Generating Traffic

As I've mentioned before, I have this blog on blogger.com and another on wordpress.com. I love the control that I have through Blogger, but it's been interesting to note that Wordpress.com tends to send quite a bit more traffic. A great deal of that could be because of topic/content--the stuff I have on Wordpress reaches a larger audience. Still it's frustrating to have that audience, but not have the control to advertise or add Google Analytics. I know this blog had more traffic over the summer when I was reading other people's blogs, but I just don't have time to keep up right now (I'll bet my reader has well over 200 unread posts).

Meeting about a Grant, Making Time to Think

Met today with someone at my university to think about the grant that I started over the summer. I've fixed the "fatal flaw" now, and I'm moving on to revising the application and sending it off. The meeting with this former program officer went well. Even though he had a lot to say, most of it was framing feedback rather than major changes. He also suggested that I ask my university to commit to some things as gestures of support, including a yearly course release. I'm not sure if that'll get approved or not, but it sounds good to me.

I went to a retreat this past weekend (by choice, not associated with my university) where the speaker quoted someone (C.S. Lewis I think) saying, "creativity is the residue of wasted time." I like that idea. The speaker's point in that part of the retreat is how driven we are to do, do, do, and how little time we have available to think about ideas creatively. I know that's a struggle for me. My pace is such that I hardly have time to think about bigger picture issues and make creative connections between ideas. The speaker encouraged us to talk as if obsessive busyness was a vice rather than a virtue--tough words to live by, but I intend to try.

Helping Students Write Better

This past week, I met with one of my thesis advisees, another graduate student, and a group of seniors working on a project. With each meeting, I went over some of the ideas that they had written in an early draft of whatever they were working on (thesis proposal, class paper that could turn into thesis proposal, literature review of class paper, respectively). All three meetings took quite a bit of time, but I left all three feeling fired up about what I do. Generally speaking, I hate grading. I don't like sifting through stakes of assignments. But when I get the chance to (1) look at something critically, (2) discuss that assignment with the student(s), and (3) leave them encouraged about the core ideas and ready to revise the way those ideas are presented, I am reminded of why I love my job. In this time of uncertainty and rising unemployment, I am truly grateful to have a job, but I am also grateful to be blessed with a job that I love.

New Chairs, Grants, and Finding Time/Energy to Write

My department has chosen and new chair (I was at the meeting where this happened), but for some reason, the decision has not been announced. Not sure why, because Dr. New Chair Candidate had already been asked if he was willing to take the job if offered.

Last week, I got an organization to commit to some research for which I'm writing a grant. One of the grants advisors at my university had told me that not having an organization already on board might be a "fatal flaw" so I have that taken care of, and I'm ready to revise this application a few times and send it off.

I feel like I'm right at the point where my writing is starting to suffer because I'm overcommitted. Until now, I think I've convinced myself that wasn't true (and maybe it really wasn't), but I think I'm teetering on the edge at this point.

Great Exercise

I conducted a fantastic exercise in my organizational communication class today. I had told students that one of the most important things that I wanted them to get out of this class was an understanding of the importance of critical thinking and, when appropriate, dissenting in organizations, but I really don't have any activity or assignment to reinforce that. Over the weekend, I had an epiphany.

Early in the day, I emailed the students saying that I was adding reading quizzes to our class. I said that they would be presenting a summary in groups of the methods for analyzing organizational communication that we've covered in class. And I said that each student would be required to volunteer 4-6 hours at the nonprofit organization that their group was assessing (I had previously said that each group had to volunteer, but that the volunteering could be delegated to a couple of group members). Naturally, I was very unpopular after that email. Then during class, I explained that I wanted to meet with groups individually but that we wouldn't have time for every group during class time (I do plan to do this, but I've alloted class time for it). I explained that at least 2 groups would need to schedule a time to come to my office hours--if they had conflicts, they could call in sick to work or come up with another excuse.

During class, I had several complaints and worked these into a discussion of rocking the boat when managers are irrational, unfair, or unethical. The discussion was great, the surprise that none of that was real was priceless, but more importantly, the opportunity to practice and experience dissenting was invaluable for students. And I think they've forgiven me for the 3 hours of misery that they endured.

Faculty Conference

Today, I'm on my way to a "faculty conference," a retreat where all of the different colleges and schools at my university meet at one place to discuss some topic that is of relevance to all of us. This year, we are talking about "Deep Learning," the ability of former students to retain information years after they graduate. In other words, what from my class do I want students to still remember in 5 years? Missing out on two days of work is tough this time of year, but I think that the conversations will be very useful and inspiring (if I can put my assessment cynicism aside).

Mentoring Young Faculty

During interviews as part of our interim chair search, one candidate mentioned the importance of mentoring young faculty. I've often thought about what that means. Most people that I talk to agree that mentoring young faculty is important, but few can define what that means beyond learning which committee assignments to avoid. I think in terms of research, it means reading drafts of manuscripts and helping with research design. In terms of teaching, I heard someone today talk about the importance of sitting down, discussing what classes you are teaching and want to teach and how can the department help you in such a way that you know what you're going to teach, your new preps are minimized, and you don't teach a class once and never again. I liked that answer. Probably not the whole answer, but a pretty good start.