent without saying anything to me about it.
I have a fairly strict absence policy in my syllabus. Three unexcused (like official excuses) are okay, and then starting with number four there's a grade penalty. But I can't figure out how to handle the anxious students when I think they're probably anxious even if they don't email to tell me that.
And what about the other student who've missed classes? How do I handle them?
And the "I don't feel good" students who miss more than three? I'm not going to tell students they feel good; how could I? But I'm also not especially sympathetic about hangovers.
And then there's the depression problem. One student told me they were depressed because it was nearing the anniversary of the death of a loved one. I can see that might make things difficult. But I really don't know what to do if the person's absent a bunch.
We have presentations around here to help us understand when students have mental health problems, and to try to convince us to be sympathetic and helpful. But they never really get to what would actually be helpful. (One of the folks who came to talk to us suggested that it would be a radical new idea to give students a couple of days when they could not come to class if they weren't feeling well; but the three unexcused absences thing is something people were doing back in the bronze age when I was a student. So not really new or radical.)
I'm no counselor, but I do try to convince students to make an appointment. And when they tell me nothing's open for three or four weeks? What do I do?
I need to have a better sense of when what a student needs is to be told to get their rear in gear and when they need something else.
And I wonder how they're going to manage with a job? I can't imagine my employer would be especially sympathetic if I suddenly started taking days and days off because I'm not feeling well or am anxious. I'd run out of sick leave and then? (My colleagues are amazingly good at stepping up and filling in for folks who are ill or have family responsibilities. But I think patience would run thin for anxiety or depression problems.)
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
We Made the National News
Maybe if you're at a big name university, the idea of making the national news is heartening or exciting. Maybe your Nobel laureate made a new discovery or got interviewed for something important. Or maybe your sportsball team won some big game. Or maybe a child genius finished their PhD at 12.
But if you're at a regional university, the chances of making the national news are low. And the chances for making the national news for something good are much, much lower. And so, it's no surprise that we didn't make the news for something good.
Every single day, students at regional universities do good stuff: they serve their communities, do mentored research, help people, learn stuff, act kindly towards others, write good papers.
But it's the few students who do something really obnoxious who make the news. And so, they made the news, but the dignified, beautiful response of other students didn't. Nor did the supportive faculty response.
The problems don't get easier. Not these days.
There's a national tone these days that makes certain sorts of obnoxious behavior seem condoned, heck, modeled, by certain people in power. And then students think that's a great way to behave. And it's not. Because down here on earth, if you threaten people, it's harmful. And students shouldn't feel scared to go to class or live in their dorm or apartment. And they certainly shouldn't worry that classmates are plotting ways to kill them.
I felt almost sorry for our headmaster because he's dealing with the obnoxious behaviors which he certainly doesn't condone. But he's also got to face the fact that nothing that's been done in the past 20+ years has taught students not to behave obnoxiously, and nothing he's tried to do in the past 5 or however many years has had that effect either. And now he needs to come up with ways to convince students not to behave in certain obnoxious ways, and he's got to do it on a super limited budget.
He proposed having students learn not to do obnoxious things from an on-line learning module. And a number of faculty folks basically told him, "no" and pointed out that there's actually a number of faculty members with expertise in these areas, and we need more of us, and more support, rather than paying for some crappy module. (It's good to know that I'm not the only one who hates the stupid modules we're "required" to do.)
And so, we have a few new things coming up, and a lot of decisions to be made, many of which will involve FERPA protections.
It was a disheartening, hard week here in the North Woods.
But if you're at a regional university, the chances of making the national news are low. And the chances for making the national news for something good are much, much lower. And so, it's no surprise that we didn't make the news for something good.
Every single day, students at regional universities do good stuff: they serve their communities, do mentored research, help people, learn stuff, act kindly towards others, write good papers.
But it's the few students who do something really obnoxious who make the news. And so, they made the news, but the dignified, beautiful response of other students didn't. Nor did the supportive faculty response.
The problems don't get easier. Not these days.
There's a national tone these days that makes certain sorts of obnoxious behavior seem condoned, heck, modeled, by certain people in power. And then students think that's a great way to behave. And it's not. Because down here on earth, if you threaten people, it's harmful. And students shouldn't feel scared to go to class or live in their dorm or apartment. And they certainly shouldn't worry that classmates are plotting ways to kill them.
I felt almost sorry for our headmaster because he's dealing with the obnoxious behaviors which he certainly doesn't condone. But he's also got to face the fact that nothing that's been done in the past 20+ years has taught students not to behave obnoxiously, and nothing he's tried to do in the past 5 or however many years has had that effect either. And now he needs to come up with ways to convince students not to behave in certain obnoxious ways, and he's got to do it on a super limited budget.
He proposed having students learn not to do obnoxious things from an on-line learning module. And a number of faculty folks basically told him, "no" and pointed out that there's actually a number of faculty members with expertise in these areas, and we need more of us, and more support, rather than paying for some crappy module. (It's good to know that I'm not the only one who hates the stupid modules we're "required" to do.)
And so, we have a few new things coming up, and a lot of decisions to be made, many of which will involve FERPA protections.
It was a disheartening, hard week here in the North Woods.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Thoughts on Renaming Courses
In response to Fretful Porpentine's question about the possibility of renaming some courses.
We've got a fairly flexible lit curriculum; for majors and minors, we have say, coverage areas, including four geography/time based (early/late British/American), and some identity based (Women's, American Ethnic, World/Post-Colonial), and theory/film. We have these courses at both upper and lower levels, with the lower level courses serving a lot of General Education students. We also have genre-based courses at the lower level serving mostly Creative Writing and General Education students.
