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Saturday 28 September 2019

Northern Autumn/ Southern Spring Week 3

Students are back, and they are everywhere on campus - making huge queues in coffee shops, politely interrupting to ask for directions or standing around looking lost in every entrance and stairwell and clearly needing help, marking the hour throughout the day as they clatter and chatter in and out of classrooms and seminar rooms throughout our building.  Which means teaching is fully underway, and it's everywhere - all over my desk, through my thoughts and dreams, cluttering up my diary pages, breaking up my day.  It would be easy to complain about this, and it's very clear that there's less space for TLQ work during the semester time.  But there are pluses - the changed energy of campus can be invigorating, the pleasure of working with young people when they're enthusiastic, the near-instant rewards of a lesson that went well, or of finding the perfect reading for a class and the students loving it.  So for a topic: let's think about some of the positive ways that the return to a semester structure affects our feelings about and ability to keep up with TLQ stuff.

Hope everyone had a successful week!



Last week's goals:


Bardiac:
1. Work on my writing projects that aren't immediate (big project and my sabbatical report
2. Exercise.
3. Practice.

Dame Eleanor Hull
*garden work;
*daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages read, 1250 words written;
*grade 1.5 sets of student papers;
*daily exercise and stretching (x6); try a muffin recipe;
*make at least two phone calls regarding appointments for maintenance of me and the house.

Elizabeth Ann Mitchell
Walk at least 2.5 miles x 5.
Take homemade lunch x 5.
Edit one page of Illuminated x 5.
Finish outlining the lit review of Aurelius.
Pull/shred fifteen files.
Destress, breathe, meditate x 7


Heu Mihi
1. 60 pages of proofs (to p. 135)
2. Sit x 5
3. Finish and submit second abstract
4. Read one grad student's chapter
5. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday
6. Sort clothes for donation
7. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way

Humming42/Linda
1 Finish writing text for online course
2 Submit residency application
3 Submit job application
4 Finish and submit next book review
5 Write every day

JaneB
1) maintain the habits I started in the intersession (bed before midnight, 45s to get small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday evening)
2) small things this week: finish drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and send the draft to FormerPDF. move FlatProject reanalysis to the final step. Check with FormerPDF what she did about PC1 issue. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples.
3) prepare all teaching materials for following week, see all my project students.
4) read through last year's NaNoWriMo effort

OceanGirl101/Jenny
1. finish edited chapter #1, outline #2
2. get Dept Chair info requested to nominate me for term prof
3. get collaborators text
4. plane tic to Mom's memorial event in nov
5. exercise x 3

Susan
1. Finish reading dissertation
2. Grade papers
3. Read on section for journal
4. Keep up the walking
5. Read for pleasure

21 comments:

  1. Topic: The return of students provides several positive things for me because it means that a lot of the support structures for the academic faculty start up again when the teaching faculty return. So, there is a 14-day writing challenge that starts in October, for which I have already signed up. Some of the other workshops and retreats are during my workday, so I cannot attend them, but I can get the materials from them.

    Another positive is that the teaching faculty are around, so I can have lunch with them, if they are friends, or meet with them if I don’t know them well. Either way, I can bounce ideas off them, or at worst, let them know I exist. The very small number of medievalists have been very happy to find another one lurking on campus; the chair of Information Science was very happy to find another rare books person as well.

    Last week’s goals:
    Walk at least 2.5 miles x 5. Yes, x 6
    Take homemade lunch x 5. Total fail, sadly. Insomnia combined with having to be at “my assigned work area at my assigned time” meant self-care lost this past week
    Edit one page of Illuminated x 5.No. Lots of new assignments with progress reports due every two days
    Finish outlining the lit review of Aurelius.No. Same as above
    Pull/shred fifteen files. No. Same as above
    Destress, breathe, meditate x 7.No. Meditated x 7, but the rest went by the wayside.

    Analysis: Thank goodness the retreat was so rejuvenating, because my boss was in full “middle school mean girl” this past week. She is one of those people who is often nice to your face, then writes a screed in an email, which she sends to HR and the entire chain of command. There is no movement from the union or my Dean, which often makes me quite mopey. At those times, I try to assign Dante’s circles of hell to my enemies, which is at least entertaining.

    Next week’s goals:
    Write and send call for special issue.
    Walk at least 2.5 miles x 5.
    Take homemade lunch x 5.
    Edit one page of Illuminated x 5.
    Finish outlining the lit review of Aurelius.
    Pull/shred fifteen files.
    Destress, breathe, meditate x 7.

