Occupational hazards (part 2)

Wow- what a migraine! I have fully recovered, but had a pretty rough evening. I ended up taking a second Imitrex, but that did the trick! The reason I titled the first post the way I did is that I have read that people with advanced degrees get headaches more than the rest of the population. See this story, for example.

It's only this year that I went to Dr. for symptoms and was diagnosed with migraines. I find the link between education and headaches very interesting and wonder if we've all just fried our brains getting those graduate degrees! Anyhow- I am fine now, and looking forward to getting organized and being productive next year! Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Occupational hazards (part 1)

I haven't managed to get much of anything done this week, but I think I have caught up on my missed sleep from the semester. I have been sleeping about 8 hours every night- which is completely unheard of for me, normally. During the semester, I was getting up at 4:30AM much of the time and I rarely slept before 10:00PM (so you do the math). While this sleep catch-up has been nice, I think it is at least partially responsible for the raging migraine that I have tonight. There is a phenomenon called a "weekend migraine" which is caused by "Relaxation after a period of stress". How unfair is that? You get a chance to relax and your reward is an excruciating headache! I took an Imitrex, but it only took the edge off. I even drank a cup of full-strength coffee (I'm usually de-caf ONLY), to try to help, but I am still in pain. I'm sure I'll be fine by morning, and I'm still functioning, so I'll live. I never had a migraine (that I was aware of) until about 9 months ago, when I was "seeing things" in my peripheral vision. I later found out these are associated with migraines... OK- more on this later- I think staring at the monitor isn't helping matters!

Motivation & focus, where are you???

Ah, now begins the struggle... Christmas is officially over and other than writing thank-you notes and taking down decorations, I am free to really get some serious work done. So what's the problem? It may sound like I am making excuses, but hear me out. Academic work is very independent. This has many perks, such as:

1. not being chained to a desk from 9AM to 5PM every day,
   
2. not having anyone leaning over my shoulder to make sure I am working,
   
3. I can budget my time any way that I like.

While these are great perks, there are also some drawbacks, such as:

1. not being chained to a desk from 9AM to 5PM every day,
   
2. not having anyone leaning over my shoulder to make sure I am working,
   
3. I can budget my time any way that I like.

Ha ha ha... Here's what I mean- #1: I don't have to be in my office from 9 to 5, but I always have to work at times outside of that. The work doesn't end when I go home. #2: While this independence is something I wouldn't trade for the world, there are some times it would be useful to have someone bugging me about finishing a paper. This is why I find proposal-writing easier than papers- they have deadlines and if you miss it you are out of luck! #3: The key phrase here is "budget my time". If you are good at working on your own, it's great- and usually this is no problem, but certain times of the year can be a real struggle. My first couple of summers, I felt like I completely squandered my time. I kept thinking I will learn how to motivate and take advantage of that chunk of time with no teaching. Then, I started to realize that most of my colleagues get more writing done over Thanksgiving or Christmas break! I think we all fall victim to thinking "I have lots of time, I can do it next week" when we have those long breaks.

So, now my problem is to get back on my early schedule (waking up and working, instead of sleeping until 8:00), making a PLAN for what needs to be accomplished, and DOING IT! I'll keep you posted on my progress- this week won't be terribly productive, since my daughter is still out of school. I have higher hopes for next week (year!)

Snowy campus

Here's a picture from December 9th, when campus was covered in snow. The snow is still there now, but has melted some...

College town without the students

Well, I skipped a few days of entries there. It's Wednesday and the week has been fairly relaxing so far. I've eaten lunch out every day with my daughter so far this week and done a little last-minute Xmas shopping. Living in a small college town is an interesting experience, (which I'll write about occasionally) but during breaks it's a different sort of place. The grocery store is no longer overrun with 18-22 year-olds, with me wondering if I'll run into a current or former student in the next aisle. The sidewalks of our "uptown" area are much less crowded. Parking is easier to find, too. Many of the streets look like ghost towns, because the student cars usually parked there are gone. Some of the businesses that cater to students actually close up shop during breaks like these. Our local Starbucks discontinues their 24-hour operations, too. It's a nice change for those of us who are not students, despite the fact they are the entire reason I have a job here!

There's definitely a seasonal waxing and waning of the population as the students arrive in the Fall, leave for Thanksgiving, leave for Winter Break, return for the Spring semester, leave for Spring Break (and run amok on green beer day before that), then leave for the summer. There are still students around during the summer for Summer Session, but the numbers are much lower. During that time, we get other groups of people on campus- for summer youth programs, high school band competitions, etc. There are restaurants that we don't frequent during the semester, but when the students leave we'll eat there. I'm sure other college towns experience the same sorts of changes over the year.

I haven't posted any links lately... Here is the University's main page. They have information aimed at prospective students and current faculty, staff, and students. You can also check out the "virtual tour". I'll post more later on Winter Break in Oxford!

Grades are IN!

Hooray! I am finished grading and have submitted my course grades for the semester! This is especially exciting, since I am not teaching next semester. At Miami, they give us a one-semester break from teaching before going up for tenure, so that we can get some research done. This is extremely challenging to do during the semester- especially if you are teaching three classes! I am feeling good about the break, but really need to make some progress early on. I have several things going on next summer that will make it harder to be productive (as far as submitting papers for publication), but some of these activities should lead to papers later on, anyway. I am also teaching a class next summer (against the wishes of my chair, but I need the money!) I need to be done with the intensive research stuff before summer anyway, because then my daughter will be out of school for the summer. OK- I think I deserve a break today, then I can get busy on research stuff tomorrow. Maybe I will actually manage to send Christmas cards this year!

