I have a Garmin watch that tells me when my phone's ringing because it's connected by blue tooth. So this morning, I was in my bedroom dressing when my watch buzzed and I saw I was getting a call from my Mom, so I ran into the living room, except I didn't get there because for the first time ever, I tripped on a rug and went splat, onto a hard tile floor and head into a wall. Fortunately, my head hit the wall to the side rather than, as it were, head on. Still, it was a whack. I took a moment to get up, wondering if I'd given myself a concussion (pretty sure I didn't at this point some hours later), and realizing I'd also whacked a knee.
I'd missed the call, but called back right away. My Mom had called. The week before last, she'd asked me to send her some playing cards, and I had, but stupidly sent pinochle cards. I didn't even look at the labeling, and even if I had, I don't think I'd have realized that pinochle cards aren't a regular deck of cards. (My Mom let me know that, and has repeatedly every time we talk of late.) I offered (last week) to get a another deck and send it to her, but she declined, assuring me that her friend plays bridge regularly and can probably lend her a deck.
This morning, she was calling to ask me to go get a deck and send it to her. So I asked, didn't your friend have a deck to lend you? Yes, she said, but it's a brand new deck, and I don't want to open it. And I said that if I sent a deck it would also be a brand new deck, so?
I think the point was that she doesn't want to wear out or ruin her friend's cards. So I said when the virus was over, I'd get a brand new deck so she could give that to her friend. And I think that satisfied her. At least about the cards.
My Mom isn't mentally all together these days, and I realize that, but still, it seems wrong that she wanted me to go out and potentially expose myself in a grocery store just so she could have a deck of cards that wasn't new from her friend.
***
I think I've figured out why I'm so slow putting my classes up on line, other than just procrastinating a bit. I'm basically doing the rereading and rethinking that I'd do for a regular class, AND doing more thinking about trying to teach it on line. And I'm doing it for three classes, and trying in three weeks to put together six weeks of teaching.
It's far less satisfying not knowing how things are going to work for the students and not getting feedback. I hope things will feel less strange when I see that students are working on things and get some feedback.
***
It's been two and a half hours since my head banging, and it doesn't hurt on the surface, and I don't have a headache or any other issues, so I'm pretty sure I didn't give myself a concussion. Still, as I was flying (literally) for the wall, I did think, that could be it. And then it wasn't.
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
The Koan Enigma and On-Line Teaching/Learning
In some Zen Buddhist practices, there's a way of teaching / learning called "koan." There's a LOT of variety, but in one basic practice, a koan is a question, problem, or riddle given by a teacher to their student. The student then ponders and comes back with a response. At some point, if everything's going well, they figure out a correct response. And then the teacher gives them another koan.
One of the most famous koans is the question: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
If you're like me, you ponder for a very short bit of time, and then look up the answer, thinking that it's like math, and if someone shows you the answer to one, you can repeat it and then learn how to do the next one. But koan really aren't like that. The point is more the pondering than the answer to the question. Just getting the answer doesn't teach you what pondering and finding a correct response will.
Some of the things I'm doing for my on-line classes are sort of like koan: I ask students to freewrite, not because there's a specific answer, but because working through and thinking about things, even for 3-5 minutes, will help them learn in a different way because reading literature, thinking critically, writing well, these are skills, and to do them, you have to practice a lot.
In person, I ask my students to freewrite, and say I'll give them x amount of time, and wander around (warning them off phones if those are out, which is rare, but not unheard of), and most of my students, because they're cooperative, will appear to be doing something. And then when I ask them to share some ideas, they actually tend to have stuff to say.
But how do I convince them that it's actually worth taking that time on-line? If they're like me, they just want to get through things, get to the "punch line" or point or whatever. I know from personal experience that I don't do freewriting or whatever unless I really have a committed purpose that I'm convinced it will help with. But I'm not sure I can convince very many of my students to feel that commitment or purpose when they're doing a class on line.
Are there ways to actually convince them?
One of the most famous koans is the question: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
If you're like me, you ponder for a very short bit of time, and then look up the answer, thinking that it's like math, and if someone shows you the answer to one, you can repeat it and then learn how to do the next one. But koan really aren't like that. The point is more the pondering than the answer to the question. Just getting the answer doesn't teach you what pondering and finding a correct response will.
Some of the things I'm doing for my on-line classes are sort of like koan: I ask students to freewrite, not because there's a specific answer, but because working through and thinking about things, even for 3-5 minutes, will help them learn in a different way because reading literature, thinking critically, writing well, these are skills, and to do them, you have to practice a lot.
In person, I ask my students to freewrite, and say I'll give them x amount of time, and wander around (warning them off phones if those are out, which is rare, but not unheard of), and most of my students, because they're cooperative, will appear to be doing something. And then when I ask them to share some ideas, they actually tend to have stuff to say.
But how do I convince them that it's actually worth taking that time on-line? If they're like me, they just want to get through things, get to the "punch line" or point or whatever. I know from personal experience that I don't do freewriting or whatever unless I really have a committed purpose that I'm convinced it will help with. But I'm not sure I can convince very many of my students to feel that commitment or purpose when they're doing a class on line.
Are there ways to actually convince them?
Monday, March 23, 2020
Administrative Musical Chairs
Another administrator has left NWU for greener pastures and a higher title.
It's been something like 10 years since my college has had a dean for more than 3 years, and about half of that time, we've had interim deans.
If they're good, they move up and away, and fast; dean is just a minor checkmark on the way. Associate and assistant headmaster is a step up to headmaster, and there... well, there must be a lot of turn over at higher ranks because people seem to move a lot once they move into administration.
Or not. If they're questionably competent, they can get stuck.
And sometimes, we've had GREAT mid-level administrators who stuck around a while; the folks I'm thinking of were hired from within and really found a way to put their smarts to use in creative ways here, and didn't move, for whatever reason. (Though one recently retired, and what a loss that is to us!)
One of my grad school friends is now a headmaster, and a surprising number have served as chairs of various sorts of institutions. (I'm late to the chairing game.)
I have a feeling my current chair could be a really successful dean if they want to go that direction.
It's been something like 10 years since my college has had a dean for more than 3 years, and about half of that time, we've had interim deans.
If they're good, they move up and away, and fast; dean is just a minor checkmark on the way. Associate and assistant headmaster is a step up to headmaster, and there... well, there must be a lot of turn over at higher ranks because people seem to move a lot once they move into administration.
Or not. If they're questionably competent, they can get stuck.
And sometimes, we've had GREAT mid-level administrators who stuck around a while; the folks I'm thinking of were hired from within and really found a way to put their smarts to use in creative ways here, and didn't move, for whatever reason. (Though one recently retired, and what a loss that is to us!)
One of my grad school friends is now a headmaster, and a surprising number have served as chairs of various sorts of institutions. (I'm late to the chairing game.)
I have a feeling my current chair could be a really successful dean if they want to go that direction.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Time in the Time of Covid
I talked to my Mom today; she's 88, and feeling her age lately. At her retirement community, everything is locked down; they're supposed to stay in their apartments. It totally makes sense; the managers want to try to keep anyone from getting or sharing the virus.