    The leaves have changed into dramatic colors in the last 10 days or so, and mornings often have that lovely crisp feel. Float like mist, everyone.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know if this will help (maybe you already do it), but I always make my lunch the night before. I simply cannot think of lunch in the morning; if I left it until then, I'd be eating out every day!

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    2. That is a very good idea, heu mihi. I always promise myself that I will get up early to make lunch, but.... I will work on convincing myself to do it the night before--once I succeed once or twice, it will become easier.

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    3. I (so far) have finally got on top of the lunch dilemma, by working out a series of simple combinations which are reasonably healthy and which I like and which will KEEP for a few days, and packing up four lunches on a Sunday afternoon (Friday is either my off campus day or I treat myself because it's Chunky-Vegetable-Soup-And-Sunflower-Roll day in the on campus coffee shop nearest my building, which has a very limited lunch menu brought over from the much busier central servery - there's a pan of soup (same flavour rotation each week, 5 flavours, all made on site) with warm rolls, a panini (they have a grill and the stack of sandwiches is delivered pre-filled) and a Hot Snack (sausage roll, cornish pasty, etc., also on a 5 day rotation. Monday I HAVE to take my own lunch because otherwise it is giant cheese and onion pasty day which is NOT a healthy option). Also they have a cake delivered each day, this time on a two-week rotation, and Friday is currently blackcurrant and lime cake OR apple cinnamon streusal cake, so if I do succumb to cake there are options that make succumbing a pleasure.

      Anyway. So I pack things like cut up cubes of cheese, baby tomatoes or a small lettuce heart, and some oatcakes, each in their own little container, or roast vegetables (cooled, then packed into small boxes) with feta cheese cubes and a flat bread so I can make a wrap in my office and it won't go soggy, or I make a big spanish omelette (a deep oven-finshed solid egg-cake with slices of potato, onion and peas) and cut it into cubes then pack boxes. I also find that you can make a stack of sandwichs with a plain filling like slices of cheese or nut butter or meat, wrap them and freeze them, then pack them frozen with a tomato or an apple or whatever for fruit/veg, and they thaw by lunch time absolutely fine (especially if you use bread rolls rather than slices, or a good seeded bread). Or refridgerator oats actually makes a good lunch, as long as you have a cool pack, or granola and fruit compote, or some good yoghurt and fruit to dunk, or a couple of hard boiled eggs or cooked sausages and some carrots or whatever. I have a Snack Box on the side which gets topped up every few weeks - I buy large bags of dried fruit and nuts and fill reusable bags or tubs with individual portioned mixes of them, whatever kind of nakd bar or Larabar was on special that week, individually wrapped slices of home-made flapjack, ziplock bags of cereal or crackers that I know I like etc.

      The night before I put two or three snack box things into my little coolbag, then in the morning while the kettle is boiling I add the boxes from the fridge plus a small coldpack or the frozen sandwich(es) to the coolpack, make a big cup of tea in my thermal mug, and am ready to go. it makes me feel SUPER organised and on top of things, which is a great way to start the morning!

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    4. I love the prep-on-Sunday idea, and I don't know why I don't do at least a bit of that, since my lunches are either leftovers from big meals cooked at the weekend or salads. I do salads the night before, but I could certainly pack the big meal into individual containers straight off instead of the night before. I do Spanish omelettes for breakfast-in-the-car on teaching days, or else I take hard-boiled eggs and, now, muffins; if no muffins, then cold boiled potato hunks, and maybe some grape tomatoes.

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    5. Thank you, JaneB, for the great suggestions. And your breakfast suggestions are also very helpful, Dame Eleanor. I used to cook ahead on weekends a lot when I was in graduate school, but small children upset that routine. It's well past time for me to get back to that!

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  2. Topic: I like interacting with (most) students - I like their energy and enthusiasm and the hope they give me for the future from their attitude and kindness. I particularly like working with my project students because I like mentoring and seeing them develop, and because its fun to do science without worrying about it being internationally significant and highly fundable and all that stuff. I like being reminded how kind and smart and caring some of my colleagues are through the small interactions we have in team teaching and in trying to address student issues - in non-teaching time we don't interact to the same degree or the same way.

