Tales from Preschool

The preschool served nachos today. None of the kids ate the taco meat. Apparently, one child announced the meat looked like worms, and that as they say, was that.

Adjunct Hiring

I'm back from sabbatical and adjunct hiring season is upon us. Our small college often has trouble finding adjuncts in the sciences.

Things that work in our favor:
* Large metropolitan area = lots of Ph.D.'s
* Large metropolitan area is pretty cool = people living here want to stay here

Things that work against us:
* Large metropolitan area = lots of industry jobs for scientists
* We pay crap

In a bad year, we only get those people who have not been rehired in their previous adjunct gigs for one reason or another. This usually doesn't go so well. Don't get me wrong, there are fantastic adjuncts around - we just don't usually pay enough to attract this group.

In a great year, we get wonderful people that are "stuck" here for one reason or another. They come to us because of timing. We just plain luck out and are in the right place at the right time to sign them up. This situation is great for us - we get awesome people who are enthusiastic and wish to use the opportunity to improve their teaching. Unfortunately (for us anyway) this happens only by random chance and is not something we can count on. We shouldn't expect anything different when we are offering crappy pay and only one semester contracts, of course. In fact, what bothers me the most about this whole situation is this exploitation. I am extremely uncomfortable about the idea that we are getting great adjuncts for very few $$ just because, say, scientists often marry scientists and two body problems suck. (A victim of the two body problem myself, I feel some kinship here.)

Fortunately, all of our terrific adjuncts of this sort have found tenure track jobs in the year following their employment with us. Our chair credits himself with this, as if he has somehow paved their way to the promised land. This make him feel better about the crappy pay. The truth is, these people were good before they came to us. They got good jobs because they were good, not because they were with us. We were lucky to have them.

Today we interviewed someone really energetic and enthusiastic about teaching who is making his way back into academia. Tomorrow we are scheduled to interview two candidates who look great on paper. I believe both are halves of academic couples stuck in the area by virtue by spousal/partner employment.

This may be a good year.



p.s. You may be relieved to know I'm also currently advocating for better pay for adjuncts.

Parade

We went to Big City's Gay Pride Parade on Sunday. Angry Professor has already extolled the virtues of taking small children to such an event, so I will leave that discussion in her capable hands.

Much fun was had by all. Curie enjoyed the rainbow balloons and music. Dalton was fascinated. I do not know if his fascination was due to the cars pulling the floats, the crossdressing, or both. Eventually, we were well past nap time and everyone was tired. Here is a photo of my mother with Curie and an arm of Dr. H's with Dalton asleep on his shoulder, which I show mainly to show off Curie's cool rainbow tie-dye.



The guy in the gray t-shirt behind Curie and her Grandma in the photo was quite drunk. He tried to come on to my mother, who as it happens is both single and straight, but does not like drunk guys.

Tagged

I agree with Addy N.: this meme feels like a lot of other memes! But as she was kind enough to tag me, I'm happy to play along.

Rules

• I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
  
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
  
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
  
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
  

Random Facts

1. I hate little tiny pieces of paper - especially irregular, thin or wet pieces. Absolute nightmare: wet pieces of ripped up straw wrappers.
   
2. I purchased my wedding dress from here
   
3. Switching research groups in graduate school was one of the two best professional decisions I've ever made.
   
4. I love writing exams! I get some kind of perverse sadistic pleasure out of it. This is probably the only sadistic tendency of mine that I should take out on my students.
   
5. Dr. H and I both forgot our anniversary this year, despite talking about it the previous day.
   
6. Royal blue is my favorite color.
   
7. I'm slightly allergic to cats, but have three.
   
8. I don't think I could live without Linux or LaTeX.
   

I'll tag Tenure Track Newbie, Rebecca at Adventures in Applied Math, Estraven at Proving Theorems, Dr. Pion, Holly, Evil Science Chick, Lab Cat, and Amelie. Apologies if you have done it and I missed it.

More frequent blogging to come - still settling in here.

It's Good to be Home RBoC

• Our housesitter, who moved out three weeks ago, left the inside of the house cleaner than we did. Yea!
  
• Only two indoor plants seemed to have suffered significantly from my absence. The two expensive trees we planted last year seem to have survived, as have all of the rest of our grown trees. We lost two Rose of Sharon bushes. Too bad too, they blocked our neighbor's ugly plywood fence.
  
• Our incredibly kind next door neighbor (who does not have an unsightly fence) spent hours weeding our front flower beds and trimming overgrown bushes this week so that our house didn't look abandoned when we came back. We specifically told our housesitter not to do this, I should say. Much to do in the back yard, however.
  
