Final Preparation

Well, I'm in the final throes of preparation today. I've printed my copy of my syllabi, and posted the online versions for students. I've set up course management stuff. I'm finalizing and printing lesson plans. Put me on the starting line and turn me loose!

As I mentioned earlier, my university is pilot testing a new course management system, and I'm participating in that. It's called Sakai, and we're trying it out as an alternative to Blackboard. Kind of fun to be on the cutting edge, even though I still hate technology as a general rule.

Speaking of which, I've had to learn even more HTML as I work on a website for a friend. Yuck!

I feel pretty good about the research that I got done this summer. I would always love to get more done, but I feel pretty good.

I've got several projects in mind for the coming year, but I'm hoping to involve graduate students and other faculty in those so it's not just me doing all the work. And listening to other faculty's external grants at our retreat earlier this week made me really want to get one in the next year. Nose to the grind stone.

Today is our orientation for new graduate students. I led part of their discussion earlier this morning, and I've got a pretty big role in this afternoon. Kind of fun.