    goals from last week:
    1) maintain the habits I started in the intersession (bed before midnight, 45s to get small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday evening) yes on work days, no on not-working days - had a bad weekend and a bad week generally for anxiety and small physical niggles of the "you're that age" kind
    2) small things this week: finish drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and send the draft to FormerPDF. move FlatProject reanalysis to the final step. Check with FormerPDF what she did about PC1 issue. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples. no, no, yes, nothing (she says she wimped out), no
    3) prepare all teaching materials for following week, see all my project students. yes, no because six didn't sign up or attend. Four have replied to emails with various excuses - fresher's 'flu, forgot when trimester started (!), busy. Sigh. these are honours student finalists, they know how to email...
    4) read through last year's NaNoWriMo effort no. bad weekend

    Analysis: The leaving do for three support colleagues was this week and there is still NO PLAN for how their duties will be covered and I thought I was doing OK but this weekend I am NOT OK. I've met all the classes I'm teaching this semester bar one group, who I see Monday late on, so we are into the swing of things a bit more. I have a very difficult first year and some third years doing projects who are not worrying but really, really should be. Research stuff is just not happening. Oh, and it looks as if the technical support will not be provided to me going forward, so the grants I'm working on should probably be abandoned (if I got funded and got a post-doc, that person would not have technical support which they would need, and it's likely the lab equipment and the space we use will have been repurposed or broken or otherwise rendered unfit - and I can't easily get funding to fix that because funders assume one has a "well-found laboratory" provided - not least because the university adds quite a lot of overheads onto applications for just that purpose! And whilst I could just assume that the PDRA would have to deal, and will probably be told that is what I have to do, that feels immoral to me). And it upsets me... also I'm just too busy at the moment with stuff that comes at me, and trying to be strict about only overworking a certain amount.

    goals for this week:
    1) maintain habits (bed before midnight, 45s to get small regular movement in at work, keeping a food/mood diary, not eating refined sugar, leaving work before 6, doing something non-work every workday evening) and add a little more exercise once this week
    2) research things this week: finish the FlatProject final step of analysis ready to start writing. If possible, also drawing up a figure for the grant idea called PCfu (ProblemChild follow up) and send the draft to FormerPDF. Sort out FavouriteIslands samples.
    3) prepare all teaching materials for following week.
    4) read through last year's NaNoWriMo effort, look into Preptober schemes people use for NaNo.

    Have a great week everyone!

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    Replies
    1. I cannot believe the crazy-making stuff going on at your uni. I mean, of course you're stressed and upset. It would be bad enough if all the stuff happening came with acknowledgements and apologies, but it seems like the attitude is always that *you* should find a way to make up for *their* deficiencies. And that's awful.

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  3. Well, I do know that by the end of August I was ready for EVERYONE to get out of the house. In a way, I'm enjoying the return to routine. What I'm working on this semester is just not letting the routine become a source of stress. I mean, I go to class, I teach, I grade, I prep, I do other things, no big deal. Right? Why should it be a big deal?

    I'm not sure that I'm articulating it well, but I can say that this slight adjustment to my mindset is actually kind of working. Certainly I got through my grading with a lot less angst than usual last week. (Which is not to say that I've started this week's batch, but....)

    Last week:
    1. 60 pages of proofs (to p. 135) - Yes
    2. Sit x 5 - Yes
    3. Finish and submit second abstract - Yes
    4. Read one grad student's chapter -Yes
    5. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday - Not quite, which made me grumpy on Sunday, but then I set a timer for one hour and was shocked by how much I was able to accomplish in that period
    6. Sort clothes for donation - Completely forgot that this was on the list
    7. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way - Yes

    This week:
    1. 60 pages of proofs (to p. 195)
    2. Sit x 5
    3. Read one grad student's chapter
    4. All prep for Mon & Tues done by the time I go home on Friday
    5. Sort clothes for donation
    6. Keep the grading moving along, without letting Feelings About Grading get in the way
    7. Write and send a batch of non-work-related emails

    Pretty boring, but there we are!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One person's boring is another person's satisfying and effective routine!

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    2. I think I know what you mean. It's like making writing just something you do, all it needs is a half hour, it's not a big thing. If grading and all the other stuff is also "just something you do," rather than OMG ALL THE THINGS, it's so much more manageable. Maintaining the attitude is the tricky bit. I think we've all been conditioned to feel rushed and frantic, even people like me who stay off social media and away from news.

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  4. I love it when the students come back -- they are curious, and I enjoy teaching, and. . . Because I'm teaching things I really like and are close to my interests this semester, teaching feeds my curiosity. Of course it takes time, but...

    Goals from last week:
    1. Finish reading dissertation NO
    2. Grade papers NO
    3. Read on section for journal no
    4. Keep up the walking Not so much
    5. Read for pleasure some

    Well, that crashed. What happened? Partly just the world, with political/constitutional crises in both the US and UK which can get a bit obsessive. Also -- maybe more importantly -- it was the 10th anniversary of my husband's death, and it was oddly discombobulating. And the day long retreat was basically good, but I'm deeply concerned about some stuff that happened, so... I'm slowly putting myself back together.