For the most part, the current naming gives the department and faculty lots of flexibility. We've hired so that each coverage area has at least one person, and some more. In a given semester, the Asian American lit specialist may teach a lower level course in American Ethnic lit and a senior seminar in American Ethnic lit; they may choose, say, Hmong American lit for the lower level course, and Asian American Autobiography for the senior seminar. Meanwhile, the specialist in African American lit may teach an upper level American Ethnic course in the Blues and an intro to lit. And the person who does Latinx lit may have a lower division poetry course and a reassignment. (We also have two American Indian lit courses taught pretty much every semester at different levels, in conjunction with the American Indian Studies program, and named specifically American Indian Lit rather than American Ethnic because they're cross-listed.)
Because the courses are only formally named "American Ethnic Lit," each person can follow their interests and specialization. We can be sure each course will be taught at least once a year, and students who decide they love Area A or Professor X can probably take a course at a different level in Area A or with Professor X if they choose.
The drawback is that when, say, an African American student looks at the catalog, they don't see any courses specifically labeled "African American Lit" that might give them a sense that they feel welcome in our department and major. So maybe they look at history, which labels courses "African American history" and think they're more welcome there. Or they look at another of the regional public universities around and feel more welcome in the English Department there.
Would having courses labeled specifically "African American Lit" work to make African American students feel more welcome? I don't know. And I'm not sure I know how to find out.
Then there's the offerings. Given course reassignments, sabbaticals, and so forth, can we be confident that we'll be able to offer a senior seminar in Asian American Lit at least every other year?
It would probably work in the American Ethnic areas, as it does in Women's lit. But in the theory area, it gets more complicated. We have one lower level theory course required of all majors and minors. And then we have an upper level theory and a senior seminar in theory. And various people teach those, often in conjunction with film courses. We could, conceivably, offer an upper level/senior seminar in critical race theory, queer theory, post-colonial/transnational theory, or some other fairly specialized theory. But we couldn't be sure we could offer any one of those every other year without tying down one faculty member to teach it. And that would mean that faculty member wasn't teaching some other upper level course. We teach one senior seminar, and one upper level theory each year, so we couldn't name, say, a critical race theory course at both the senior and upper level. And that would limit the faculty member to that one level; currently, that faculty member might decide to try out a critical race theory course at the senior seminar level, and then decide to try it at the upper level in a different year. Or they might not get assigned an other upper level theory course for several years.
I guess my questions are about whether students really would feel more welcome if they saw their identities reflected more closely in course names? And could we actually staff those courses at appropriate levels?
We've got a fairly flexible lit curriculum; for majors and minors, we have say, coverage areas, including four geography/time based (early/late British/American), and some identity based (Women's, American Ethnic, World/Post-Colonial), and theory/film. We have these courses at both upper and lower levels, with the lower level courses serving a lot of General Education students. We also have genre-based courses at the lower level serving mostly Creative Writing and General Education students.
For the most part, the current naming gives the department and faculty lots of flexibility. We've hired so that each coverage area has at least one person, and some more. In a given semester, the Asian American lit specialist may teach a lower level course in American Ethnic lit and a senior seminar in American Ethnic lit; they may choose, say, Hmong American lit for the lower level course, and Asian American Autobiography for the senior seminar. Meanwhile, the specialist in African American lit may teach an upper level American Ethnic course in the Blues and an intro to lit. And the person who does Latinx lit may have a lower division poetry course and a reassignment. (We also have two American Indian lit courses taught pretty much every semester at different levels, in conjunction with the American Indian Studies program, and named specifically American Indian Lit rather than American Ethnic because they're cross-listed.)
Because the courses are only formally named "American Ethnic Lit," each person can follow their interests and specialization. We can be sure each course will be taught at least once a year, and students who decide they love Area A or Professor X can probably take a course at a different level in Area A or with Professor X if they choose.
The drawback is that when, say, an African American student looks at the catalog, they don't see any courses specifically labeled "African American Lit" that might give them a sense that they feel welcome in our department and major. So maybe they look at history, which labels courses "African American history" and think they're more welcome there. Or they look at another of the regional public universities around and feel more welcome in the English Department there.
Would having courses labeled specifically "African American Lit" work to make African American students feel more welcome? I don't know. And I'm not sure I know how to find out.
Then there's the offerings. Given course reassignments, sabbaticals, and so forth, can we be confident that we'll be able to offer a senior seminar in Asian American Lit at least every other year?
It would probably work in the American Ethnic areas, as it does in Women's lit. But in the theory area, it gets more complicated. We have one lower level theory course required of all majors and minors. And then we have an upper level theory and a senior seminar in theory. And various people teach those, often in conjunction with film courses. We could, conceivably, offer an upper level/senior seminar in critical race theory, queer theory, post-colonial/transnational theory, or some other fairly specialized theory. But we couldn't be sure we could offer any one of those every other year without tying down one faculty member to teach it. And that would mean that faculty member wasn't teaching some other upper level course. We teach one senior seminar, and one upper level theory each year, so we couldn't name, say, a critical race theory course at both the senior and upper level. And that would limit the faculty member to that one level; currently, that faculty member might decide to try out a critical race theory course at the senior seminar level, and then decide to try it at the upper level in a different year. Or they might not get assigned an other upper level theory course for several years.
I guess my questions are about whether students really would feel more welcome if they saw their identities reflected more closely in course names? And could we actually staff those courses at appropriate levels?
