finals week part 2

Still fairly well caught up on grading. Easily able to get it done by Friday, which is when grades are due. Technically, only grades for seniors are due Friday with the rest due on Monday. But I have mostly seniors, and it's just easier to take care of all the grades at once rather than try to sort out students.

I'm kind of dreading the begging and negotiating of the next few days as students try to improve their grades, but hopefully students that are graduating will have more perspective than that. Maybe it'll be better in the spring?

finals week

At first, I thought I was a little behind on grading this week, but a student took much longer on my final this morning that all of her classmates, so now I am caught up, maybe even a little ahead.

I have quite a bit of grading to do this week. I was hoping to get a little done over the weekend, but it didn't happen. However, I still feel pretty relaxed about the week.

I voted this morning for outstanding student in my division and outstanding organizational communication. There were a couple in my class that I thought were worthy, and it was a tough choice between the two.

I am reviewing candidates for visiting lecturer positions later today. I am biased, considering that I wrote one of the letters of recommendation, but other people on the committee know that, so it shouldn't be a problem. It will be an interesting process.

Classes are done!

It's great to be free. Two finals next week. I'm mostly caught up with grades, so it should be smooth sailing as far as that goes. I volunteered to judge writing samples again this semester, a way to make a little extra money, so that will keep me pretty busy between now and the time grades are due. I'm really looking forward to the summer although I wonder a little bit about this project I'm working on.

Good News

I got my letter today saying that I had successfully passed pre-tenure review! I was good to very good on teaching and service and very good to outstanding on research. It's nice to get that feedback. And I've already started working on the things that the committee recommended to improve teaching and service, so that's kind of nice.

I figured out the problem with the machines that I vented about on Monday. It wasn't really user error in the sense that I claim no responsibility, but it was sort of user error. It basically boils down to using technology that is so old no one really understands all of its "nuances" any more. So the data collection from Saturday and Sunday still has to be made up, but it won't be a problem any more.

I'm on a thesis committee with the student defending today. In my opinion, the thesis is not ready. No fatal flaws that will keep the student from finishing, but it needs serious rewriting. Probably multiple drafts to go.

Frustrating Data Collection...Stupid Machines

I'm having trouble collecting data for this summer's research project. Three of the five machines that are supposed to be collecting data aren't working. We also have two machines that are converting the data into a usable format and one of those isn't working and one just now started working after not working all last week (so we're behind on that point also). It's days like today that turn me toward being a technophobe. Yes, I know that it's almost certainly user error, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the machines fault. To make matters worse, the tech person for my division doesn't really know these machines that well, so he isn't particularly helpful on this project (although he is normally amazingly helpful). So the other professor and I are basically on our own. Aggghhh.

The end is in sight!

A Vision of the Next Two Weeks

I think it's starting to hit me how busy I'm about to get over the next two and a half weeks. I have a meeting Monday during my only free time of the day to hammer out details on the summer research project that I'm working on. Three faculty, three students. My preference was that we figure all of the details out among us faculty and then let the students know, but one of the other faculty members told the students to be at the meeting, so we'll see how that goes. Part of me thinks it may be better that way, so I'm hopeful it will go well. I just remembered a commitment Tuesday evening. Wednesday, I may have a little bit of time in the morning, but it will be spent getting ready for a thesis defense in the afternoon. The thesis covers a topic that I'm not familiar with at all, so I'm not sure why I'm even a committee member. The thesis itself should be stellar, but that's not really the point. Thursday, I've got teaching and then packing for a brief trip that I leave for on Friday. No need for details, but suffice it to say that I won't get any work done over the weekend. So far, busy but not too bad, right? I've got students turning in papers Monday and other students turning in two assignments over the weekend. None of that will take lots of time to grade (all short), but they will take some time. I give a final on Monday and Wednesday of the week after next, so grading to do there. Those will take a little bit of time to grade because I made one of them less about multiple choice questions and more about listing and short answer. All of that is still busy, but manageable. But then I also volunteered to rate writing portfolios for my university's writing center (which I've done almost every semester that I've been here). It's a great way to earn a little extra money, but it's pretty time consuming. And I don't think it hit me that I've only got two and a half weeks to do it. That task may put me over the top. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Plan for today:

8:15, last mentor breakfast. I'm not sure how good of a mentor I've been, but hopefully he'll do OK.
11:00, grad committee meeting
12:15, assessment meeting
2:00, summer research meeting
2:05, faint because of too many meetings.

