Another of my favorite things

Sometimes I sub in for other profs. I've guest lectured. I've monitored labs. I've even filled in for office hours (okay, that's just because the prof was no where to be found, and I couldn't handle the hysterical sobbing in the hallway).

One of my favorite things (rolling my eyes here, mmmkay?) is when I sub in for a prof who has absolutely no control over his class or lab. I especially enjoy telling someone else's student "no, really. Cell phone away. Now." And then be informed by the reprimanded student that "Prof. X, like, totally lets us text in class."

Oh, and I really like subbing for someone else who informs me, "good luck. They're really awful." Riiiiight.

But seriously, my favorite thing is spending an hour with someone else's supposedly out-of-control students, setting limits for the students, refusing to take any crap, and ultimately receive their respect and attention.

Suck it, suckers.

Should I have to get used to this?

Where do you draw the line when it comes to desiring the truth? Do you expect your coworkers to be truthful? Your dean? Your significant other?

I am so filled with rage right now that it is difficult to process anything--- food, thoughts, conversations...you name it. Disappointment oozes out of every pore.

There's not a whole lot to talk about. I was lied to to my face. I was the one deceived. And now I'm the unreasonable one?

Sigh. It's times like these that I'm glad my summer class is about to start. Research alone is not enough to distract me.

Does summer = a normal semester?

I've been working on my summer class syllabus this weekend. It's very straightforward: I have the same number of assignments and exams as during the "normal" semester. I just have to cover about a week's worth of material each summer lecture.

I know that some summer classes taught by The Others (aka my humanities counterparts) get very, VERY pared down relative to the fall or spring semester versions. I'm not sure of the exact reasons.

Maybe because The Others believe that students can't handle a week's worth of reading a night? (seriously, there can't be that many pages of sparknotes, can there?) Perhaps they don't want to grade a paper every other night?

I wonder if my students expect to cover less material in my class just because it's in the summer?

Please pack your backpack and go

Summer TV fare is awesome. Top Chef, ANTM reruns, that artist show? Yes, please!

How amazing it would be to vote off an obnoxious student each week? You know, that one annoying kid that can totally throw off the momentum of your lecture? The one that the others shoot eye daggers at? Let's judge that it's his time to go. No longer at the head of the class. Didn't make the grade.

Sigh. I guess for now I'll have to settle to hearing Padma go, "please pack your knives and go."

MAJOR miscalculation!!

A horrible thing happened to me today.

I can hardly write. We've been together for almost 15 years, and he fails me now?

Yes, I am sad to report than my TI-86 let me down today. The decimal button stopped working!

I'm not sure how I can move on from my lovely 86. Should I simply buy another (can I even find one anymore?) or is it time to move on to another model?

Ultra-marathon of tennis?

So everyone goes ape-shit over Team America finally doing well in the world cup. Fine.

But where are the U-S-A chants for the conclusion of the billion hour tennis match between Isner and Mahut?

Coping with Alzheimer's

"Reagent, you're here!" My grandpa stood up, a smile on his face.

"My name is Unbalanced, Grandpa," I softly corrected.

His smile was replaced with a look that combined confusion with frustration. He seemed to recognize that he should have known my name. He just couldn't come up with it on his own. My grandpa has Alzheimer's disease.

I can't dwell on it. I can't think of how things should be because if I think about how things *should* be-- I should be listening to Grandpa's colorful stories about WWII, not gently prodding him to recall details about his lunch-- I won't be able to deal with the situation.

And deal with it I must. After all, his father had dementia, too.

Transferring tenure

As I approach the one year mark on the tenure-track, I'm already keeping an eye out for other opportunities. How sad is that?

A whole host of Unbloggable Issues have come up here at PermaU--some of which are not unique to my school, some of which are.

Unless something drastic happens before September, I'm not looking to go on the market (anyone else break out into hives at the mention of That Word?) for 2011-2012.

But.

I'm not sure what I'll do in the next few years. Strike that. Not sure what N.A. and I will do in the next few years. (ah, the lovely two-body problem potentially rears its sticky head.)

The question is, is it better to get tenure here and then try to transfer it? I know this happens at R1s, but has anyone heard of this happening at primarily undergraduate institutions?

The World Cup is Wack

Every four years, they come out of the woodwork: fair weather football fans.

It's just like when your regional baseball team makes it to the playoffs and suddenly everyone is a fan... only fair weather soccer fans are 204 times more annoying, mostly because the Cup goes on for so damn long.

Stop quoting scores and bitching about unfair penalties. Stop trying to convince others that you are the BIGGEST SOCCER FAN EVAH!! Please stop complaining about the effin' vuvuzelas.

Seriously, just STFU and get back to work already.

summer classes: sublime or stupid?

Our second summer term starts in two weeks. For the first time, I'll be teaching a summer class.