But my Mom's bored. And anxious. She keeps watching the news and stuff about the virus, and then she reads stuff about the virus. Who wouldn't be anxious.
I get that she's bored. I think there's two ends on the spectrum of reacting to the sheltering in place thing: people with a work at home job and kids in the house are at one end, desperately trying to get things done and not finding much time for sleep or even basics. And at the other end are folks like my Mom, who don't have other responsibilities or easy access to the internet (my Mom could, but she doesn't get on because she found it all too confusing).
I'm closer to the other end, trying to get classes up and ready while also trying to get some exercise and sunshine every day.
I'm now part of two on line teaching communities, and they're both a little overwhelming, just because there are so many people posting all the time. What I really want is one easy answer, and done, but I don't think that's happening any time soon.
In other news: I checked nesting boxes today, saw many Robins, and the American Goldfinches are getting their bright yellow already.
So, last week, my Mom said she was going to run out of TP. So my brother ordered some on line. But then he got a notice that the order was cancelled. So, on Friday my Sister in Law texted me, and made it sound really urgent to send some since I'd seen some at the store, restocked. I went to the store and got my Mom some TP, and called her to see if there was anything else she needed while I was at the store. No, she said. I got a card and some licorice and sent the package to her (she gets a bit of a treat and surprise). It's supposed to get there early next week.
Today, she called and said she needs instant coffee. She doesn't like the coffee they bring her at the retirement place (they're delivering meals to everyone's apartments, along with whatever... basic dietary stuff). Like, I could have easily gotten the coffee while I was at the store and sent it on Friday.
I asked her to check and make a list of whatever she needs. But she said she really doesn't feel like it. (I hope I convinced her, anyway.)
I'm a little freaked out because if she gets sick, like really sick, there's probably no way I can go to see her. And the same thing for all my other family and friends. I can't be the only one thinking of this?
I saw a news article on the BBC about a family where four members died, but each alone in their hospital room, without knowing about the others. The survivors are understandably devastated, and in self-quarantine hoping they didn't catch it at the family gathering.
But my Mom's bored. And anxious. She keeps watching the news and stuff about the virus, and then she reads stuff about the virus. Who wouldn't be anxious.
I get that she's bored. I think there's two ends on the spectrum of reacting to the sheltering in place thing: people with a work at home job and kids in the house are at one end, desperately trying to get things done and not finding much time for sleep or even basics. And at the other end are folks like my Mom, who don't have other responsibilities or easy access to the internet (my Mom could, but she doesn't get on because she found it all too confusing).
I'm closer to the other end, trying to get classes up and ready while also trying to get some exercise and sunshine every day.
I'm now part of two on line teaching communities, and they're both a little overwhelming, just because there are so many people posting all the time. What I really want is one easy answer, and done, but I don't think that's happening any time soon.
In other news: I checked nesting boxes today, saw many Robins, and the American Goldfinches are getting their bright yellow already.
So, last week, my Mom said she was going to run out of TP. So my brother ordered some on line. But then he got a notice that the order was cancelled. So, on Friday my Sister in Law texted me, and made it sound really urgent to send some since I'd seen some at the store, restocked. I went to the store and got my Mom some TP, and called her to see if there was anything else she needed while I was at the store. No, she said. I got a card and some licorice and sent the package to her (she gets a bit of a treat and surprise). It's supposed to get there early next week.
Today, she called and said she needs instant coffee. She doesn't like the coffee they bring her at the retirement place (they're delivering meals to everyone's apartments, along with whatever... basic dietary stuff). Like, I could have easily gotten the coffee while I was at the store and sent it on Friday.
I asked her to check and make a list of whatever she needs. But she said she really doesn't feel like it. (I hope I convinced her, anyway.)
I'm a little freaked out because if she gets sick, like really sick, there's probably no way I can go to see her. And the same thing for all my other family and friends. I can't be the only one thinking of this?
I saw a news article on the BBC about a family where four members died, but each alone in their hospital room, without knowing about the others. The survivors are understandably devastated, and in self-quarantine hoping they didn't catch it at the family gathering.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
One Done
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's teaching material for one course. We're finishing up Persepolis, so in order to do it, I had to pdf some pages, and then made three short videos (3-5 min each), some short quizzes that don't count for grades, and two discussion areas with specific questions. I'd love some feedback on it, but truthfully, what I want is to be told, "that'll do" and feel okay about it.
Today, I'm going to work on finishing up "The Reeve's Tale" in the Chaucer course and work on The Tempest stuff for the Intro to Critical Studies course.
Yesterday was a steep learning curve. I was at a meeting on Tuesday (sitting far apart in a huge room), and the teaching center director was there, assuring us all that there's lots of support available.
So, I figured out how to make my little video things (voiceover with screen pictures of the appropriate pages of Persepolis), but then I couldn't figure out how to upload the video or embed it. I figured out how to upload it, finally, but still couldn't figure out the embedding into a page. Turns out, the "upload video" button isn't what you use. Instead, you use the "other media" button, and then another button, and voila it's there.
At each problem, I tried calling the Canvas support folks or the campus support folks or the on line Canvas chat, but all of them were backed up, and the chat session timed out before they got to me.
So, I finally got desperate enough to read the directions, and that helped. (It's a pain to have to go back and forth between screens trying to read directions and then do them on another screen, isn't it?)
A friend has been joking about starting a blog as the "Pantless Professor," but it sort of seems problematic for a female professor, doesn't it. And problematic in a different way for a male. Still, funny to joke about, and we needed a joke.
I've now put up the basic structures for all three of my courses, and did one day's teaching material for one course. We're finishing up Persepolis, so in order to do it, I had to pdf some pages, and then made three short videos (3-5 min each), some short quizzes that don't count for grades, and two discussion areas with specific questions. I'd love some feedback on it, but truthfully, what I want is to be told, "that'll do" and feel okay about it.
Today, I'm going to work on finishing up "The Reeve's Tale" in the Chaucer course and work on The Tempest stuff for the Intro to Critical Studies course.
Yesterday was a steep learning curve. I was at a meeting on Tuesday (sitting far apart in a huge room), and the teaching center director was there, assuring us all that there's lots of support available.
So, I figured out how to make my little video things (voiceover with screen pictures of the appropriate pages of Persepolis), but then I couldn't figure out how to upload the video or embed it. I figured out how to upload it, finally, but still couldn't figure out the embedding into a page. Turns out, the "upload video" button isn't what you use. Instead, you use the "other media" button, and then another button, and voila it's there.
At each problem, I tried calling the Canvas support folks or the campus support folks or the on line Canvas chat, but all of them were backed up, and the chat session timed out before they got to me.
So, I finally got desperate enough to read the directions, and that helped. (It's a pain to have to go back and forth between screens trying to read directions and then do them on another screen, isn't it?)
A friend has been joking about starting a blog as the "Pantless Professor," but it sort of seems problematic for a female professor, doesn't it. And problematic in a different way for a male. Still, funny to joke about, and we needed a joke.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
You Read it Here, First
I'm predicting an upsurge in blogging. Buy those blogging stocks now!
