The Less I Have to Do, The Less I Get Done

This semester is rolling along pretty quickly. The school I teach at hits midterm break this weekend, and the school I attend has midterms next week. Things are moving along fairly well. I am a little behind in my grading, which I hate, but I am getting back to being only a week behind rather than almost three! I don't like holding on to students' work very long. I think that those who actually read the feedback appreciate it. I was even told this by former students of mine via comments on Facebook.

I put in a proposal to teach a course on Women in American History and I am hoping that it gets excited. I mean I won't mind teaching my traditional spring courses, but it would be nice to develop my own course. It would also be nice to put that on my CV.

I know you are all worried about my stats class this semester. The class is very dry. The instructor is nice, but I am very easily distracted in that course. I think most of the distraction comes from my unwillingness to believe that this is relevant to my research. That and the textbook is very well written. I took the first test, 100% online, 25 multiple choice questions. I did alright, but I was annoyed with the typos on the exam. It just distracted me. I am waiting until our next class to talk with the professor to see what can be done to prevent this from happening. Again, she is very easy-going, and I don't think she was aware of the typos. I thought about sending her an email, but could not figure out a way to phrase the thing without sounding like a whiner.

One thing that I am having the most trouble with this semester is that I lack pressure to force me to get things done efficiently. I get my work done, but knowing that I have more time available scares me. Will this be how I work when I am cut free to write my DQEs or dissertation? Next semester I have a killer one that I am looking forward to and dreading all in one. I have my last two classes, both very writing intensive, on top of my typical teaching and work load. I hopefully will also have two more classes to develop online for the summer. I can do it, but after a semester that has been pretty lazy in comparison, I am in deperate need of a kick in the arse.

Slacker...

Well I have been back at the old grind for a little while now. I have been back at "work" for three weeks, teaching for two, and a student for one. And so far, I am just not sure how to call this semester. Work has been very busy, but that is to be expected at the beginning and end of each semester. Of the three courses I was hired to design, one was up and running at the start of the semester. The other two have been postponed due to faculty issues. One is back on track, and isn't going to be offered until next summer, the other is really up in the air, but is supposed to be up this spring. We'll see, I just hope it doesn't prevent me from taking on more development courses this fall, and definitely in the Spring.

The courses I am teaching are running alright, it is still a little bumpy. I dislike not having the entire semester ready to roll before I started the semester, but I am getting there. My students seem really interesting, and I hope the courses really develop great conversations.

My dreaded stats class has started, and I don't quite know what to make of it just yet. The textbook is really quite funny, the author has a similar sense of humor to myself, so at least that is a plus. I am a little annoyed that the professor kept us 20 minutes longer than the class time. We shall see how this plays out.

One interesting discussion that has come up in my class that I am teaching is why women change their last name when they get married. I found a number of interesting responses on Facebook, primarily related to tradition, wanted to start a new chapter in life, or for people like me, not wanting to change for professional and personal reasons. What do you think? Why did you or did you not change your name?

It's the Most Wonderful Time....

Well you get the picture. It is back to school time. I don't know if it just that I am too comfortable being a student or just good at it, but I miss the routine of being in school. I do feel sad that I do not get to purchase any school supplies. I really don't need them, but that is my idea of heaven.

In the last month a number of things have happened, but most of what didn't was getting any further on my DQE readings. I am just not interested in these books. My course this fall starts on the 31st, and I am going to try to read books off of my DQE list this fall since I only have that one course. The two writing courses I am teaching start on the 24th, and though I spent the month of July trying to revamp my syllabus, last week I got the revamped curriculum from my chair. 65% of the readings I normally used were dropped and two of the three units were dropped in favor of new ones. I have hurried this week to try and develop a new course, and so far so good, but I will have to develop the assignments as we go, and I hate that feeling. Maybe I can get a chunk done this weekend.

I am also trying to finish up the courses I am developing online for faculty members. One class goes live on the 31st, and hopefully, after our meeting tomorrow, will be near completion. The other two courses I was assigned are not going live until January, but need to be finished soon so I can be assigned some new ones that come down the pipe line. One is about 1/4 the way done on my part. The other class has yet to begin, and I have not heard from that faculty member. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can get two more assigned this fall. I really enjoy doing the development and I can't lie, the money is outstanding. I am a little concerned that this may dry up, due to a few moves going on at the university. Hopefully this just means that there will be more than enough courses to go around and they are getting serious about hiring a full-time instructional designer.