• Our kids and cats seem right at home. The kids appear more at ease and comfortable than they did in our sabbatical house. Hard to say if this is really how they feel or just a projection of my own feelings.
  
• Drop-off at the "old school" (what we have been calling Dalton and Curie's old daycare) went really well. They moved from the infant/toddler room to the preschool, so it really is "new" but some of the grad interns and teachers from their toddler room came over to say hello to them.
  
• We left our sabbatical home in reasonably good shape and hopefully now free of mice. Glad we thought to let our cats patrol the basement before we left. The owner is a new assistant professor at Sabbatical U. who has yet to live in the house himself. We have told him he needs a cat.
  
• I cannot express how nice it is to have more than three knives and two mixing bowls.
  
• Driving back into town made me realize I really consider Not on a Coast home - despite my bi-coastal bias.
  

Basement Statistics

Dead mice: 5

Dead reptiles: 1

Three cats that can hunt: Priceless

Packing

We are busy packing up our belongings. Soon, we will be returning home from Sabbatical U. Dr. H reminded me of the time we packed up my apartment when I left my last institution. I had a lot of plants and could not possibly take them all with me. I gave a bunch to some colleagues, but did not know what to do with my outdoor potted plants and remaining houseplants. A woman with an apartment on the other side of the building also had a lot of plants outside, so I asked her if she would like to take them. She happily agreed, saying she would find homes for them all. She took some, then said she would come back the next day for the rest.

The next day, she shows up at my door, smiles and hugs me. Then she tells us how wonderful we are and gives me a sprig of flowering dogwood. It was silk. "Uh...thanks!" I say.

She collects the rest of the plants. I thank her for taking them. She says to me as she leaves:

"You're so welcome. And don't worry - they are all going to good Christian homes, every one! Such good Christians!"

The door closes behind her.

Dr. H. looks at me: "Uh, Jews like plants too?"

I look at him: "Good thing she didn't know those were heathen plants."

It's About Time

After too long of a break, I have finally recruited some research students. Two undergraduates have agreed do research with me this academic year - one starting in the Fall and one in the Spring. Not ideal, as I'd rather have them start together, but I haven't had any students in a while, so this is great news!

The largest group I have had was six - two M.S. students and four undergrads. We got so much done! This was all at my previous institution. Since coming to Suburban Liberal Arts College, I've had a harder time recruiting students. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about why this is so. I believe it is partially difficulties inherent in the department and curriculum. However, that said, I have not been handling the situation strategically. I need to change this to keep momentum going from my sabbatical.

Here are the situational difficulties: We have only about 4-8 majors per year. Most are interested in sub-fields that aren't mine (computational physchembio). We have no mandatory research requirement, and students often don't take classes in my area until their senior year. We are in a heavily populated area with lots of part time jobs available, and many students don't feel they have time to do something "extra". On the other hand, when they are seniors, things change. Many start to consider grad school and they begin to lament the fact that they did not do undergraduate research.

So, what have I done to recruit students? Well, not a whole lot. I've had two summer students work for me at SLAC, but only on a very, very part-time basis. They were too busy with all their other jobs/summer courses/vacation plans. I've occasionally asked other students, but nothing has ever come from this for various reasons. Clearly, I need to try harder.

Here's what I find most frustrating: the students we have are not really driven by science when they come in the door. Often, this attitude persists for most of their undergraduate career and it is only during that senior year that they start to come alive in this way. This is fabulous to see, but four months from graduating is a little late to start research. So what to do? I need to learn how to spot this potential earlier.

At my previous institution, I was slow to figure out how to recruit students as well. Eventually, I did manage to get more than one at a time and then it was much easier. They recruited others. How did I do it in the first place? First, I started to recruit students who were really bright, but who I did not know personally. These students had not yet taken classes in my area (though were about to), and were strong enough students to learn fast. Second, I recruited students with whom I had a good rapport. Often, they were not interested in my area of research, but wanted to work with me anyway because we got on well. How is it I forgot all this?

So, following up on strategy one, I asked this question of a colleague: Which sophomore are really strong students who seem to like the math stuff? I got two names, wrote two e-mails, and now I have two students.

Now, if I can get strategy two to be even half as productive, I should be in good shape.

More Conflicting Signals

To: twice@slac.edu
From: chair@slac.edu

When are you back in the office. We have lots of stuff to do and a
huge number of students to think about for this Fall.

P.S. Go see [musical group name] this Sunday at 7 at [bar near Sabbatical U.].

Conflicting Signals

It is reunion time at Sabbatical U.'s campus. As "staff" I'm directed to another parking area.