Friday, November 22, 2019
Changes Come
I've been meaning and meaning to update with the pictures from Iceland, and now I finally have, so the plan is to try to resume more regular blogging. I don't know why, but I just didn't want to skip the Iceland pictures.
A lot has changed in recent months. I'm back teaching. Mostly, that's very good. I'm really enjoying most of the teaching this semester. I'm teaching a Shakespeare course, a drama course (that I haven't taught in about ten years), and an Intro to the major sort of course that I haven't taught in five years. For both of the latter courses, the rental texts have pretty much gone out of the system. I'm using a rental text that others chose for the Intro, and ordered up a different rental for the drama course, in part influenced by my felt need to have Godot in it since the campus theater folks are putting it on later this semester.
Naturally, that means that some of the plays I'd taught for specific reasons (Brecht's Mother Courage, for example, to teach epic theater stuffs) aren't in the text. But The Good Woman/Person of Szechaun is. So, I'm teaching a fair number of new or different plays, and even the old familiar plays have different page numbers so I'm doing a fair bit of "translation." Still, it's good. And I've discovered that I adore Glaspell's Trifles.
In the Intro course, we're now onto the novel. When I was at "the Abbey" in fall of 2017, I taught Jenni Fagan's The Sunlight Pilgrims and really liked it and liked teaching it. So I've chosen that as the novel I'm teaching. And I've taught it before, so that's something. BUT, when I left the Abbey, I figured I'd never teach it again (I don't often teach novels), so I gave the book to a colleague and put my notes in the recycling bin. So now it's very much like teaching a new text. Still, it's such a good book! (I think Dr. Crazy originally suggested it to me, and I thank her for that!)
Next semester I'll be teaching a junior level Canterbury Tales course, a MA level Queer Shakespeare course, and the Intro to the major course again. So overall, it shouldn't be quite as much new stuff, but will still require lots and lots of prep work.
The really big news around here is that I'll be our department chair for the next three years (starting in May. Our current department chair, super fabulous though she is, is DONE. She's served (at the end of this year) six years, and she's ready to not be chair. I tried to bribe her to serve another term, but she was unbribable. In our department, what happens is that a committee puts out a call for applications for chair (internal to the department) and then we sort of wander around, encouraging some folks to put their names forward. It became clear to me about ten days before the application deadline that the people I thought would be best were not going to do it, for very good reasons, and that a number of people were encouraging me to put my name forward. So I write an application letter, and sat on it, then got some feedback from friends, and then, the day it was due, submitted it.
And I was the only one. Then the committee gave me five questions they wanted me to answer for a department interview. The questions were harder than you might guess. One of the hardest asked about the experiences of students of different social identities in our department. The thing is, it's hard to know. I couldn't very well go around asking students, so, do you identify as lesbian? Low income? Native American? The only groups our campus research folks really track are people of color and not people of color. So I found that research, and talked about lack of knowledge, and possible ways to improve things, perhaps starting by exploring curricular change in naming courses, and maybe also asking students to tell us about their experiences in exit interviews.
The hardest question I got from the department members during the question and answer session was about what strategies I suggested to subvert the business-focused minutia we're forced to click through. Unfortunately, I had no good answer. I think if anyone had found a really good strategy, they'd have told us and we'd all be using it already. In the meantime, since some funding is tied to the click this minutia, we pretty much tend to do it. (My personal least favorite is the yearly repetition of the 90+ minute "don't get scammed" computer security training we're supposed to do. It's pretty much exactly the same as the year before. And I wonder, how many problems are caused by faculty who've done the training once already? Because I think the school is paying some company for these "modules" and that's money. But the school doesn't really see faculty time as money for these things. The administrative folks just add them to our "must do" lists, and know that we aren't going to teach or prep less, we're not going to grade less or do less other work. We're simply going to add another 90 minutes of work in during the evening or weekend or something.)
Then I had a meeting with the Dean, which basically consisted of him asking me to talk to the current chair about when I would start, and to let him know and he'll send a memo. So I did, and the current chair is hoping to get sabbatical (well-deserved) and wants to be done in May, so it looks like that's when I'll take over.
It seems to me that the best blogging comes when folks are learning something new or going through a new and challenging experience, so while I'll need to be circumspect, I hope I'll blog well.
In other news: Last year I joined and then dropped out of a middle-school level orchestra. This fall I rejoined, and even though I'm probably the weakest player, and I'm so far back in the second violins that I'm practically in another room, I'm pretty much able to keep up and play the pieces. In some ways, I don't feel like I've progressed very far in violin this year, but in orchestra, I do feel like I've made some progress. And it's really fun to get to try to make music with other people.
I'm also continuing to participate in bird banding at the local nature center. I don't get to go often during the semester, but I really enjoy learning more about birds and the other people involved are exactly the sorts of people I want to be around, active, interested, caring.
A lot has changed in recent months. I'm back teaching. Mostly, that's very good. I'm really enjoying most of the teaching this semester. I'm teaching a Shakespeare course, a drama course (that I haven't taught in about ten years), and an Intro to the major sort of course that I haven't taught in five years. For both of the latter courses, the rental texts have pretty much gone out of the system. I'm using a rental text that others chose for the Intro, and ordered up a different rental for the drama course, in part influenced by my felt need to have Godot in it since the campus theater folks are putting it on later this semester.
Naturally, that means that some of the plays I'd taught for specific reasons (Brecht's Mother Courage, for example, to teach epic theater stuffs) aren't in the text. But The Good Woman/Person of Szechaun is. So, I'm teaching a fair number of new or different plays, and even the old familiar plays have different page numbers so I'm doing a fair bit of "translation." Still, it's good. And I've discovered that I adore Glaspell's Trifles.