Progress on Papers

I met with a coauthor over the weekend and made great progress on a paper, one that's been holding over for quite a while. I'm hoping to crank out a little more on it this week and have it submitted late this week or early next. I've got another paper that I want to read through once more, ask a colleague for some feedback, and then hopefully submit late next week. I have a third paper that I made substantial progress on last week as well. I'm going to tweak it some this week and then send it to several people for feedback. I'm submitting it to a major journal and really want it to go well, so I'm trying to solicit a lot of feedback. It's a very productive time right now.

Article Published!

I got an email yesterday that an article I had under review has been accepted. This is cool for a number of reasons. First, it's always cool to have something accepted. Second, this is the first article that I've had as first/solo author that has been accepted at the first place I submitted it. I almost always get rejected and then submit to another journal before something hits, but this was accepted at the first journal. It's happened one other time, but I was a third author, so I'm not sure that counts. The third reason this acceptance is cool is because I have defined myself by a mainline of research and two sidelines of related research. This article gets one of the sidelines rolling. It also doesn't hurt that it was coauthored by a student, kind of a gold star next to my name.

On a sad note, one of the blogs that I follow semi-regularly has been removed from the web. It wasn't a top-notch blog, but it had good ideas from time to time, and I occasionally linked to it from my other blog (www.myofficebuzz.com). The blog typically consisted of a variety of posts from a number of different authors, and I can't help but wonder if the blogger was plagiarizing and was removed. The bummer is that several links from my blog don't work now.

videoconferencing and honor society

Monday, I had a guest speaker by videoconference. She said exactly what I was hoping she would say and it was a great experience. I think the students were really impressed with it, and I think it was probably great for them to get a feel for the technology. Very cool.

Today, I am in charge of the induction of people into my department's honor society. Being the sponsor is not a task that I particularly enjoy, but it takes little time because my department has low expectations and the students tend to want little more than a resume stamp. It'll be fun to see the students and their families get excited, but I'll be happy when it's over.

Busy Week--Why?

As I was looking at my day planner this week, it looks like a very busy week. But I'm not sure why. This should be an easy week. No pressing deadlines, very little grading. And yet, the list of things to do grows longer.

Chair Update, Students for Research, Great Week of Teaching

The chair "interviews" went well Wednesday. It was really cool to see the three candidates describe their vision for our department. I'm convinced that we are in good shape no matter who gets the job, and I'm grateful to not have to make that decision.

So for the summer grant that I have, I have to recruit an undergraduate student. I've spoken to a research methods class and have one student already interested. I just spoke to an organizational communication class. I'd rather have an org. comm. major, but it's probably better to just go with the best student.

This has been a great week of teaching. Sometimes I focus a lot of my evaluation of a particular week on the research that I get done (or don't get done), but I've done well in terms of teaching this week. On my way to work Monday, I had Steve Martin's SNL "Not Gonna Phone it in Tonight" in my head, and I think that kind of pushed me through the week. I redid my class notes for the week and really did well.

Interviewing Potential Chairs

So today our department is interviewing candidates (all internal) to be the next department head. One seems to be maybe a little bit of a front runner, but all are well-qualified. It will be interesting. I hope it's not awkward afterward. I have opinions about who would be best, but I am planning on thinking with an open mind.

I'm reviewing a submission to a journal. The submission needs a little work, but it's easy to recommend an R & R. Not exactly in my area of expertise, but the argument is good, and it seems like a well-done study.

I found out last week that my summer project was approved and funded with an internal grant. I'm working with 2 other professors and 3 students. The three of us (professors) are working on logistics of data collection that really need to be nailed down this week or next. We're also working on recruiting students, which also really needs to be done this week or early next. This project will likely keep me pretty busy from now through September, but I think it's going to be an awesome project, and we're planning three papers to come from it (and spreading out authorship order).