    So my goals haven't changed :)
    1. finish reading dissertation
    2. Grade papers (TRQ now, must be done by Thursday)
    3. Read at least one set of essays for conference
    4. Get the walking going again
    5. Return to healthy sleep patterns

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like quite a storm of stressors there, you get points for not retreating under the duvet & refusing to come out for the duration! (Which is very much how I feel as a UK citizen in October...). Anniversaries are funny things, sometimes they sneak up and throw everything out of kilter unexpectedly. Here's to a calmer week!

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    2. Agreeing with JaneB! Good luck with reestablishing the sleep patterns. I'm still struggling with that, but hope to improve this week as well.

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  5. Topic: I’m five weeks into the semester and beginning to get an idea of who my students are and what interests them. This is the fun time of seeing what they are capable of and how we might connect. Making sure that I make time and space for teaching and informal mentoring is important...an important part of finding balance.

    Last week:
    1 Finish writing text for online course: gladly, this deadline was moved to December
    2 Submit residency application: yes
    3 Submit job application: yes
    4 Finish and submit next book review: will finish today
    5 Write every day: no, but I haven’t kept track

    This week:
    1 Finish and submit next book review
    2 Finish and submit 2 article reviews
    3 Work on conference paper
    4 Write every day
    5 Breathe, breathe, breathe

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    Replies
    1. That's a lot of reviewing! Congratulations on getting the job and residency applications done.

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    2. It's one of those weird coincidences where everyone who started back on journal work set deadlines for the first 10 days of October. Knowing there is a clearing on the other side makes the overload tolerable.

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  6. Since I posted for week 1 on Tuesday and for this week on Wednesday, though the prompts were up days earlier, that probably says all we need to say about my ability to keep up. Indeed, though today should be an on-campus day, I have posted online discussion assignments for my classes and am staying home. Of late there has been too much to do and too little sleep, and if I don't get caught up today and tomorrow, I'm going to stay home Friday as well. I do have interesting classes and nice students, and I enjoy having places to go and people to interact with. In the last week my advice has been sought by both the chair of my department and the senior member of our personnel committee, which makes me feel like an éminence grise.

    HOW I DID:

    *garden work; YES.
    *daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages read, 1250 words written; 1019 words, NO reading.
    *grade 1.5 sets of student papers; 0.5 plus a set of short-short things (still have a full set of 2-page papers).
    *daily exercise and stretching (x6); try a muffin recipe; NOOO, not good at all on exercise/stretching (no doubt this is partly why the sleep has been so bad); YES to muffins. The first batch was okay, today's batch very good!
    *make at least two phone calls regarding appointments for maintenance of me and the house. YES (one for me, one for house).

    NEW GOALS:
    *daily reading/writing (x5), OR a weekly total of 50 pages read, 1250 words written;
    *grade 1 set of student papers, put up a batch of new assignments, assign and grade a batch of in-class writing;
    *daily exercise and stretching (x6);
    *keep up with dead languages;
    *make at least one more medical appointment.

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  7. Sorry, better late than never. Its been a busy week as I am prepping to be away next week with my research working group. I am having a hard time managing free time/work/exercise. Blowing off exercise means my back/legs/hips hurt (I have chronic pain from a car accident/numerous back surgeries) that then cascades to my neck/shoulders so I need to do better. This is going to mean less fun/socializing free time and more time spent exercising in my free time, given my busy schedule until March. I am taking a Master Naturalist course to try to make friends and be in the outdoors, its time consuming but I don't want to give it up. Also eating out far too much, and I will try to tackle that isuse the week after next. It is usually around this time of the semester Wk 6, that somethings start to slip. My goal in general is that the things that slip are things that don't translate into me not sleeping well at night.
    Last week:
    1. finish edited chapter #1, outline #2 Yes
    2. get Dept Chair info requested to nominate me for term prof Yes
    3. get collaborators text Yes
    4. plane tic to Mom's memorial event in nov No- must do
    5. exercise x 3 No, dismal failure
    This week:
    1. Start writing second ed vol chapter
    2. Prep to be away next week- grading, readings posted to BB etc.
    3. Air ticket to Mom's memorial service
    4. Exercise x 3
    5. Figures to drafter for two ed vol chapters

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the not letting the things that help me sleep thing is big!

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