Blogging is at its best when the blogger is doing something relatively new to them and processing a lot. And by golly, we've got a lot of people who are going to be doing something relatively new to them and needing to process. And a lot of folks are mostly going to be inside, trying to work on line.
I must admit, I miss the community from those heady days of blogging when lots of folks blogged, and then when it turned out that I knew a fair number of academic bloggers off line, too. (I think my grad program somehow produced a disproportionately high number of bloggers.)
We're going on line, too. We have a week of suspended classes, spring break for a week, and then another week of suspended classes in which to prepare, which is a whole lot more than a lot of people.
My goal for today is to decide what I want to focus on and what leave out for at least one class, and maybe two. We're suspending classes for two weeks, so it's reasonable to drop some stuff, two weeks worth.
As incoming chair, I've been to a lot of meetings this past week or so, and it seems like everyone up the chain is on board with being reasonable: try to do a reasonably good job putting courses on line, but recognize that things aren't ideal. Try to do a reasonably good job in other ways, but recognize that we're going to need to treat tenure track colleagues' progression reasonably. (People, especially people with kids, can't possibly do the same sort of research agenda while learning to teach on line and having their kids home, and so forth. And people will get sick and lose time.)
In terms of first stage planning, here's what the Chaucer course calendar looked like:
Blogging is at its best when the blogger is doing something relatively new to them and processing a lot. And by golly, we've got a lot of people who are going to be doing something relatively new to them and needing to process. And a lot of folks are mostly going to be inside, trying to work on line.
I must admit, I miss the community from those heady days of blogging when lots of folks blogged, and then when it turned out that I knew a fair number of academic bloggers off line, too. (I think my grad program somehow produced a disproportionately high number of bloggers.)
We're going on line, too. We have a week of suspended classes, spring break for a week, and then another week of suspended classes in which to prepare, which is a whole lot more than a lot of people.
My goal for today is to decide what I want to focus on and what leave out for at least one class, and maybe two. We're suspending classes for two weeks, so it's reasonable to drop some stuff, two weeks worth.
As incoming chair, I've been to a lot of meetings this past week or so, and it seems like everyone up the chain is on board with being reasonable: try to do a reasonably good job putting courses on line, but recognize that things aren't ideal. Try to do a reasonably good job in other ways, but recognize that we're going to need to treat tenure track colleagues' progression reasonably. (People, especially people with kids, can't possibly do the same sort of research agenda while learning to teach on line and having their kids home, and so forth. And people will get sick and lose time.)
In terms of first stage planning, here's what the Chaucer course calendar looked like:
Week 7
M - Mar 16 - The
Reeve’s Tale
W - Mar 18 - Midterm
Exam
F - Mar 20 - The Wife
of Bath’s Prologue; read essay on prologue in Open Access Companion; Article Report #2 Due
SPRING BREAK
Week 8
M - Mar 30 - The Wife of
Bath’s Tale; Word Paragraph #7: 1109-1124; Article Report #3 Due
W - Apr 1 - The Wife
of Bath’s Tale; read essay in Open Access Companion
F - Apr 3 - The
Friar’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #8: 1447-1554
Week 9
M - Apr 6 - The
Friar’s Tale
W - Apr 8 - The
Summoner’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #9: 2216-2237
F - Apr 10 - The
Summoner’s Tale
Week 10
M - Apr 13 - The
Merchant’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #10: 1319-1339
W - Apr 15 - The
Merchant’s Tale
F - Apr 17 - SAA
Week 11
M - Apr 20 - The
Franklin’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #11: 862-880
W - Apr 22 - The
Franklin’s Tale
F - Apr 24 - The
Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #12: 941-957
Week 12
M - Apr 27 - The
Prioress’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #13: 502-529
W - Apr 29 - The
Prioress’s Tale
F - May 1 - The Nun’s
Priest’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #14: 3705-3719
Week 13
M - May 4 – Peer Revision of Research Project
W - May 6 - The Second
Nun’s Prologue and Tale; Word Paragraph #15: 141-154
F - May 7 - The
Manciple’s Tale (Guest lecturer)
Week 14
M - May 11 - Review
for Final; Research Project Due
W - May 13 - The
Parson's Prologue; Chaucer's Retraction
F - May 15 - Last Day of Classes; The Pilgrimage; read “Two
Kinds of Anxiety” essay in Open Access Companion
The Manciple's Tale is going away, for sure. But what else?
The article reports are assignments to read and write about a single critical article, and are preparation for the final research project, which is basically a lit review of a critical conversation around a topic/issue (I gave them a list).
What else should I lose?
I'm thinking: Second Nun's for sure, and Parson's Prologue; what else?
Friday, March 13, 2020
Astonied
Reading Spenser (I'm pretty sure), I was taught that being "astonied" or "astonished" meant being turned to stone, or, you know, like stone. And "amazed" means being as in a maze, lost, without direction, confused.
That's where I was yesterday, when our headmaster put out the word that we're cancelling classes. I was pretty sure we would get to that, but didn't expect it yesterday, since he'd put off and made it sound like he didn't think it was that serious. I think something changed his mind.
So, we're moving on line. But unlike lots of schools, we have a couple of weeks to get our courses in shape and moved over. That's really helpful, because it's a daunting idea.
On the other hand, I'm guessing there will be a lot of alcohol consumed in the dorms and student housing this coming week...
I've never taught on line before, so I've got a lot to learn in the next couple of weeks. And I see all sorts of folks are putting lists of resources together, so I'll definitely be looking at them.
I read a couple of weeks ago that some expert (sorry, I can't remember who it was or where) thinks that having the Covid-19 virus around will be the new normal, like having the seasonal flu. No one knows yet if getting it once will make you (mostly?) immune or not. And no one knows if we'll develop an effective vaccine. It's more dangerous than the flu so far, and may always be. Or it may become less dangerous if exposure makes you immune and it doesn't evolve different forms quickly. (That fast changing of forms is what makes the common cold so difficult to deal with, and also helps make the flu difficult.)
My (vague!) understanding is that the common cold is also caused by a corona virus, so maybe that will mean this one evolves as fast. I don't know.
It's especially worrisome for older folks and those with immune problems or chronic illnesses. And the economy is worrisome now, too.
Of course, there've been bad, bad pandemics before, but not for a long time. And I wasn't worried (because I wasn't alive yet). Now, I'm worried. Like folks during the Black Plague, and folks during the Spanish Flu pandemic. (I don't think this is as fatal as those, but it's still plenty serious, no?)
Take care, lovely readers.
That's where I was yesterday, when our headmaster put out the word that we're cancelling classes. I was pretty sure we would get to that, but didn't expect it yesterday, since he'd put off and made it sound like he didn't think it was that serious. I think something changed his mind.
So, we're moving on line. But unlike lots of schools, we have a couple of weeks to get our courses in shape and moved over. That's really helpful, because it's a daunting idea.
On the other hand, I'm guessing there will be a lot of alcohol consumed in the dorms and student housing this coming week...
I've never taught on line before, so I've got a lot to learn in the next couple of weeks. And I see all sorts of folks are putting lists of resources together, so I'll definitely be looking at them.
