Back from The Teaching Professor

I went to the Teaching Professor conference this past weekend, and I learned a lot. A few sessions were people preaching to the choir about not over-relying on lecturing--if you care enough to go to that conference, you probably already know that. But I also got some really practical ideas that I'm using this fall including ideas for class discussions, for helping students engage reading, and for using writing to help students reflect on what they're learning. It was tough to travel a third weekend in a row, but it was a great conference.

Now I've got an extended stretch at home. This week is a "normal" week. Next week, my parents come into town. I love it when my parents visit, but obviously, a less productive week. Then a couple of weeks and more family comes to visit. I hope that this doesn't spell doom for my productive summer plans.

The training for my research group project is going slow. Obviously, we need to finish the training and move on to the main coding, but at this point, it's definitely a little behind. We finish the first intercoder reliablity round tomorrow. It would be fantastic for reliability measures to be good so that we can just move on to the main data, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm guessing at least one more round. But, we'll see. The nice thing is that I can see definite improvement in the coders that I've seen so far from the last time. That's good. In the meantime, I'm making sure that I know how to do the intercoder reliability stuff correctly. Anyone know how to calculate Guetzkow's U statistic? I find references to it everywhere, but I can't find a calculator online, nor can I find a citation that explains how to do it online.

Ok, I have to go finish the program review for my department. I probably would have had this onerous task done by now (kind of like a band-aid--not pleasant, so do it quickly), but I'm working with someone who has a different pace and different standards. But the deadline is Monday, so it has to be done soon.