Bardiac

In some Zen Buddhist practices, there's a way of teaching / learning called "koan."  There's a LOT of variety, but in one ...

Another administrator has left NWU for greener pastures and a higher title. It's been something like 10 years since my college has had...

I talked to my Mom today; she's 88, and feeling her age lately.  At her retirement community, everything is locked down; they're sup...

I made some good progress yesterday, considering. I've now put up the basic structures for all three of my courses, and did one day...

I'm predicting an upsurge in blogging.  Buy those blogging stocks now! Blogging is at its best when the blogger is doing something rel...

Reading Spenser (I'm pretty sure), I was taught that being "astonied" or "astonished" meant being turned to stone, o...

Sharon O'Dair wrote "The Lies Graduate Programs Tell Themselves" recently over at the Chronicle of Higher Education.  I'm...

That's been a rare thing these past few weeks.  Things have just felt so busy that I've had a tendency to put a paper down and then ...

I have the first semi-big assignment due in one of my classes today, and disaster struck.  There's one car repair, one ill relative, one...

I came in at the usual time today (before 8am so I could get parking nearish my building), mostly because I'm going to start attending c...

So much to learn, not just for me, but for my students, too. It's the morning of the second day of classes, and I've already had t...

On effbee, one of my colleagues posted a link to a student blog where a student at NWU says she was sexually harassed by a male prof at NWU,...

I'm reading applications for a position that's not Composition and/or Rhetoric, but about 15 percent of the applications are from fo...

NWU is doing a production of Ibsen's The Doll's House next semester, and since I'm teaching an Intro to Lit, I thought I'd ...

I've been reading applications, and I've noticed a couple things.  First, a number of the letters of recommendation are targeted, ...

Last night, I had my second anxiety dream about teaching Chaucer.  The first one, I was without any syllabi on the first day of classes, and...

I was in my campus office yesterday, having gone to get my computer back, and then trying to delete some emails and do some little chores.  ...

On Friday, I went to the office, turned on the computer... and waited.  So I started cleaning up my office, which was pretty messy, as happe...

Happy New Years.  Let's hope 2020 gets better. (Though I saw that the US military basically committed an act of war ...) I spent muc...

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 qui...