In the Intro course, we're now onto the novel. When I was at "the Abbey" in fall of 2017, I taught Jenni Fagan's The Sunlight Pilgrims and really liked it and liked teaching it. So I've chosen that as the novel I'm teaching. And I've taught it before, so that's something. BUT, when I left the Abbey, I figured I'd never teach it again (I don't often teach novels), so I gave the book to a colleague and put my notes in the recycling bin. So now it's very much like teaching a new text. Still, it's such a good book! (I think Dr. Crazy originally suggested it to me, and I thank her for that!)
Next semester I'll be teaching a junior level Canterbury Tales course, a MA level Queer Shakespeare course, and the Intro to the major course again. So overall, it shouldn't be quite as much new stuff, but will still require lots and lots of prep work.
The really big news around here is that I'll be our department chair for the next three years (starting in May. Our current department chair, super fabulous though she is, is DONE. She's served (at the end of this year) six years, and she's ready to not be chair. I tried to bribe her to serve another term, but she was unbribable. In our department, what happens is that a committee puts out a call for applications for chair (internal to the department) and then we sort of wander around, encouraging some folks to put their names forward. It became clear to me about ten days before the application deadline that the people I thought would be best were not going to do it, for very good reasons, and that a number of people were encouraging me to put my name forward. So I write an application letter, and sat on it, then got some feedback from friends, and then, the day it was due, submitted it.
And I was the only one. Then the committee gave me five questions they wanted me to answer for a department interview. The questions were harder than you might guess. One of the hardest asked about the experiences of students of different social identities in our department. The thing is, it's hard to know. I couldn't very well go around asking students, so, do you identify as lesbian? Low income? Native American? The only groups our campus research folks really track are people of color and not people of color. So I found that research, and talked about lack of knowledge, and possible ways to improve things, perhaps starting by exploring curricular change in naming courses, and maybe also asking students to tell us about their experiences in exit interviews.
The hardest question I got from the department members during the question and answer session was about what strategies I suggested to subvert the business-focused minutia we're forced to click through. Unfortunately, I had no good answer. I think if anyone had found a really good strategy, they'd have told us and we'd all be using it already. In the meantime, since some funding is tied to the click this minutia, we pretty much tend to do it. (My personal least favorite is the yearly repetition of the 90+ minute "don't get scammed" computer security training we're supposed to do. It's pretty much exactly the same as the year before. And I wonder, how many problems are caused by faculty who've done the training once already? Because I think the school is paying some company for these "modules" and that's money. But the school doesn't really see faculty time as money for these things. The administrative folks just add them to our "must do" lists, and know that we aren't going to teach or prep less, we're not going to grade less or do less other work. We're simply going to add another 90 minutes of work in during the evening or weekend or something.)
Then I had a meeting with the Dean, which basically consisted of him asking me to talk to the current chair about when I would start, and to let him know and he'll send a memo. So I did, and the current chair is hoping to get sabbatical (well-deserved) and wants to be done in May, so it looks like that's when I'll take over.
It seems to me that the best blogging comes when folks are learning something new or going through a new and challenging experience, so while I'll need to be circumspect, I hope I'll blog well.
In other news: Last year I joined and then dropped out of a middle-school level orchestra. This fall I rejoined, and even though I'm probably the weakest player, and I'm so far back in the second violins that I'm practically in another room, I'm pretty much able to keep up and play the pieces. In some ways, I don't feel like I've progressed very far in violin this year, but in orchestra, I do feel like I've made some progress. And it's really fun to get to try to make music with other people.
I'm also continuing to participate in bird banding at the local nature center. I don't get to go often during the semester, but I really enjoy learning more about birds and the other people involved are exactly the sorts of people I want to be around, active, interested, caring.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Last Morning in Iceland: Gone Birding
On my last morning in Iceland, I went on a short boat tour to the one of the islands just outside of Reykjavik harbor (The islands are Lundry and Akury, but I'm not sure which island my tour went to). It was a smallis boat, perhaps 25 feet long, with four passengers, a naturalist/helper, and a captain, and a visiting captain trainee. The naturalist helped with bird identification and also helped me put together a list of the birds we saw.) I didn't get pictures of everything, but here's what we saw: Atlantic Puffin, Northern Gannet, Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black Guillemot, Common Guillemot, Herring Gull, Eider Duck, Brent Goose, Greylag Goose, Great Cormorant, Arctic Tern, and Northern Fulmar. As you'd guess, it was fun and exciting, but also way hard to photograph moving birds on a moving boat. I tried though!
Above, the first picture is an Eider Duck. You may have to embiggen...
And below is a Great Cormorant (aka Cormorant in the UK).
Saturday, November 16, 2019
More from the Iceland visit: Golden Circle Tour, Part II: Geysir and Stokkur
The last part of the Golden Circle Tour was the Haukadalur Geysir area. The first big geysir's name is, yes, Geysir. And then the general term was named after it. How cool is that? But Geysir doesn't do its thing much these days, so most people go spend more time at Stokkur.
Me, too. Walking around the Geysir area, I saw several birds, all of which looked an awful lot like this one. It's a Redwing, which is a member of the Thrush family, and the same genus as American Robins. It was acting very (American) Robin-like, foraging on the ground in fairly openish areas.
Below is a sheep-separating thing. The shepherds let the sheep do their thing, with flocks mingling, and then when the time's right, they drive the sheep into the center area, and then separate them into the outer fenced yards.