I read a couple of weeks ago that some expert (sorry, I can't remember who it was or where) thinks that having the Covid-19 virus around will be the new normal, like having the seasonal flu. No one knows yet if getting it once will make you (mostly?) immune or not. And no one knows if we'll develop an effective vaccine. It's more dangerous than the flu so far, and may always be. Or it may become less dangerous if exposure makes you immune and it doesn't evolve different forms quickly. (That fast changing of forms is what makes the common cold so difficult to deal with, and also helps make the flu difficult.)
My (vague!) understanding is that the common cold is also caused by a corona virus, so maybe that will mean this one evolves as fast. I don't know.
It's especially worrisome for older folks and those with immune problems or chronic illnesses. And the economy is worrisome now, too.
Of course, there've been bad, bad pandemics before, but not for a long time. And I wasn't worried (because I wasn't alive yet). Now, I'm worried. Like folks during the Black Plague, and folks during the Spanish Flu pandemic. (I don't think this is as fatal as those, but it's still plenty serious, no?)
Take care, lovely readers.
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
A Voice in the Hinterlands
Sharon O'Dair wrote "The Lies Graduate Programs Tell Themselves" recently over at the Chronicle of Higher Education. I'm sure O'Dair is absolutely right in some of her analysis, especially in recognizing that graduate school acceptances for PhD programs are driven by the needs for cheap labor to teach introductory and writing courses.
And yet I can't help but feel my hackles rise when I read the following sentence:
Who does she think should teach at our schools? Unqualified people? People who didn't go to elite schools?
Well, [expletive deleted] that. My students deserve great scholar/teachers every bit as much as anyone from whatever elite university you can think of.
NWU also benefits from the abundance of stellar graduates from PhD programs. We don't tend to get many applicants from Grand Old Ivy type places, but we get really superb applicants from public R1s. And that means we have highly trained graduates coming to become highly trained assistant professors, and developing into associate professors and so forth. Even our non-tenure track colleagues tend to be pretty darned amazing.
If PhD programs all agreed to accept only 10% of the students they currently do, we'd have troubles down the line. But at 50%, we'd probably still be in great shape.
I'm guessing economically, the only ways R1s could do that would be by increasing the teaching loads of faculty or by hiring even more non-tenure track faculty. So, R1 folks, you can make that choice. Everyone teach an extra class or two a semester, and cut your grad program acceptances in half. (No worries for O'Dair, since she's retired.)
I'm in total agreement that PhD programs should produce fewer graduates. And yet, I don't want that to happen at the expense of people such as myself or my students. As it is now, I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the PhD students in English at Yale or Harvard come from pretty elite educational backgrounds. They don't come from places such as NWU. And if PhD programs reduce their graduate student acceptances by cutting off people from less elite undergraduate schools, then that seems totally wrong.
But whatever happens, don't think that just because we don't live on the coasts or live more rurally that we're somehow less worthy of educational opportunity than someone from a coastal or more urban (or, really, suburban) area.
And yet I can't help but feel my hackles rise when I read the following sentence:
The decades-long overproduction of Ph.D.s has spilled highly trained graduates of elite programs into assistant professorships in the hinterlands, "places like East Podunk University or West Jesus State College," as Jeffrey J. Williams memorably put it in 1995.Does she not think that students at schools in rural areas or the Midwest (which is what I think she's after with her "hinterlands" comment) deserve to be taught by highly trained graduates? Or is it graduates of elite programs? (Surely she doesn't think only elite programs produce highly trained graduates.)
Who does she think should teach at our schools? Unqualified people? People who didn't go to elite schools?
Well, [expletive deleted] that. My students deserve great scholar/teachers every bit as much as anyone from whatever elite university you can think of.
NWU also benefits from the abundance of stellar graduates from PhD programs. We don't tend to get many applicants from Grand Old Ivy type places, but we get really superb applicants from public R1s. And that means we have highly trained graduates coming to become highly trained assistant professors, and developing into associate professors and so forth. Even our non-tenure track colleagues tend to be pretty darned amazing.
If PhD programs all agreed to accept only 10% of the students they currently do, we'd have troubles down the line. But at 50%, we'd probably still be in great shape.
I'm guessing economically, the only ways R1s could do that would be by increasing the teaching loads of faculty or by hiring even more non-tenure track faculty. So, R1 folks, you can make that choice. Everyone teach an extra class or two a semester, and cut your grad program acceptances in half. (No worries for O'Dair, since she's retired.)
I'm in total agreement that PhD programs should produce fewer graduates. And yet, I don't want that to happen at the expense of people such as myself or my students. As it is now, I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the PhD students in English at Yale or Harvard come from pretty elite educational backgrounds. They don't come from places such as NWU. And if PhD programs reduce their graduate student acceptances by cutting off people from less elite undergraduate schools, then that seems totally wrong.
But whatever happens, don't think that just because we don't live on the coasts or live more rurally that we're somehow less worthy of educational opportunity than someone from a coastal or more urban (or, really, suburban) area.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
I Can See My Desktop
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 put the next one in a slightly different pile, and then put down a book, and so forth.
But this morning, I took about 15 minutes and cleared it off, put things in files, recycled some stuff, and now I can see the desktop, and it's nice.
I recently read an article about happiness and saw that there's a coursera course on it, and signed up. I'm mostly a pretty happy person, not manically happy, but pretty happy. (Especially after a good night's sleep.) But who doesn't want to be happier? (Except, of course, being complacent when one shouldn't be complacent, would be a mistake: who wants to ignore racism, homophobia, climate change, flu, or whatever. So, while thinking about racism makes me unhappy, trying to work against racism is meaningful. And so forth.) Because I need more stuff to do...
I feel like there's a lot of different stuff competing for my attention, and (to mix my metaphors), I don't want to drop any of the balls I'm juggling. There must be good ways to keep track of everything, right? Suggestions?
Now that my desk is clean, I feel like I can work more effectively. So that's next up! (and then a meeting... )
But this morning, I took about 15 minutes and cleared it off, put things in files, recycled some stuff, and now I can see the desktop, and it's nice.
I recently read an article about happiness and saw that there's a coursera course on it, and signed up. I'm mostly a pretty happy person, not manically happy, but pretty happy. (Especially after a good night's sleep.) But who doesn't want to be happier? (Except, of course, being complacent when one shouldn't be complacent, would be a mistake: who wants to ignore racism, homophobia, climate change, flu, or whatever. So, while thinking about racism makes me unhappy, trying to work against racism is meaningful. And so forth.) Because I need more stuff to do...
I feel like there's a lot of different stuff competing for my attention, and (to mix my metaphors), I don't want to drop any of the balls I'm juggling. There must be good ways to keep track of everything, right? Suggestions?
Now that my desk is clean, I feel like I can work more effectively. So that's next up! (and then a meeting... )
Monday, February 17, 2020
With Every Assignment Due, Disaster Strikes
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 aging pet, and several oops, I didn't get it done because...
I don't doubt any of them, either. I think the thing that's most changed in me over the years about handling disasters or non-disasters is that I'm less cranky (or less overtly cranky) about the need to turn in some things late.
It's not that I'm happy, but if you're 18 and a loved one is ill, or your car breaks down, or you mis-time things and have to work a long shift, I'm more inclined now to be sympathetic.
