Faculty Meeting Rule #4

If you are going to show up 15 minutes late to faculty meeting, please don't show up with a Starbucks coffee and sandwich in hand.    And then proceed to consume them.  In the front row.

Those of us who were on time mostly haven't had lunch either.  At least eat your food before showing up late.

Shifting weekend aspirations

What was I most looking forward to this weekend?  Seeing the bottom of the laundry bin and the top of my washer.

A domestic goddess I am not.

If you had told me ten -- hell, even five -- years ago that domestic duties would top my weekend brag list, I'm not sure if I would have laughed or cried.

But here I am today.

A professor that moonlights as a crappy housewife.  Hmm....I wonder what the next five years will bring?

School's out for summer!

It's been a rough semester for me.  Lots of school things.  Lots of unbloggable things.

But!

It is summer!

While some consider spring to be a time of renewal, I think summer is really where it's at.  Without classes or committee meetings to distract me, I can think about new teaching strategies and make significant research progress.  Spring cleaning?  Forget about it-- I've got too many piles of exams and lab reports.  Summer cleaning is more my style.

So let's kick off the summer right.  What are you hoping to get accomplished this summer?  Getting that paper out?  Planning a new course?  Making some moolah teaching summer school?   Finding some balance with a nice vacay or staycation?  Share your plans below (or link to your post).  I'll round 'em up later this week.

Faculty Meeting Rule #3

Don't look surprised when your cell phone goes off.

You are a teacher, for fuck's sake; you make your students turn their ringers off for lecture, so do the DUH thing and turn yours off before a meeting.

Multiple choice exams: good, bad, or just ugly?

I survived Gradefest 2011.

Barely.

I clearly need to work on strategies to become more efficient at grading.  One (perhaps obvious) solution would be to implement multiple choice...  but I am not sure how I feel about multiple choice exams.

I am pretty sure how my students feel about them (we hatesssss it).


Are multiple choice final exams okay?  What about if you haven't given multiple choice exams throughout the semester?  Are there better ways to evaluate students that won't break the grading bank?

Kids vs. dogs (or kid owners vs. dog owners)

It occurred to me the other day that I have never seen a puppy sonogram posted as a facebook profile picture.

GMP recently wrote a post entitled, "Of Dogs and Kids and Judgement Abound."  It might be my favorite post ever.


I don't have kids.  I don't particularly plan to have kids.

I *do* have a dog.  I do refer to my dog as my child, largely to remind my kid-owning colleagues that yes, although I am sans children, I do not always need to be the one representing the department at evening or weekend college events.

So who are more annoying: people with dogs or people with kids?  Is it ever okay to consider your pet your child?