More from Iceland Travels: The Golden Circle Tour
On the only full day I spent in Iceland, I took a tour of the "Golden Circle." As you'd guess, it was utterly beautiful.
(you can click to embiggen)
We went to Thingvellir National Park, first. It's an area with gorgeous scenery, historical sites, and visible evidence of the split between the tectonic plates of North America and Europe. Alas, we didn't get to spend much time there, but did take a little walk.
Here are some pictures!
This is the rift, to the left in the picture above, and centered in the picture below. They've put in a lovely path for walking, which makes the area pretty accessible.
I THINK these are Greylag Geese.
Neat lave formation!
Maps are so helpful! As the captioning says, Thingvellir was the site of the old Parliament until the 18th century.
After Thingvellir, we went to the famous waterfalls at Gulfoss. It's a good bit east of Thingvellir, but worth the drive!
This is a monument to Sigridur Tomasdottir; she's super important in this area because she helped make Gulfoss a tourist attraction and guided lots of people there.
Between Gulfoss and the Haukadalur geothermal area where Geysir and Strokkur are, we stopped at a farm and got to pet a couple of Icelandic ponies.
We went to Thingvellir National Park, first. It's an area with gorgeous scenery, historical sites, and visible evidence of the split between the tectonic plates of North America and Europe. Alas, we didn't get to spend much time there, but did take a little walk.
Here are some pictures!
After Thingvellir, we went to the famous waterfalls at Gulfoss. It's a good bit east of Thingvellir, but worth the drive!
This is a monument to Sigridur Tomasdottir; she's super important in this area because she helped make Gulfoss a tourist attraction and guided lots of people there.
Between Gulfoss and the Haukadalur geothermal area where Geysir and Strokkur are, we stopped at a farm and got to pet a couple of Icelandic ponies.
Monday, September 02, 2019
The Syllabus Thing
I'm pretty happy with one of my three courses so far. One of the others is almost done, just some passages to choose. The other has the calendar done, but not assignments or passages.
Those all have to get done tomorrow, copies made, AND loaded up to the new course management web thingy.
Wish me luck!
Those all have to get done tomorrow, copies made, AND loaded up to the new course management web thingy.
Wish me luck!
Sunday, September 01, 2019
Re-entry
It's been a long while. I didn't intend for it to be, but it was.
I'm about to start teaching again, and I'm a bit nervous. Maybe more than a bit. I keep wondering what it is I'm supposed to do with classes, except for Shakespeare. Shakespeare seems okay.
But my other two courses, an intro to the major and an intro to drama, are courses I haven't taught for ten years of more. That's a long time. It means all new books, and a lot of new planning, because the world has changed a lot.
On the upside, though: I've noticed over the years that the most interesting blogs seem to be when people start new jobs or adventures, because they have a lot to think and write about. So that seems healthy.
Since I last blogged much, I've become a bit more involved in the local bird banding citizen science project at the local nature reserve. (I blogged a little about the class here.)
In other news, my violin teacher left for a WAY better faculty position, so good for her. Not for us, though. Before she left, she suggested that I try lessons with a new teacher I'll call Flute. Flute's the partner of one of our music adjuncts, and also a musician. He's primarily a flute player, and super good, but also quite good at violin, and willing to teach. It's a big adjustment to change teachers, and I really liked working with Strings. Flute's less overtly enthusiastic, but very kind and I think very musically astute.
The focus changes a bit, not a lot, but a bit. Flute has me paying a lot more attention to intonation, which is probably really healthy. But he's less interested in the Sevcik shifting practice I'd been doing. He's also got me paying more attention to phrasing and flow. (I think Strings was working on more basic stuff still.)
A thing I meant to blog about but didn't is my trip to Iceland. So I'll include some phone pictures today, and then add more tomorrow from my camera.
Here's my hotel in Reykjavik, Hotel Leifur Eiriksson. Dr. Virago (from Quod She) suggested it, and it was a great suggestion!
It just so happens that the hotel is right across the street from the Hallgrimskirja, an amazing, fairly new Lutheran parish. (That's what the person in the picture above is taking a picture of.) It made it way easy to find my hotel, since you can see the Hallgrimskirkja sitting at the top of the hill from much of the city.
It's a really beautiful church.
Other sights in Reykjavik:
I got in one afternoon, May 15, stayed May 16, and left late on May 17. If I were to do it again, I'd spend a few more days. There's lots to do..
On the 16th, I took a bus tour. On the way, we went by some of the greenhouses that supply fresh veggies to Reykjavik all year around, using geothermal energy.
And on the morning of the 17th, I took a short boat trip to see puffins. PUFFINS!!! Here's a picture of the boat:
I'm about to start teaching again, and I'm a bit nervous. Maybe more than a bit. I keep wondering what it is I'm supposed to do with classes, except for Shakespeare. Shakespeare seems okay.
But my other two courses, an intro to the major and an intro to drama, are courses I haven't taught for ten years of more. That's a long time. It means all new books, and a lot of new planning, because the world has changed a lot.
On the upside, though: I've noticed over the years that the most interesting blogs seem to be when people start new jobs or adventures, because they have a lot to think and write about. So that seems healthy.
Since I last blogged much, I've become a bit more involved in the local bird banding citizen science project at the local nature reserve. (I blogged a little about the class here.)
In other news, my violin teacher left for a WAY better faculty position, so good for her. Not for us, though. Before she left, she suggested that I try lessons with a new teacher I'll call Flute. Flute's the partner of one of our music adjuncts, and also a musician. He's primarily a flute player, and super good, but also quite good at violin, and willing to teach. It's a big adjustment to change teachers, and I really liked working with Strings. Flute's less overtly enthusiastic, but very kind and I think very musically astute.