It's a tad frustrating to try to get a pile graded and then have to add more, but a whole lot less bad than having a loved one ill or something.
Strep and flu seem to be hitting hard locally, too. And to be honest, if a student is feeling sick, it seems better to me that they stay home and try to take good care of themselves, and not spread whatever. But, yeah... I wish they never got sick (and not only for my convenience).
I don't doubt any of them, either. I think the thing that's most changed in me over the years about handling disasters or non-disasters is that I'm less cranky (or less overtly cranky) about the need to turn in some things late.
It's not that I'm happy, but if you're 18 and a loved one is ill, or your car breaks down, or you mis-time things and have to work a long shift, I'm more inclined now to be sympathetic.
It's a tad frustrating to try to get a pile graded and then have to add more, but a whole lot less bad than having a loved one ill or something.
Strep and flu seem to be hitting hard locally, too. And to be honest, if a student is feeling sick, it seems better to me that they stay home and try to take good care of themselves, and not spread whatever. But, yeah... I wish they never got sick (and not only for my convenience).
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Pre-Chair
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 chair meetings with the Dean and other chairs.
Almost as soon as I got here, a colleague came and stood at my door to chat. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. And then the colleague started to tell me about this and that, and here's what we need to do to make the world better, and so forth. So I suggested maybe starting with step A would be something we could do. And then I got an earful about how they aren't paid to do step A, and besides, they've already been doing step A (sort of), and we'd really need to start with step A prime. So I said, okay, so A prime. And I got another earful about how they shouldn't have to do Underwater Basketweaving 101 so they could develop this new idea. And I said, basically, that I didn't think that was going to happen, but that there might be a way to do their new idea taking a different approach. And then they sidestepped to another idea.
And I realized I totally didn't really have a grasp on our conversation. I was treating it as a colleague saying "I want to do X, and I want you to support that when you're chair" when what they really wanted was to just vent. And that's fine. We all need to vent sometimes.
I recalled what a former chair explained to me once, about how there were colleagues who would go into his office to just vent, and they were going to do that about an hour a week. And he just had to listen and nod and let them vent. And then there were other colleagues who'd show up once a semester, and they'd want to vent, maybe, or want to test out a real idea, maybe, or whatever. And sometimes the colleague who usually vents actually wants to get help with an idea. And figuring out the actual conversations he was having with different colleagues was key to being effective and getting done what could be done.
I don't think my colleague today feels comfortable enough with the current chair to vent at them, but clearly they feel comfortable enough with me to vent at me. And I'm sure there's someone else who vents at the current chair and won't feel as comfortable venting to me.
So much to learn and keep track of.
I went to the chairs' meeting and felt like I needed a scorecard to keep track. I think I need to listen really carefully this semester so that I have a better sense of what's important and how to best serve my department, the college, and the university.
So very much to learn!
Almost as soon as I got here, a colleague came and stood at my door to chat. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. And then the colleague started to tell me about this and that, and here's what we need to do to make the world better, and so forth. So I suggested maybe starting with step A would be something we could do. And then I got an earful about how they aren't paid to do step A, and besides, they've already been doing step A (sort of), and we'd really need to start with step A prime. So I said, okay, so A prime. And I got another earful about how they shouldn't have to do Underwater Basketweaving 101 so they could develop this new idea. And I said, basically, that I didn't think that was going to happen, but that there might be a way to do their new idea taking a different approach. And then they sidestepped to another idea.
And I realized I totally didn't really have a grasp on our conversation. I was treating it as a colleague saying "I want to do X, and I want you to support that when you're chair" when what they really wanted was to just vent. And that's fine. We all need to vent sometimes.
I recalled what a former chair explained to me once, about how there were colleagues who would go into his office to just vent, and they were going to do that about an hour a week. And he just had to listen and nod and let them vent. And then there were other colleagues who'd show up once a semester, and they'd want to vent, maybe, or want to test out a real idea, maybe, or whatever. And sometimes the colleague who usually vents actually wants to get help with an idea. And figuring out the actual conversations he was having with different colleagues was key to being effective and getting done what could be done.
I don't think my colleague today feels comfortable enough with the current chair to vent at them, but clearly they feel comfortable enough with me to vent at me. And I'm sure there's someone else who vents at the current chair and won't feel as comfortable venting to me.
So much to learn and keep track of.
I went to the chairs' meeting and felt like I needed a scorecard to keep track. I think I need to listen really carefully this semester so that I have a better sense of what's important and how to best serve my department, the college, and the university.
So very much to learn!
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
A New Semester, New Things to Learn
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 three students anxious about stuff. I solved two of the problems, I think.
I had a student yesterday tell me they were going on vacation during X week of classes and what could they do to make up the work. I said they could do it ahead. BUT seriously, who schedules vacation during the semester for college aged students? (And I realize "vacation" may actually mean that it's the only time my parent can get off of work or something. Still, it seems weird.)
Yesterday, I taught five hours. My normal Monday/Wednesday schedule will be four and a half hours, but I filled in for a colleague for half an hour yesterday. I don't know how K-12 teachers do it.
My Mom's memory seems to be more and more a problem. I'm grateful to the other family members who are helping and geographically close. But there are times when it takes a lot of mental energy just to call and try to talk to her.
Here's to wishing everyone a good semester!
It's the morning of the second day of classes, and I've already had three students anxious about stuff. I solved two of the problems, I think.
I had a student yesterday tell me they were going on vacation during X week of classes and what could they do to make up the work. I said they could do it ahead. BUT seriously, who schedules vacation during the semester for college aged students? (And I realize "vacation" may actually mean that it's the only time my parent can get off of work or something. Still, it seems weird.)
Yesterday, I taught five hours. My normal Monday/Wednesday schedule will be four and a half hours, but I filled in for a colleague for half an hour yesterday. I don't know how K-12 teachers do it.
My Mom's memory seems to be more and more a problem. I'm grateful to the other family members who are helping and geographically close. But there are times when it takes a lot of mental energy just to call and try to talk to her.
Here's to wishing everyone a good semester!
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Third Hand
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, a prof who teaches in her major; she says she reported it a trusted professor who reported it to the department chair, who had a chat with said prof. And said prof made it about his sad situation.
So this is, at best, third hand information. What does one do?
Not my department? Not my monkeys, not my circus?
Or is there still some responsibility?
I emailed the campus Title IX officer/legal eagle with the link and asked. They've contacted me and are aware of the situation and reaching out to the student. The fact that they're reaching out now makes me think they heard it from either effbee or someone who saw it on effbee or me... and it seems like one of the campus publicity and marketing folks contacted them; I'm guessing one of the people who's responsible for monitoring those web search things that aggregate anything and everything that mentions specific words you target. Good on them!
And now the student has filed a more official report. Good for her!
***
I think what I find frustrating at this point, separate from being pissed off at that stupid professor hanging out at a student bar bugging young women (bugging any women is inappropriate), is that the female faculty who are responding feel ineffectual and seem to actually BE ineffectual.