Grading is not fun...

Well, this is the time of the semester when I start wishing I hadn't given so may assignments! Not really, but this is when I have to catch up on grading everything for good. I taught three classes this semester, so I have a variety of things to grade: in-class exams, take-home exams, independent study papers, lab assignments that never got graded... At least I have a teaching assistant for the 83-student class. It's just finishing up grading for the other two now.

We had quite a bit of snow today and the local schools were closed (so my daughter stayed home). I also couldn't get to the office to pick up some papers I left, since the roads were looking pretty bad this morning. I'll have to finish it all up tomorrow. Grades have to be submitted by Monday at 12:00 noon. If I finish grading tomorrow, then I can enjoy the weekend, right? Well, except for the research paper(s) I need to finish up and send in for review...

Tonight is a wash, because I woke up at 5AM today (after not sleeping very early), so I am already sleepy (and it's only 8PM!) I think I'll watch Seinfeld or something and just sleep.

Finals week

Finals week is always a bit strange on campus, because the schedule that you've grown accustomed to over the semester gets completely reshuffled. Yesterday the building was fairly deserted, except for the time when one large lecture class had an exam. Miami is particularly odd on this one, too. Each semester, exam times for a given class time are changed (I've been told that this is to avoid having students schedule classes to finish exams early, but who knows?) This semester, Tuesday/Thursday classes that meet at 2:00PM have a 7:30AM final- I rescheduled mine for 8:00AM, but I know I will have a room full of sleep-deprived students this morning!

I better go give an exam, now- more later on the thrilling end-of-semester activities...

Writing exams is NO FUN!

I know that students really don't enjoy taking exams- neither did I for that matter, but they are a necessary evil in universities- especially in large, lecture-based classes. I do my best to weight them as low as I reasonably can, because I do not feel comfortable evaluating students based solely on exams. Some students really seem to understand the material, they come to every class, and then they completely blow it on tests. There are a variety of reasons, but whatever they are, it sucks for everyone involved.

Writing exams is also no picnic. It's difficult to make sure that they reflect what was covered in class and readings, are not unreasonably difficult, and can be completed in the time given. I have only been teaching full-time for a few years, but feel that I write decent exams. Students often complain that they are too difficult, but I always have some students that earn 'A's, too. So, it's a dilemma and certainly NOT my favorite part of teaching.

I felt this was an appropriate post, since I just finished revising an exam for my large, freshman-level class. I hope they don't hate it! It really isn't my goal to fail to anyone- unless, of course, they never show up to class and don't do the work!

The tree is up!

Well, I decorated the house last night. I usually wait until after finals, but decided to do it earlier this year. My daughter helped with the ornaments and the house looks like Christmas now. The snow outside looks pretty, too, especially now that the roads are navigable. I had bought new LED lights this year- in blue. I'm still not sure how I like them. They are much more energy efficient than the standard lights, but I love the light that the old ones make. Maybe they'll grow on me!

I still have lots of grading to catch up on: 23 term papers, 12 or so labs, 2 exams to revise, an independent study assignment to write... And a partridge in a pear tree! At least my Christmas shopping is DONE! I just need to pack up and ship everything- another thing to do this weekend between taking M to ballet class, rushing to Hamilton to buy a birthday gift for the party at 1:00, then the dinner thing tonight.

That's all for now- I better go for a walk, since I haven't exercised all week.

Scary weather has arrived!

Wow, was that NOT a fun drive home today. I was supposed to go back to work for a department party at 5:30, but the roads are pretty bad. I almost slid off the road on my way home. We're supposed to get a total of 4 to 6 inches tonight. I guess I'll have to dig out the driveway in the morning, so I can get to work!

Here's how it looks as of 5:11PM:

Scary weather is on it's way!

OK- I lived out west (in warm climates) way too long to take snow in stride. I am already feeling stressed about the storm that's coming our way later today and tonight. If I was just going to be home without having to go anywhere, it would be just fine, but I teach a class this afternoon, then have a department party this evening. Maybe we'll have a snow day... Although, Miami almost never calls snow days... I'll keep you posted.

Here's the forecast for today. Those of you on the east coast, or great plains, or MI, MN, WI, etc. can feel free to laugh at me, but I learned to drive in CALIFORNIA! Yikes!

End of semester milestone

I finished grading term papers for my 83-student, freshmen-level class tonight. What a relief! Now I just have to catch up with the grading for the my other two classes (and write exams, etc.) Grading term papers is really murder, but I think they are good assignments and something to grade on besides TESTS!

OK- I'm off to watch some Tivo before getting some sleep.

Here's a publication for academic-types- they have all kinds of articles, but might give you some idea about issues we face in this fun-filled profession!

Another early morning...

I woke up early to get some more grading done, but here I am procrastinating again. I will try to post every day and include a link or two to something interesting on the web. I also post photos to Weather Underground. I checked the weather when I got up and was surprised to see that Epsilon is still a hurricane- what a crazy hurricane season this has been! The tropical weather blogs are pretty informative at Wunderground, too.

I teach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Next week is finals, so the semester is almost finished. I noticed that there are several students who have blogs here, too. Guess it was time I jumped on the bandwagon!

Here a story about global climate change & hurricanes from NOAA.

Take care.

First Entry

Greetings! I'm still not sure what I will be using this blog for, but wanted to do some test posts.

I try to get up early to get work done, but am often distracted by the Web (like this morning). My posts will likely be early morning for the most part...

Here's a political cartoon that I LOVE!

Cheers!