The focus changes a bit, not a lot, but a bit. Flute has me paying a lot more attention to intonation, which is probably really healthy. But he's less interested in the Sevcik shifting practice I'd been doing. He's also got me paying more attention to phrasing and flow. (I think Strings was working on more basic stuff still.)
A thing I meant to blog about but didn't is my trip to Iceland. So I'll include some phone pictures today, and then add more tomorrow from my camera.
Here's my hotel in Reykjavik, Hotel Leifur Eiriksson. Dr. Virago (from Quod She) suggested it, and it was a great suggestion!
It just so happens that the hotel is right across the street from the Hallgrimskirja, an amazing, fairly new Lutheran parish. (That's what the person in the picture above is taking a picture of.) It made it way easy to find my hotel, since you can see the Hallgrimskirkja sitting at the top of the hill from much of the city.
Other sights in Reykjavik:
On the 16th, I took a bus tour. On the way, we went by some of the greenhouses that supply fresh veggies to Reykjavik all year around, using geothermal energy.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Another Drowned Phone
I did it again. I drowned a phone. Third time!
The first time, I had a flip phone and went kayaking with a friend. I put the phone in two "sealed" plastic bags, but the kayak was an inflatable, and there was a lot of water, so drowned phone.
The second time, I put another flip phone through the laundry.
This time, I had my "new" smart phone (I got it, used, from my brother in December 2015, when he and his son were upgrading to the newest, latest phones; the 5s came out in late 2013, so my brother probably got his in 2014) in a lifeproof case. But, since I put the case on three or so years ago (when I first got the phone), it had been failing, and finally failed.
I was teaching a friend the very basics of kayaking, and the phone was in my side pocket, and got wet, and blah blah.
So now I have a new phone, in a new lifeproof case (I figure two years and I should replace it). I got the smallest "new" phone available, an 8, and it looks like it has 4 times the memory as my last one. (Can I say, the salespeople at Verizon were incredibly obnoxious about the phone insurance thing; even after I said I didn't want the insurance, they kept on and on, and then a second person started in. They must get a nice kickback from selling those.)
I lost all the contacts, except somehow there are now old contacts on the new phone, so I guess I must have saved them way back when?
And I lost pictures and stuff. But fortunately, I have a habit (because the phone had smallish memory) of downloading pictures onto my computer fairly regularly, so I didn't loose many.
Last night, I spent a long time doing the settings thing, reloading some of the apps I use regularly.
***
A small rant: why oh why are they making phones bigger and bigger? I want something that fits in my pocket, and fits in one hand easily, and the new phones keep getting bigger and bigger! (I guess most people like them that way?)
***
Non-rant: one cool thing about the blog: I could find exactly when I got the last phone, and when I got my first cell phone. Neat.
The first time, I had a flip phone and went kayaking with a friend. I put the phone in two "sealed" plastic bags, but the kayak was an inflatable, and there was a lot of water, so drowned phone.
The second time, I put another flip phone through the laundry.
This time, I had my "new" smart phone (I got it, used, from my brother in December 2015, when he and his son were upgrading to the newest, latest phones; the 5s came out in late 2013, so my brother probably got his in 2014) in a lifeproof case. But, since I put the case on three or so years ago (when I first got the phone), it had been failing, and finally failed.
I was teaching a friend the very basics of kayaking, and the phone was in my side pocket, and got wet, and blah blah.
So now I have a new phone, in a new lifeproof case (I figure two years and I should replace it). I got the smallest "new" phone available, an 8, and it looks like it has 4 times the memory as my last one. (Can I say, the salespeople at Verizon were incredibly obnoxious about the phone insurance thing; even after I said I didn't want the insurance, they kept on and on, and then a second person started in. They must get a nice kickback from selling those.)
I lost all the contacts, except somehow there are now old contacts on the new phone, so I guess I must have saved them way back when?
And I lost pictures and stuff. But fortunately, I have a habit (because the phone had smallish memory) of downloading pictures onto my computer fairly regularly, so I didn't loose many.
Last night, I spent a long time doing the settings thing, reloading some of the apps I use regularly.
***
A small rant: why oh why are they making phones bigger and bigger? I want something that fits in my pocket, and fits in one hand easily, and the new phones keep getting bigger and bigger! (I guess most people like them that way?)
***
Non-rant: one cool thing about the blog: I could find exactly when I got the last phone, and when I got my first cell phone. Neat.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Fiddlin'
A week or two ago, Teho, a fiddle duo from Finland came through the Northwoods, hosted by a colleague over in the earth sciences who's, I guess, into fiddle music. Who knew?
They gave a campus concert one evening, then a master class on campus the next afternoon, followed by an evening session at a local coffee shop.
I went to the evening concert, and it was quite good.
The next afternoon, I went to the masterclass. At the concert, they'd said that it was open to anyone who came, and we should bring instruments. So I did. Me, with the fingerboard tapes.
There were only four student players there, including me, one seemed to be a teacher, one an entering college student, and one a high schooler. Let's just say, I was WAY out of my depth.
They taught us two songs in a traditional fiddle way, which is to say, they played slowly for us. First the A part, a couple bars, repeated, and so on, then more bars, and when the A part was down, the same thing for the B part. (For both of these songs, there's an A section of 8 or 16 bars, which gets repeated, and then a B section of the same length, also repeated.)
If you look on the media page, you can hear the two songs we learned simplified versions of: Teksan Maijan roskapuuvalssi & Pettanvalssi, and Kom hem. They're both mostly in first position (I guess that's quite typical of traditional fiddle music). Here are recordings of them playing.