It reminds me of the sexual harasser who was grad program chair in my graduate department; reportedly, numerous women talked to a female professor (untenured), who supposedly told them that they needed to talk to the department chair. But everyone was too afraid. (Including me.) It felt like it would be the end of any graduate funding, any support from any of the male faculty (who we all felt had to already be aware of the grad director's behavior, since he did it at every gathering where there were faculty and grad students).
And so, nothing happened. For years.
The woman whose post I originally saw asked in general if other colleges have policies, seemingly unaware of ours. Then someone posted ours (which I went and read), which covers the situation reasonably well. Then someone posted more about the current policy, and how it didn't seem to actually work, given what had happened.
But none of them said, hey, I'm reaching out to our Title IX person. (And I didn't post on the threads at all, just reached out to the Title IX person.) And they all KNOW the Title IX person.
So this is, at best, third hand information. What does one do?
Not my department? Not my monkeys, not my circus?
Or is there still some responsibility?
I emailed the campus Title IX officer/legal eagle with the link and asked. They've contacted me and are aware of the situation and reaching out to the student. The fact that they're reaching out now makes me think they heard it from either effbee or someone who saw it on effbee or me... and it seems like one of the campus publicity and marketing folks contacted them; I'm guessing one of the people who's responsible for monitoring those web search things that aggregate anything and everything that mentions specific words you target. Good on them!
And now the student has filed a more official report. Good for her!
***
I think what I find frustrating at this point, separate from being pissed off at that stupid professor hanging out at a student bar bugging young women (bugging any women is inappropriate), is that the female faculty who are responding feel ineffectual and seem to actually BE ineffectual.
It reminds me of the sexual harasser who was grad program chair in my graduate department; reportedly, numerous women talked to a female professor (untenured), who supposedly told them that they needed to talk to the department chair. But everyone was too afraid. (Including me.) It felt like it would be the end of any graduate funding, any support from any of the male faculty (who we all felt had to already be aware of the grad director's behavior, since he did it at every gathering where there were faculty and grad students).
And so, nothing happened. For years.
The woman whose post I originally saw asked in general if other colleges have policies, seemingly unaware of ours. Then someone posted ours (which I went and read), which covers the situation reasonably well. Then someone posted more about the current policy, and how it didn't seem to actually work, given what had happened.
But none of them said, hey, I'm reaching out to our Title IX person. (And I didn't post on the threads at all, just reached out to the Title IX person.) And they all KNOW the Title IX person.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Is the Shine off Comp/Rhet (Job-wise)?
I'm reading applications for a position that's not Composition and/or Rhetoric, but about 15 percent of the applications are from folks in Comp/Rhet.
Since I don't teach at super famous R1 in a fabulous place to live, that leads me to believe that the shine is really off the Comp/Rhet marketability.
It seems like there are a lot more Comp/Rhet PhD programs out there, graduating a lot more Comp/Rhet PhDs, but there's not a great tenure track market, certainly not what there was? (Maybe it's the ratio: it seems like there used to be fewer candidates for each job, so a greater likelihood of graduates finding something, as opposed to say, 20th century American Lit.)
It used to be that when I had a promising undergrad who wanted to get a PhD in an English Studies field, I'd recommend they think about Comp/Rhet. But I'm thinking that's outdated thinking now.
On the other hand, my suspicions are 100% based on an anecdote, and data isn't the plural of anecdote...
Since I don't teach at super famous R1 in a fabulous place to live, that leads me to believe that the shine is really off the Comp/Rhet marketability.
It seems like there are a lot more Comp/Rhet PhD programs out there, graduating a lot more Comp/Rhet PhDs, but there's not a great tenure track market, certainly not what there was? (Maybe it's the ratio: it seems like there used to be fewer candidates for each job, so a greater likelihood of graduates finding something, as opposed to say, 20th century American Lit.)
It used to be that when I had a promising undergrad who wanted to get a PhD in an English Studies field, I'd recommend they think about Comp/Rhet. But I'm thinking that's outdated thinking now.
On the other hand, my suspicions are 100% based on an anecdote, and data isn't the plural of anecdote...
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Reading Ibsen
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 teach it. And it's in the anthology. So I started to read it so that it wouldn't be totally new when I taught it. (I don't remember reading it before.)
I'm just in far enough that one of the characters is basically blackmailing another about the way she handled signing for a debt. And I feel totally stressed out and tense.
I don't have any big financial stresses, and my only real debt is my mortgage. But just thinking about the legal stuffs and financial problems makes me stressed out and tense.
I don't have a problem reading about a character in a play deciding to kill their king, perhaps because it's quite clear to me that 1) I'm not going to go out and kill anybody on purpose, and certainly not a national leader, and 2) in part that's because it's clear to me that killing someone, except under extreme duress (like actual, real, self-defense) never makes anything better. So it doesn't stress me out that Macbeth wants to kill Duncan, or that Henry Tudor wants to kill Richard III. Nope, not the least.
But the debt thing? For some reason, that was so unpleasant that I just put the play down and went and did some cleaning.
I may not actually teach it after all. It will depend if I can make myself get through it. But there's a certain point at which I really don't see the need to read lit to teach that makes me unhappy.
I really don't understand the theater folks wanting to put this on...
I'm just in far enough that one of the characters is basically blackmailing another about the way she handled signing for a debt. And I feel totally stressed out and tense.
I don't have any big financial stresses, and my only real debt is my mortgage. But just thinking about the legal stuffs and financial problems makes me stressed out and tense.
I don't have a problem reading about a character in a play deciding to kill their king, perhaps because it's quite clear to me that 1) I'm not going to go out and kill anybody on purpose, and certainly not a national leader, and 2) in part that's because it's clear to me that killing someone, except under extreme duress (like actual, real, self-defense) never makes anything better. So it doesn't stress me out that Macbeth wants to kill Duncan, or that Henry Tudor wants to kill Richard III. Nope, not the least.
But the debt thing? For some reason, that was so unpleasant that I just put the play down and went and did some cleaning.
I may not actually teach it after all. It will depend if I can make myself get through it. But there's a certain point at which I really don't see the need to read lit to teach that makes me unhappy.
I really don't understand the theater folks wanting to put this on...
Friday, January 10, 2020
Reading Applications
I've been reading applications, and I've noticed a couple things.
First, a number of the letters of recommendation are targeted, at least by an address and salutation, specifically at our search. I've never noticed that before. It means letter writers are reworking letters (at least minimally) specifically for each institution the applicant is applying to. Maybe that's not many, but holy cow, it's a whole lot of work. And it really doesn't seem necessary or even really helpful. It's not like the faculty at Prestigious R1 are actually likely to know enough about a regional comprehensive such as NorthWoods U to really make the strategy effective. And it's got to make things MUCH more complicated for submitting letters on time. (Whose letter writers weren't always pushing the deadline? Anyone not have that issue? So it's got to add stress.)
The second thing is how few of the application letters clearly address some of the stuff in our ad. If we put in our ad that, say, speaking a foreign language is vital, then the letter should tell us about the foreign language the applicant speaks and how well.
In my role as future chair, I've talked to some folks who are on the market in different fields, and at least one has told me that doing an invited talk is a real CV booster. From my point of view, it's so not. A conference or three is great, but an invited talk doesn't really catch my eye. And given that a lot of candidates have multiple conference presentations, an invited talk basically disappears into the background. It's certainly not the make or break thing that my colleague seemed to think. For others?
