Double Take

1. I must confess, I love this picture, but I'm a naughty, godless sort of girl. Dr. H took one look at it and said "I bet there are some women concerned about that." Of course he is right. I'll say one more thing about this: Yea Nancy Pelosi!
   
   
   
2. On a mostly unrelated note: Assuming this is true it is unsurprising that the same people are concerned about it too.
   

Some Things Don't Change

My Ph.D. advisor was in my Big City giving a talk yesterday. I just spent four months back in his group at Sabbatical U (aka Grad School U). The experience was one long deja vu - I even had my old desk back.

Anyway, yesterday, I went to his talk, a well attended affair at a local university, hosted by a local section of the national professional organization. At dinner, my advisor sees me and rushes over. He gave me a big hug, and thanked me for coming, saying he had forgotten I might be there. He catches me up on the group, Amazing Chinese Guy just took a postdoc at Harvard, Really Nice post doc is expecting a baby, etc. I told him I just did a well-received presentation on my campus about what I did on my sabbatical.

"That's Great! Some day you'll have to tell me."

It's true, I owe him a draft.

Super

Once again, I found myself woefully unprepared for having a working reproductive system. I figure I can get by for a day or so on what I have in stock. This turns out to be more difficult than expected.

My wonderful husband offers to go to the store for me to purchase more, um, effective supplies than those I have on hand. My response?

There is NO WAY I am sending you to the store for this right now. The guy in the store will take one look at you, buying super plus tampons at 2 AM, and will be like "Dude, your life sucks."

Being so busy is making me a better teacher

I've been swamped the last few weeks. I'm teaching three different classes with three different labs. This is not horrendous in itself - one course is in it's 10th iteration, another in its 4th. I did make a major change in the 4th iteration course, which is taking some time. The other course I taught once 10 years ago, so that's a little more trouble. The real problem is all the stuff I have on top of that, committees, other teaching/research responsibilities and the like. This week, I also had my sabbatical research presentation. That went well, but what I want to talk about is how having no time has influenced my teaching.

I don't have a lot of time to spend on class preparation. As a result, I've lost track of what I'm supposed to "cover" each week. In my faculty development days, I was fond of telling people that "to cover" normally means "to obscure". Merriam-Webster has the definition as "to hide from sight or knowledge" - not exactly what I'm trying to do in my classes.

I have built up a library of in-class group exercises for that course now in its 10th iteration. Normally, I schedule days to do group work, and when the day comes, I build an assignment based on something new students are ready for, what they are having trouble with, or some upcoming topic I have a cool problem for already. This term, I feel so busy, I keep looking at the next thing in my lecture notes and think "I'd rather just have them DO this". And, as it turns out, I usually have some problems or an activity in my stash that addresses that topic. I'm using all of them. I'm lecturing a lot less. And, what do you know? My students are learning more. This should be no surprise to me, as I have recommended the practice to others. I've given workshops on such approaches. And, I must admit, I've always wanted to figure out how to do more of it myself. Of course, this approach does take more time under normal circumstances. You have to figure out what you want your students to be able to do after the class session, find/design/create an appropriate activity, plan the lead in to the activity to prepare the students, and figure out how to lead or guide the activity. The only reason it is working for me now with less time is the extensive problem and activity base I have built up already.



I'm doing something similar in the course I have not taught in ten years. We are currently working on topics now that underlie the basic ideas my graduate work rests on. As a result, I'm just letting the class go where it goes, presenting some, throwing up problems on the board when everyone is having trouble, leaving half the class period open and filling it with what the students seem to need at the time. I won't be able to do this for every topic in the course, but for now, I can. It is a senior level class, the students are excellent and interested, and I know most of them well.

Recently, I was in need of an icosahedron for this course. After considering making one from card stock, starting and deciding I had no time for such an endeavor, I looked at Dr. H and said "You played D&D! Where are your dice?" The result was an excellent activity in which I emptied Dr. H's "geek kit" onto the table and gave two sentences of instructions. The second sentence being this one: "You can ignore dots and writing."

Multiple Madness - $218

This weekend was my mothers of multiples club. Like most multiples clubs, mine holds two sales a year. This is really the only event in my club I take part in on a regular basis. Some of the more frequent events are geared towards stay at home moms, like playgroups and outings. I do attend the occasional meeting and discussion group, but I always participate in resale, even if it is only to shop.