As for out of my depth, well, it's quite embarrassing, especially at first, to sit on stage like a lump with my instrument in hand, just watching, while all the other students catch on. One of the musicians was clearly worried about me, and I felt sorry about that. Once I got over my embarrassment, I was having a good and interesting time trying to figure things out. But I'm just way slower than the others were.
It's sometimes really good for me to be uncomfortable learning something.
If I'd done a very traditional Suzuki method, learning the first books only by ear, I'd probably have an easier time picking things up by ear. But since I already read music, I learned mostly by reading the music. Still, it was very interesting.
My Dad would have enjoyed it. You know how we all have memories we regret? Here's one of mine. I must have been a tween or maybe a little younger. On a hot summer day, my family was driving in the Central Valley of California, and we happened to see signs for a fiddle contest/festival. So we stopped, because my Dad liked fiddle music, and played the violin (and played some fiddle music, too). I remember he was enjoying it, but the rest of us pretty quickly grew bored. The public hall was hotter than the outdoors, even, and I remember being impatient and whiny. I wasn't the only one. And sooner than my Dad would have liked, we left. I wonder now, why I couldn't have been a bit more patient and let my Dad enjoy his music more? I regret that impatience so very much now.
They gave a campus concert one evening, then a master class on campus the next afternoon, followed by an evening session at a local coffee shop.
I went to the evening concert, and it was quite good.
The next afternoon, I went to the masterclass. At the concert, they'd said that it was open to anyone who came, and we should bring instruments. So I did. Me, with the fingerboard tapes.
There were only four student players there, including me, one seemed to be a teacher, one an entering college student, and one a high schooler. Let's just say, I was WAY out of my depth.
They taught us two songs in a traditional fiddle way, which is to say, they played slowly for us. First the A part, a couple bars, repeated, and so on, then more bars, and when the A part was down, the same thing for the B part. (For both of these songs, there's an A section of 8 or 16 bars, which gets repeated, and then a B section of the same length, also repeated.)
If you look on the media page, you can hear the two songs we learned simplified versions of: Teksan Maijan roskapuuvalssi & Pettanvalssi, and Kom hem. They're both mostly in first position (I guess that's quite typical of traditional fiddle music). Here are recordings of them playing.
As for out of my depth, well, it's quite embarrassing, especially at first, to sit on stage like a lump with my instrument in hand, just watching, while all the other students catch on. One of the musicians was clearly worried about me, and I felt sorry about that. Once I got over my embarrassment, I was having a good and interesting time trying to figure things out. But I'm just way slower than the others were.
It's sometimes really good for me to be uncomfortable learning something.
If I'd done a very traditional Suzuki method, learning the first books only by ear, I'd probably have an easier time picking things up by ear. But since I already read music, I learned mostly by reading the music. Still, it was very interesting.
My Dad would have enjoyed it. You know how we all have memories we regret? Here's one of mine. I must have been a tween or maybe a little younger. On a hot summer day, my family was driving in the Central Valley of California, and we happened to see signs for a fiddle contest/festival. So we stopped, because my Dad liked fiddle music, and played the violin (and played some fiddle music, too). I remember he was enjoying it, but the rest of us pretty quickly grew bored. The public hall was hotter than the outdoors, even, and I remember being impatient and whiny. I wasn't the only one. And sooner than my Dad would have liked, we left. I wonder now, why I couldn't have been a bit more patient and let my Dad enjoy his music more? I regret that impatience so very much now.
Monday, June 24, 2019
Week 58/66: Been a While
Things have been busy in my life. I'll post some pictures from my visit to Reykjavik soon. I hope.
In other news: my Mom's retirement community is closing because it can't be made fire-safe and is in a dangerous area for fires. So my Mom had to find a new place to live. Fortunately, the organization that runs her old community also runs others, and since my Mom has something called "life care," that's super important. So she got that news.
And then she got diagnosed with cancer. But for reasons that make total sense, the surgeon says they can't operate, and they've got her on some other drugs. As I understand it, she's likely to die with cancer rather than of cancer, if that makes sense. And she knows this. But it's still really upsetting, and she wishes she could just have an operation. But if a surgeon says an operation would be too dangerous, you know they'd like to operate if they could, so it really would be too dangerous.
At first my Mom said she didn't want me to come out and help. And now she does. And she's upset that my brother doesn't seem as concerned as she thinks he should be. And so on and on.
I need to get plane tickets to go out.
My violin teacher found a way better job, and is leaving the area. For me and the other students here, I'm really sad. For her, I'm happy. She's been a kind and enthusiastic teacher.
It turns out the partner of another colleague over in music can teach violin, and has been willing to take me on, among other students. He seems very good, and pays a lot more attention to detail. I'm adjusting, but still a bit sad.
I've been reading a lot, and now I need to just write. And write. Someone find me some writing mojo, please.
In other news: my Mom's retirement community is closing because it can't be made fire-safe and is in a dangerous area for fires. So my Mom had to find a new place to live. Fortunately, the organization that runs her old community also runs others, and since my Mom has something called "life care," that's super important. So she got that news.
And then she got diagnosed with cancer. But for reasons that make total sense, the surgeon says they can't operate, and they've got her on some other drugs. As I understand it, she's likely to die with cancer rather than of cancer, if that makes sense. And she knows this. But it's still really upsetting, and she wishes she could just have an operation. But if a surgeon says an operation would be too dangerous, you know they'd like to operate if they could, so it really would be too dangerous.