What do folks see as make or break?
For me, a well written letter that addresses our job ad requirements. Research that sounds interesting.
A clear CV that shows growth and ... exploration, experience, interesting work.
First, a number of the letters of recommendation are targeted, at least by an address and salutation, specifically at our search. I've never noticed that before. It means letter writers are reworking letters (at least minimally) specifically for each institution the applicant is applying to. Maybe that's not many, but holy cow, it's a whole lot of work. And it really doesn't seem necessary or even really helpful. It's not like the faculty at Prestigious R1 are actually likely to know enough about a regional comprehensive such as NorthWoods U to really make the strategy effective. And it's got to make things MUCH more complicated for submitting letters on time. (Whose letter writers weren't always pushing the deadline? Anyone not have that issue? So it's got to add stress.)
The second thing is how few of the application letters clearly address some of the stuff in our ad. If we put in our ad that, say, speaking a foreign language is vital, then the letter should tell us about the foreign language the applicant speaks and how well.
In my role as future chair, I've talked to some folks who are on the market in different fields, and at least one has told me that doing an invited talk is a real CV booster. From my point of view, it's so not. A conference or three is great, but an invited talk doesn't really catch my eye. And given that a lot of candidates have multiple conference presentations, an invited talk basically disappears into the background. It's certainly not the make or break thing that my colleague seemed to think. For others?
What do folks see as make or break?
For me, a well written letter that addresses our job ad requirements. Research that sounds interesting.
A clear CV that shows growth and ... exploration, experience, interesting work.
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Academic Anxiety Dreams and a Question for Medievalists
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 then for some reason, went home instead of going to my first class (intro to the major) and then was trying to get back for the Chaucer class, but still didn't have any syllabus or calendar for any
The next day, I wrote up the basic academic calendar template for next semester. That was three weeks ago, I think, soon after the previous semester finished.
Last night, my dream was more focused on not having the Chaucer calendar ready. And when I woke up, I was thinking, but that's three weeks away, almost. And it is, but there's no telling the dreaming that. So today I'll start rereading the Canterbury Tales and thinking about the calendar.
I was looking at the Harvard Metro site the other day, and on one of the teaching pages, they suggested starting with the Shipman's Tale, as easier to read (in part because it's short and has a really basic plot-line) than the General Prologue. So I'm thinking of doing that... are there medievalists out there with thoughts?
The next day, I wrote up the basic academic calendar template for next semester. That was three weeks ago, I think, soon after the previous semester finished.
Last night, my dream was more focused on not having the Chaucer calendar ready. And when I woke up, I was thinking, but that's three weeks away, almost. And it is, but there's no telling the dreaming that. So today I'll start rereading the Canterbury Tales and thinking about the calendar.
I was looking at the Harvard Metro site the other day, and on one of the teaching pages, they suggested starting with the Shipman's Tale, as easier to read (in part because it's short and has a really basic plot-line) than the General Prologue. So I'm thinking of doing that... are there medievalists out there with thoughts?
Tuesday, January 07, 2020
Visit from a Former Student
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.
And a youngish person stood in my doorway and said hello. I didn't recognize them at first, but then they reminded me: a former student. This one had gone on to grad school in Practical Basketweaving. They'd stopped by because they'd learned from a faculty member in the department that there was going to be a new chair, and had dropped by the department to find out who it was, and then came to my office. They lamented the difficulty of finding an academic job, and the earnest wish to come back to our department. They mentioned that they'd made it to the interview stage for a job we had a while back. And they hadn't even gotten a phone interview for the short term hires made by the chair.
It was awkward. I'd better get used to that, I suppose.
They kept sort of asking why they weren't getting a job. And probably the real answer is that the job market sucks, and they aren't quite competitive, given the absolutely stellar people that are out there in Practical Basketweaving. Which I didn't quite say, though I mentioned the incredibly bad market.
They revealed that they'd had a TT job at a strong regional comprehensive, but had left to follow a now-ex-spouse. I didn't ask more, but I did silently realize that a friend of mine also teaches at the former school.
I finally told them I needed to get going, and wished them well, and they left.
I feel an odd sort of responsibility for a graduate of ours who goes on and doesn't get a job, though I can say with absolute certainty that if they talked to me about graduate school, I would have told them the bad news about the market. But the person they were closest to, I think, wouldn't see that as their responsibility at all.
And a youngish person stood in my doorway and said hello. I didn't recognize them at first, but then they reminded me: a former student. This one had gone on to grad school in Practical Basketweaving. They'd stopped by because they'd learned from a faculty member in the department that there was going to be a new chair, and had dropped by the department to find out who it was, and then came to my office. They lamented the difficulty of finding an academic job, and the earnest wish to come back to our department. They mentioned that they'd made it to the interview stage for a job we had a while back. And they hadn't even gotten a phone interview for the short term hires made by the chair.
It was awkward. I'd better get used to that, I suppose.
They kept sort of asking why they weren't getting a job. And probably the real answer is that the job market sucks, and they aren't quite competitive, given the absolutely stellar people that are out there in Practical Basketweaving. Which I didn't quite say, though I mentioned the incredibly bad market.
They revealed that they'd had a TT job at a strong regional comprehensive, but had left to follow a now-ex-spouse. I didn't ask more, but I did silently realize that a friend of mine also teaches at the former school.
I finally told them I needed to get going, and wished them well, and they left.
I feel an odd sort of responsibility for a graduate of ours who goes on and doesn't get a job, though I can say with absolute certainty that if they talked to me about graduate school, I would have told them the bad news about the market. But the person they were closest to, I think, wouldn't see that as their responsibility at all.
Monday, January 06, 2020
Running in Place
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 happens towards the end of the semester. It took about half an hour for the computer to get to the log in stage. So I logged in... and waited. And reshelved my books, put away files, the usual.
I tried to do computer stuff, the things I'd come to campus to take care of, but every time I tried to open a program or something, I got the "(not responding)" thing, and it hung up.
Finally, I called the nice people at campus tech support. The person who answered was, well, hesitant. I said I needed help because my computer was so slow, and they suggested I could wait until next week. I said I needed the computer sooner to do my work, and finally they agreed to send out a tech. So I started reading. And the tech came, and started doing stuff on the computer. And waited... because it hung up every time.
So at least it wasn't just me.
The upshot was that the tech took away my computer for re-imaging, and I'm supposed to meet with someone this afternoon who will bring it over and set it up for me. So, YAY! That should be good.
I have so much to do before classes start:
Chairing a search committee: our application deadline is soon, and we have to read everything before our first meeting.
Rereading the Canterbury Tales, because I haven't taught Chaucer in about 5 years.
Reading The Dolls' House, because I'm teaching intro to lit and the theater department is putting it on. I don't think I've ever read it before...
Reading a couple of books.
Trying to exercise.
Practicing the violin...
I tried to do computer stuff, the things I'd come to campus to take care of, but every time I tried to open a program or something, I got the "(not responding)" thing, and it hung up.