Friday night, I broke last Fall's record and spent $218.





Not bad for 30 pairs of pants, 12 shirts, 4 two piece outfits, 3 winter jackets, 5 light jackets, 4 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of snowpants, 2 scarves, 2 Halloween costumes, 2 dresses, 4 bags of socks (about 40-50), a step 2 outdoor angel rocker-fish, 2 kid-sized ride-in/on cars, 2 games, 1 box of tinkertoys, 1 pretend weedwacker, and assorted small toys. No clothes shopping needed for six months or so.

An update about the cat - and it's Friday, so technically this is Friday Cat Blogging

Thank you for your kind words about the stepping on the cat incident. We had his second vet follow up the other day, and his blood levels are normal, so there appears to be no long term damage from the "trauma". The emergency vet called it that - which is much nicer than saying "from when you stepped on him".

As it turns out, we currently have three cats, two very messy children and one very messy house. Regrettably, the incident is unlikely to change our housekeeping habits, but you may be relieved to hear that we do have a night-light in our bedroom now.

A Question

Suppose one has a visiting assistant professor in a small academic department. Let's also suppose that this same department is expecting to do a tenure-track search this year. And, just to round things out, let's assume that there is ample reason to be concerned that the visiting professor is confused and seems to believe his position is being converted, and is not going out for a full search. Let's also assume that when the visiting professor was hired last year, the chairperson made all the decisions and negotiations with minimal (i.e. no) input from other faculty.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it then stand to reasons that it should be the chairperson's job to clear things up about how the tenure-track search will be handled, rather than asking other members of the department to do it?
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Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Some Comments for My Students

Student A: Why is it only week two and I am already annoyed with you? Why do you always come to class 25 minutes late? Why have you done this in every biophysimistry course you have taken in our department? If it really is just because of parking, why haven't you figured out in the course of the last three years that you need to leave earlier? Also, you speak and interact with a slight air of arrogance and entitlement. It is slight enough that you could get away with it - if you were really competent. You aren't. So instead, it is incredibly annoying.

Student B: Why must you always respond to everything as if it is about you? The class just asked if you all could, as is my usual "grace period upon request", turn in the homework by 5pm. I said "Yes". You said, "That doesn't help me. I have lab." (A) Not my problem and (B) So does everyone else in the class and (C) You are finished with the homework anyway.

Student C: Okay, let me get this straight. You signed up for this course that has a component which requires you to meet with me for three weeks in a small group and discuss assigned readings. This is the only assignment for these three weeks. I have agreed with your demands to only schedule the group meeting between 4:30 and 6 on T or 3 and 6 on Th, because you live all the way in [different suburb] and it is "too hard" for you to come to campus for just one class the other days, and the rest of T and Th are already filled with other activities, a few of which are classes. I have done this, because the other students can meet then, and because it is only three weeks. Now, you would like to skip the second meeting and meet with me privately because you signed up for some other activity, but you will understand if I say no? Good. No. And by the way [different suburb] is 10 minutes from campus.

I Stepped on My Cat

Seriously. Last Sunday.

I went to bed after midnight on Saturday. At 3:02 a.m. Sunday morning, one of the kids woke up screaming from what appears to have been a nightmare. This immediately woke up the other child, who also began crying. This all penetrated my deep sleep stage with some difficulty. I stumbled out of bed and across the pitch black bedroom, stepping on a pile of laundry. With fur. One that began moving just as much of my weight was coming down onto said pile of fur.

Fuck.

I pulled back as best I could. The cat pulled himself free. I lost my balance.

At 3:19 a.m., I'm at the emergency vet clinic with a vomiting cat in a carrier full of bloody fluid.

"Accidents happen" they say, in calm, non-judgmental and very professional attempt to make me feel better.

Remarkably, the cat is fine now, at home and acting like his normal cheerful and ornery self. Dx: Trauma to stomach, liver, kidneys and bladder, complicated by existing, but previously unknown kidney stones and very early stages of renal disease, not so unusual in a 14 year old cat. Treatment: iv fluids for 24+ hours until kidney values come back to normal. Start kidney diet to begin to manage existing early kidney disease.

I'm so relieved. I love that damn cat.