At first my Mom said she didn't want me to come out and help. And now she does. And she's upset that my brother doesn't seem as concerned as she thinks he should be. And so on and on.
I need to get plane tickets to go out.
My violin teacher found a way better job, and is leaving the area. For me and the other students here, I'm really sad. For her, I'm happy. She's been a kind and enthusiastic teacher.
It turns out the partner of another colleague over in music can teach violin, and has been willing to take me on, among other students. He seems very good, and pays a lot more attention to detail. I'm adjusting, but still a bit sad.
I've been reading a lot, and now I need to just write. And write. Someone find me some writing mojo, please.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Greenwich, Just Super!
Sunday's when the BL is closed, and so it's my day to play tourist for real. I'd never been to Greenwich, and thought I'd spend half a day there, and then go birding at Regent's Park or something. I didn't. Greenwich filled the day!
Getting there was a bit confusing. I looked up and saw there's a bus from Russell Square Station, but it's from the Square, not the station, and I didn't find it, and the tube was there, so off I went on the tube. I couple changes and I was looking for the DLR, but instead there was a replacement bus, so I took that to the DLR station, and then caught another train to the Cutty Sark station.
When I got off, the Cutty Sark was right there, so in I went. WOW! I grew up going to the Balcutha, and this reminded me a lot of that.
They've cut a hole into the starboard aft section of the main storage deck, and that's where you enter the ship.
There are several "cabin" areas built on the main deck. Here's crew quarters, with nice bunks (a bit short, but...)
And, (if I recall correctly), the steward's area.
The Salon, what I think would be called a "wardroom" now, where the officers and more highly skilled crew members ate together, and where the master did chart stuffs.
From the Cutty Sark, I walked up the hill to the park and observatory. I didn't take as many pictures in the observatory as I sometimes do, because I was so busy looking at all the cool stuff and reading the information. It was fascinating!
Here I am, standing over the Prime Meridian. Somewhere, I've got a picture of me at the "Mitad del Mundo" in Ecuador, the Equator line, so this could be paired with that, eh?
Here's inside the Royal Observatory, which was designed by Christopher Wren. Damn, he's amazing!
Walking down from the observatory after, this is another Wren masterpiece, The Queen's House, set against the backdrop of very modern London.
Getting there was a bit confusing. I looked up and saw there's a bus from Russell Square Station, but it's from the Square, not the station, and I didn't find it, and the tube was there, so off I went on the tube. I couple changes and I was looking for the DLR, but instead there was a replacement bus, so I took that to the DLR station, and then caught another train to the Cutty Sark station.
When I got off, the Cutty Sark was right there, so in I went. WOW! I grew up going to the Balcutha, and this reminded me a lot of that.
You can see how the construction works. From inside to out: The white painted metal is original structural metal. Then there's a layer of caulked wood planking, and on the outside is a copper-based metal cladding, which served (before it was copper, I think, but some other metal) to deter barnacles and such from growing on the side, and thus helped keep the ship faster and in less danger of problems (than was typical with unclad hulls).
On the inside, the white painted stuff is original metal, some showing fire damage (from the 2012? fire; I can't remember the date, but it was fairly recent, while the ship was deconstructed a lot, and so the parts that had been moved weren't damaged, but the metal scaffolding inside was). The darker grey is new structural steel support (more on that later).
The ship was built to move tea quickly during the tea trade, but the Suez Canal opened, making steam ships MUCH more practical, so it moved to the Australian wool trade and such.
Here's looking down the storage area.
It's amazingly large! You can see some of the displays, which were quite good, informative, and well-thought out. You go through the main storage area, and then the "Between Decks" storage area, before climbing up to the main deck. The complexity of the rigging ropes must have been overwhelmingly hard to learn!
When you're finished looking inside, you exit, and can go down underneath the ship. Remember those dark grey-painted steel structures I mentioned in the inside? They're attached to these MASSIVE steel supports all along the outside. So basically, the ship is supported by an interior scaffolding and hangs on that, and the scaffolding is supported from the outside. So the hull doesn't have anything but gravity working on it, and thus isn't deformed as it would be if the whole weight were resting on it. Someone really smart came up with this idea!
Here I am, standing over the Prime Meridian. Somewhere, I've got a picture of me at the "Mitad del Mundo" in Ecuador, the Equator line, so this could be paired with that, eh?
I started out of the observatory about 3:20, thinking I'd still make it to the park, but the National Maritime Museum was right there, free, and open for another hour and a half, so I had to give it a go. I was glad I did, and could have spent a good many hours there! Alas, I didn't have enough time, so...
I saw a picture of Sir John Hawkins, who has much to answer for in pursuing the trade in slaves from Africa to the Americas and Caribbean.
And in a different vein, here's the coat Admiral Nelson was wearing at Trafalgar, when he was hit by a bullet, making a fatal wound. You can see the hole from the bullet, but I think the coat's been cleaned and looks to be amazingly preserved.
When the Maritime Museum closed, I headed back towards the DLR, but along the way, I saw a bus stop for the bus to Russell Square (I remembered the number)! So I hopped on the bus instead. And went to the upper floor.
I had a pretty good view for about an hour. Interestingly (to me, anyway), my university has a tradition of buying used London double-decker busses, so I've ridden them before, just not IN London. But now I have. For real.
All in all, this was a GREAT day. If I had it to do over, I'd leave WAY earlier so I was there right when Cutty Sark opened, and then I'd have more time to see the Maritime Museum.
***
On Monday, I left the Library early and went to the Tate's exhibit on Van Gogh. It was just superb. I had the best time! If you can get there, go!