I'm not particularly concerned about balancing my research students with my class requirements. This is not a new prep for me, and the summer class size (20) is considerably smaller than during the regular semesters. The lecture time is a little over two hours a day. I've lectured for back-to-back classes during the regular semester, so I'm not worried about getting off-track, tired, or bored.

Some of my colleagues complained nearly nonstop through the first summer term. I wonder, is summer teaching REALLY that bad? Should I heed the warnings of my coworkers and brace myself for an overwhelming second half of the summer?

Academic inspiration from the E! network

Today I caught up with a colleague at another nearby(ish) liberal arts college. He complained about how hard it was to recruit majors into his non-STEM field because "all the incoming students want to be pre-med." I countered that students don't have to be a science major to apply to medical school. Students do have to take a lot of science classes to meet the med school prereqs, but having a history, english, or even philosophy degree will not hurt a student's chance at admission (but a crappy GPA or low MCAT scores certainly would)! My colleague was still at a loss as to how to advertise his field to pre-frosh.

This evening I was watching the season premiere of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami. (Don't judge too harshly; N.A. is off on a trip for essentially the rest of the month + July). One of the Kardashian sisters decided to take to the beach to advertise her boutique, handing out flashy cards as promotion.

I think some branches of academia might benefit from a similar approach.

Now I'm not suggesting that, as in the KaKTM episode, that my humanities and social science colleagues pose naked in body paint spelling out their respective fields (see below). ..or would that be more catchy than a flyer detailing the many benefits of an art degree?





But...do you really want to see your colleagues like this?

Do men seek balance, too?

Isis the Scientist recently wrote a response to a Science post on science goddesses and housework. Her post has generated quite the comments, and they are certainly worth a read.

One if the issues brought up in her post and in the comments was that most of the Science posts were directed at women. I was (and still am) curious if scientists who happen to be male even THINK about having balance between the professional and personal worlds. Here is what I commented:

I would be quite interested to know what percentage of your male readership struggles with balance. 100%? 50%? Just Physioprof?

In grad school, none of the male grad students ever talked about feeling conflicted between work and home life. Obviously it could be that they were just putting up a front. But I'm curious.... do male profs *want* articles specifically directed at them?

So what do you think? I'm constantly struggling with how best to balance my work and home lives. Are the men around me just better at hiding their guilt... or have they just figured out the secret to maintaining presence in both worlds?

Mid-lecture assessment?

Anyone do assessment DURING lecture?

I'm batting around ideas to help keep my students engaged throughout lecture. Although I already do a lot of requesting of answers from the entire class, it is usually challenging to pick out which students participate. While I get a sense of majority vs. minority participation, I can't usually pick out individuals.

As a result, I've toyed with the idea of using clickers at key points in lecture....yes, even though most of you hate clickers. Would it work to ask students questions about topics I've just lectured on? Do I need to make it worth part of their grade to ensure a serious approach? Or will it just freak them out?

Conference craziness

As my students say after they get an exam back, "LIKE, HOLY-EFFIN-SH!T!"

This fall, football is going to be craaaaa-zy! It's NCAA conference musical freakin chairs. (And yes, I suppose this has implications beyond football. But really. What other sports are worth giving up a Saturday?)



And all you USC fans?

Ha ha ha ha ha.... suck it!

There's no bigger ego boost than...

...when a bunch of your former students see you and then spontaneously start cheering your name. In front of senior faculty.




Okay, your turn.

It's not the Powerpoint slides...it's your crappy teaching

Please allow me to be blunt: I am a very good teacher. Strike that. I am a freakin awesome prof. My lectures are easy for students to follow, and sometimes they even laugh at my jokes.

And yes, I use powerpoint!!

In my recent quiz about powerpoint posting, 12% (to date) of you chose "Powerpoints are the devil. Please stop using them. Please."

Entre nous commented,

I not only found instructors using power point prensentations quite simply boring, but most importantly, it leveled to nil the spontaneous jewels that have a tendancy to flow durung traditional lectures. Sorry, newer is not necessarily better or, 'if it ain't broke, it don't need fixin!

I disagree. (and I'm not picking on E.N here...I hear similar critiques of ppt all the time). I have plenty of "spontaneous jewels" in my powerpoint-supported lectures. In fact, I find that BECAUSE I have powerpoint to frame my lectures, I can actually inject MORE stories and tangental discussions. I always have a reference to pull me back and keep the class on track. Now could my lectures suck? Sure, especially if I made powerpoints that broke all the rules, like the many that you all commented on here.

It's not the powerpoints that are making those instructors boring. They're just crappy teachers. Put those same crappy teachers in front of just a chalk board or just a podium, and they are still going to be crappy teachers.


Powerpoints don't suck the life out of lectures. Terrible teachers do.

menacing machines

I think that it is pathetic that I can confidently use mind-boggling instrumentation in the lab, yet the prospect of using the weed whacker makes me desperately scan the radar for rain...any excuse to avoid having to attempt to edge my yard.




Guess it's time I serve myself a big cup of "suck it up."

Should powerpoints be available to students?