Labor Day

No news today. I'm enjoying the day off.

Great Week

It was a great first week of school. Thursdays are a little bit nuts, and I'll have to have low expectations for what I can get done on those days, but I think my students are great. Now, ask me later, and I may have a different story. But I like them so far.

Great students and barking dogs

My dog barked for much of the night, and I'm a little bit delirious today. Not good on the first week with my hardest day of teach to come (tomorrow).

My students are great! I think the graduate class is going to be interesting because of how big the class is, but I have a great feeling about all of my classes.

This semester is probably going to be my busiest yet, but I have a good feeling about it.

First Day Hang Ups, but Great Students

A busy first day, as usual. I didn't have the last minute students begging to be added that I've had in the past. But one class was in a classroom that is much too small (as in not enough chairs--count people) and I have 10 minutes for lunch (lesson learned--I think they asked me if my schedule was acceptable). But the students seem great. One class meets for the first time tomorrow, but I've already met all of those students. Ask me again once the semester gets rolling, but I think I've got great students this semester.

Two other really cool pieces of news. One, I got a revise and resubmit late on Friday. I looked through the review, and most of it will be really easy to fix. Things like "think about this a little more" or "flesh this out in the discussion." And I need to shorten the paper to get under the page limit. But all very fixable. The second cool news was I got a journal today that included an article of mine. The article had been accepted last fall, but it was cool to see it in print today. Woo Hoo!!!

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.

Lots to do

Busy week, for sure. In addition to research and getting teaching ready and working grad student orientation, I'm working on a friend's web page. I hate html, but I'm trying to tweak a template for the page. Worked till my eyes burned yesterday on it. But it's a nice skill to improve.

More Retreat

So whereas last week was my department's retreat to plan for the coming year, today was my college's retreat to do likewise. Challenges and calls for continued striving from administrators. Tour of a new campus addition. Overall a lot of fun.

Lots to do this week (hence the incomplete sentences). I'm still trying to move forward on some research stuff, but I've got to finalize syllabi, update the online course mgmt system that I'm using, and get some lesson plans together. Plus go to some student orientation things. I'm tired just thinking about it.