On that note, I had my first back to school meeting for the doc students in my program. I will finish my course work this year, and I have gotten very comfortable with my lifestyle as a student. I am a little nervous with how the next few years will pan out. I mean, I think I can maintain my status quo, but seeing the jobs opening up with the ID position, and a few others that I think I could do, I am afraid of being distracted from goals by these positions. I don't know why I am worried about the next school year, other than I am a planner and I worry about where the money is coming from and how to plan financially. If I took a full-time position, money and benefits like maternity leave would give me piece of mind, but leave less time for research and completing my dissertation on target. Staying put would give me the flexibility to continue to research and to not have to keep a child in day care 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but leave me no monetary security or benefits like maternity leave. It is one of the reasons why I have put off having children until I am done with my course work. I have very little time left on the agreement I have made with my husband.

Great Tweets of Science

I found this amusing and thought I would share:

Summer Vacation - Grad Student Style

So this is my second summer in my program and it is almost over. I have worked, not just on my own work, at least 10 hours a week, if not more. My crackberry and/or laptop is glued to me at all times, and I am always putting out little fires here and there. I do like that part of my job. I like being the one that people email/call when they need help. Unfortunately, there really isn't too much of a break from this, no matter where I go. I spent a week on a Caribbean cruise and the weekend in Miami. I worked about 12 hours on that vacation. I spent a week in the Wisconsin Dells area with my family, and put in another 10 hours or so. I will be going back to the Wisconsin Dells are with the girls this weekend and hopefully will not have to work more than 2 hours this weekend. What is nice is that I have been invited to present what I do to two different groups, one an entire college's faculty development day, and the other group are the new TA's in the department I got my MA in. While I am flattered by this attention, this I've got to prep for these sessions as well as get ready for my classes this fall. The PhD Comic below sums up how I feel:

Amen, Sister

This is from BitchPhD's Twitter page: "Dear Pixar, From All the Girls with Band-Aids on Their Knees."

I don't remember growing up wanting to be a princess and I am deeply disturbed as I see it being the only heroine marketed to young girls nowadays. Why do girls not get an animated woman with a profession or an education who is not waiting for a man to help define her? Maybe this is because I am reading Gilligan's In A Different Voice, but I just keep thinking about how different parents treat their children, not based on personality, but based on the child's sex. These differences in treatment will drastically shape children's personalities, and yet the parents wonder why these girls are so desperate for a relationship/sex and the boys are always pushing boundaries to prove their masculinity. It comes back to childhood role models and treatment!

I am on vacation with my family all week and it is fascinating to see how different my niece is treated when compared with my nephews. Even just the word choices are different. It is not bad, but it makes you wonder. People seem more obsessed with pronouncing the differences in the sexes, rather than showing the similarities. Parents are given little options to be sex-neutral in toys, clothing, or programming. Everything is his and hers rather than one size fits all. Stores are split down the middle separating the pink from the blue. What if pink is not your daughter's color, or you son prefers green? Do they go naked rather than defy the rules of the Baby Gap?

Summer Lovin'

I've been off for a month now, and though I have not completed any projects yet, I have started numerous ones. I have my kitchen under construction, and with the help of a friend it is now painted. I have the cabinet bases to still paint, and the doors, but one step is complete, so I am very happy to have that behind me. The hinges have been spray painted (they were brass and my hardware is nickel), and I have drilled holes for the hardware I got for free from my SIL who didn't care for it. I have material to make a Roman shade for the window, but that is the last step. I am hoping that by Monday night the cabinet bases and all wood will be painted. I can take care of sanding and painting all 17 cabinet doors and 6 drawers individually, but to have all of the contents of my counters in my dining room is driving my OCD into overdrive. I can deal with it for only so long. After all our handy work is done we are going to replace the appliances and range hood with money saved from our tax return. With the little financial windfall I have coming in from work, I think we will finish up the whole kitchen by putting in new flooring, sink, facet, and counter top. Those were going to be the 2009 tax return, but if we can finish it this summer and enjoy a completed kitchen, all the better. Then the tax return can be all about the only room in our condo that hasn't been updated from all its 1980's glory, the bathroom. That one has to be a professional job. We only have one bathroom, and cannot have it torn up for more than a few days before my husband and I need counselors.

I partially read one book for my DQE group. I couldn't finish it in time. I got pulled into some meetings just before our group met. I am now developing 3 courses over the summer. I am loving the money that I will get. It is nice because this fall I will not be a graduate assistant, and with these 3 classes I have made up the money the part-time assistantship paid me all year. On top of this there is a lot of rumbling around the office of more courses to develop this coming school year! So much so that I am helping train another course developer.

I also got my doctoral program planning form approved by the graduate school on campus. This means that I have 9 credits, or 3 classes left to take in my program. I have the dreaded stats this fall, all by its little lonesome, and in the spring I have our capstone course where we work on our dissertation proposals and I will also take a history research seminar to replace an ed research course. This is all really falling into place. I feel like things are going a little too well. I appreciate the good, but I am too much of a pessimist to not stop and look for falling shoes. I am not looking for the bad, but want to catch it before it becomes a big issue.