Finally, I called the nice people at campus tech support. The person who answered was, well, hesitant. I said I needed help because my computer was so slow, and they suggested I could wait until next week. I said I needed the computer sooner to do my work, and finally they agreed to send out a tech. So I started reading. And the tech came, and started doing stuff on the computer. And waited... because it hung up every time.
So at least it wasn't just me.
The upshot was that the tech took away my computer for re-imaging, and I'm supposed to meet with someone this afternoon who will bring it over and set it up for me. So, YAY! That should be good.
I have so much to do before classes start:
Chairing a search committee: our application deadline is soon, and we have to read everything before our first meeting.
Rereading the Canterbury Tales, because I haven't taught Chaucer in about 5 years.
Reading The Dolls' House, because I'm teaching intro to lit and the theater department is putting it on. I don't think I've ever read it before...
Reading a couple of books.
Trying to exercise.
Practicing the violin...
Friday, January 03, 2020
A New Year Begins
Happy New Years. Let's hope 2020 gets better.
(Though I saw that the US military basically committed an act of war...)
I spent much of the break so far with my Mom, helping her travel to visit my brother's family for Christmas, and then at her retirement community, trying to help make things work. Her short term memory has really failed over the past several months.
A medicine she was taking may be at least partially responsible. So she's off that medicine for almost a month now, and seems slightly less confused, but she's not at all where she was 6 months ago. (She began taking the medicine about May, and it was stopped in late November, I think.) I don't know if things will get better or not.
It was a hard year for her: she had to move from a retirement community she loved that closed (because the fire department said it couldn't be made reasonably fire safe or accessible for firefighting) to a much smaller one. And she got a cancer diagnosis (very early stage). And her last sibling died. These are all very hard things, and there's a lot of uncertainty, and it's all taxing for her.
Fortunately, my brother has stepped up wonderfully, as have two of my aunts (my Dad's sisters), so I'm very grateful. Still, it's hard when you can't make things any better, not really.
I got home last night and slept in my own, comfy bed. I'm happy to be home, and have a lot of work to prepare for the coming semester and for taking over as chair.
There may be big changes in our department. We may drop our tiny and weak MA program. That would mean that we'd lose four grad courses a year and a two course faculty reassignment, so basically 1.5 FTE in support for graduate students. (We'll have to continue at least some grad courses for at least a year so the folks in the program now can finish.) I'm imagining we can teach a couple more general education type courses, which would be helpful for the university.
At least some folks in the administration want us to continue our grad program: grad students pay much more tuition. At least one administrator wants us to go all on-line, and promises massive help recruiting people in business. However, we've never been able to support or compensate faculty for working with thesis (or whatever project) students. And we're very much a regional university, and have served students in our region. If we go all on-line, then the regional students might as well do an MA at a much stronger program (there are many). (Our program's strongest days were in the 80s or so, when local schools gave teachers who earned an MA a raise; then the education program started doing an MA in teaching program that was pretty... weak and easy. Once we lost that cohort of teachers, our program got even smaller and weaker. And then the raise went away...)
I'm hoping as chair I can help be creative and get a course reassignment for one of our writing non-tenure track folks to work deeply with our Writing Center and Writing Program folks to develop and support a Writing Across the Curriculum initiative. Currently, the upper admin in charge provides some financial support for a couple of MA students, but they don't have the education or experience to really do the higher level work we need done. And once they're all on-line, they won't be on campus to do that work. On the other hand, if we can provide a course reassignment for a PhD in writing stuffs to work on it, I think we'd make better progress.
The other thing, though, is that with another 1.5 FTE to put into work with undergrads, we'll have a hard time justifying any new hires unless something really specific comes up. (It's been more than a decade since anyone around here has been able to do an old-fashioned line replacement, the thing where a Victorianist retired and a department got to hire a new Victorianist. That's a thing of the past, and it's not coming back.)
So there's lots to think about.
Two questions: for anyone who's been chair of a department: please suggest stuff I should read/learn.
And two: I'm teaching Chaucer again, for the first time in maybe 5 years. I'm looking forward to it, but I'd love some suggestions of the most useful and important books or articles to read before the semester starts!
(Though I saw that the US military basically committed an act of war...)
I spent much of the break so far with my Mom, helping her travel to visit my brother's family for Christmas, and then at her retirement community, trying to help make things work. Her short term memory has really failed over the past several months.
A medicine she was taking may be at least partially responsible. So she's off that medicine for almost a month now, and seems slightly less confused, but she's not at all where she was 6 months ago. (She began taking the medicine about May, and it was stopped in late November, I think.) I don't know if things will get better or not.
It was a hard year for her: she had to move from a retirement community she loved that closed (because the fire department said it couldn't be made reasonably fire safe or accessible for firefighting) to a much smaller one. And she got a cancer diagnosis (very early stage). And her last sibling died. These are all very hard things, and there's a lot of uncertainty, and it's all taxing for her.
Fortunately, my brother has stepped up wonderfully, as have two of my aunts (my Dad's sisters), so I'm very grateful. Still, it's hard when you can't make things any better, not really.
I got home last night and slept in my own, comfy bed. I'm happy to be home, and have a lot of work to prepare for the coming semester and for taking over as chair.
There may be big changes in our department. We may drop our tiny and weak MA program. That would mean that we'd lose four grad courses a year and a two course faculty reassignment, so basically 1.5 FTE in support for graduate students. (We'll have to continue at least some grad courses for at least a year so the folks in the program now can finish.) I'm imagining we can teach a couple more general education type courses, which would be helpful for the university.
At least some folks in the administration want us to continue our grad program: grad students pay much more tuition. At least one administrator wants us to go all on-line, and promises massive help recruiting people in business. However, we've never been able to support or compensate faculty for working with thesis (or whatever project) students. And we're very much a regional university, and have served students in our region. If we go all on-line, then the regional students might as well do an MA at a much stronger program (there are many). (Our program's strongest days were in the 80s or so, when local schools gave teachers who earned an MA a raise; then the education program started doing an MA in teaching program that was pretty... weak and easy. Once we lost that cohort of teachers, our program got even smaller and weaker. And then the raise went away...)
I'm hoping as chair I can help be creative and get a course reassignment for one of our writing non-tenure track folks to work deeply with our Writing Center and Writing Program folks to develop and support a Writing Across the Curriculum initiative. Currently, the upper admin in charge provides some financial support for a couple of MA students, but they don't have the education or experience to really do the higher level work we need done. And once they're all on-line, they won't be on campus to do that work. On the other hand, if we can provide a course reassignment for a PhD in writing stuffs to work on it, I think we'd make better progress.
The other thing, though, is that with another 1.5 FTE to put into work with undergrads, we'll have a hard time justifying any new hires unless something really specific comes up. (It's been more than a decade since anyone around here has been able to do an old-fashioned line replacement, the thing where a Victorianist retired and a department got to hire a new Victorianist. That's a thing of the past, and it's not coming back.)
So there's lots to think about.
Two questions: for anyone who's been chair of a department: please suggest stuff I should read/learn.
And two: I'm teaching Chaucer again, for the first time in maybe 5 years. I'm looking forward to it, but I'd love some suggestions of the most useful and important books or articles to read before the semester starts!
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Anxious and Absent
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.)
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, 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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)