Sign at entrance: "Overflow parking for 'A' permits"

Yellow tape demarcating rows of cars in overflow parking area: "No parking"

When Geeks Marry Geeks

I had an epiphany yesterday: When our daycare providers try to give us advice, my husband (Dr. H) and I react in very different ways. He listens. I get defensive. He enjoys asking other people for advice about such subjects. I prefer books. Or blogs. Or magazines. Basically, I like asynchronicity.

I'm just as prone to parental anxieties as the next person about most things. However, right now I'm a little annoyed that our main daycare provider has just totally stressed out my husband.

Dalton hasn't been eating very well there recently. He has also been sort of zoned out at times - especially the last week or so. Our daycare provider has previously shared her concern that Dalton sometimes doesn't join in with the group and just goes off and does his own thing. She's now apparently concerned about his nutrition level and that this somehow is affecting his behavior. She was clever enough to share this with Dr. H. instead of me.

The reasons I'm annoyed are many, but the first thing is that Dalton has had a cold for the last 1.5 weeks or so. I had it first. The main symptom? Lethargy and lack of appetite.

I'm also more than a little annoyed at her having such a problem with my son's behavior. I want to scream at her "Have you noticed that his parents are TOTAL GEEKS?" and "Do you think that this only shows up in adulthood?" Call me crazy, but I think (a) having two parents who went to engineering undergraduate schools, (b) specialized in the most math-based areas of their chosen fields in grad school and who (c) love video games might just be relevant here.

The truth is, Dalton is very social and interactive when he wants to be. He has empathy and he also understands how to piss his twin sister off when he wants to. He often talks about wanting to see his relatives and knows who they are on site (grandma, grandpa and nana, cousins, etc) even when he hasn't seen them in a long time. This is not a kid with social issues. This is just a kid who prefers figuring out a door mechanism to circle time on occasion.

My conversation with Dr. H. went something like this:

Dr. H: I'm just worried about him

Me: He's fine!

Dr. H: Well what if his behavior is something we're...

Me: We just spent the weekend at your sister's house. She's a child psychologist, remember? If there was anything to be concerned about don't you think she'd tell us?

Dr. H: Well, I guess so.

Me: She would. I've asked her like 20 times if she would tell us if she was concerned and she promises she would.

Dr. H: Yeah, okay, but...

Me: He's fine!

and so on...

In any case, I don't think I succeeded in completely allaying his fears, but I hope he has relaxed a little. Our daycare provider is otherwise great, by the way. In principle, I agree she should share her concerns of this sort with us. I just don't like hearing them.

Anyway, what should be more surprising is how on earth Dr. H. and I were able to produce a child as socially aware as Curie.

Favorite Twin Parenting Comeback

Question: Do twins run in your family?

Me: No, infertility does.

Unambiguous Birthday

I read Elizabeth Weil's article about when to start kindergarten in the New York Times with great interest. Apparently, Kindergarten has changed. It is now so academically rigorous, many states have moved the birthday cutoff from Fall to Summer. Also, many affluent parents are "Red-shirting" their kids - having them start kindergarten a year later to reap the advantages of being more academically and physically mature than their peers, and therefore more confident.

Two things I found interesting about this: (1) this "red-shirting" disproportionately helps children of more affluent parents and (2) is this starting an academic "arms race" of a sort? There is much more about (1) in the article, which I recommend reading, and only a little about (2). Aren't both of these the sort of thing we're facing with college admissions now? It doesn't seem like a good thing.

I'm relieved that Dalton and Curie's early summer birthday means we will not have to confront the birthday cutoff question directly. Unless our school district moves the cutoff three months earlier than it is now, they will start Kindergarten two years from this fall at the age of 5. I haven't sensed a big push in our area to hold kids back, but maybe I'm just not plugged into that discussion.

One thing that annoyed me a little about the article was this passage:

(The parents of the redshirted boy in Andersen’s class declined to be interviewed for this article but may very well have held him back because he’s small — even though he’s now one of the oldest, he’s still one of the shortest.)

and this one:

Midmorning, however, a little boy who will not turn 5 until this summer arrived. His little feet dangled off the kindergarten chair, as his legs were not long enough to reach the floor.

Maybe I'm being picky here, but I sense a bit of a short=bad/weak vibe going on here. I know being larger helps you become a soccer star, but does it really help you learn to read? Should an article like this be placing a value judgement on size?

My kids are likely to be smaller than their classmates - the average height of women in their family hovers around 5'1". Perhaps we will get them into Jujitsu before then so that they are physically confident despite being smaller.

One other thing that puzzled me: I started kindergarten at the age of four and a half. I could swear we learned to read and did some beginning math that year, but perhaps I'm misremembering.