Hi everyone,
Good Enough Woman has offered to co-host the next session running 8th September to 15th December. So we're now looking for volunteers to co-host with her - I can do it if no-one else wants to, although will probably be away next weekend.
So this is your interim post - a place to come and talk about how things are going with re-entry to the normal year, mourn/celebrate the changing seasons, or to have a final final opportunity to report and enjoy successes from last session or late progress towards those goals.
Possible topic - how do you go about setting REALISTIC goals for the teaching semester? Looking for tips here, especially after my markedly unsuccessful summer cruise! (although aren't you SUPPOSED to get back from a cruise several pounds heavier, ready for a rest, and completely confused about your timezone and schedule? In which case I kind of did it right...)
1. Finish YRBS paper - ON HOLD. Our statistician for the project neglected to do some crucial analyses and is now off getting married and honeymooning. She can’t return to this till oct/nov. ARGH!
ReplyDelete2. Finish asthma paper - DONE! Edits from senior author, sent to next in line author. Hope to submit within the next couple of weeks.
3. Make progress on couples study since I had planned to go live next week! PROGRESS MADE!
4. Revise results for aim 1 paper - DONE
5. Lancet re-review - NOT DONE
Last week I worked myself into a state of exhaustion and now I am sick with a cold. Boo! I am co-mentoring (with my postdoc mentor) a PhD student at a diff university and read her diss proposal last week as well. She plans to propose THIS MONTH and her ideas aren’t even solidified, her lit review was a mess, and she made a lot of errors in her decisions about measurement! She happened to be in town and so she and I met to talk through things. She took our feedback really well, but it’s a little frustrating bc she only wanted our feedback on her methods - but we are actually the experts in her proposed area of research (her PhD advisor has no experience in this area), so it felt like maybe she overestimated her grasp on the area? I’ll be curious to see her next draft (which is due in less than 2 weeks to try to meet her proposal deadline).
Next week’s goals:
My focus this next week will unfortunately be on other people’s work for the most part as I have been trying to prioritize my own, but have been neglecting stuff I need to do for others:
1. Review students’ methods and results for China paper
2. Connect with student about Australia paper’s methods
3. Review polydrug use thesis
4. Connect with collaborators about drug use paper
5. Get and learn STATA (ugh)
6. Flow chart for alcohol paper
7. Connect with collaborator about YRBS methods paper
8. Lancet re-review (held over)
9. Get Aim 1 paper ready for mentor to read
My mom and I are traveling to China in 2019 (this was her gift to me for my PhD graduation). We finalized our main plans this weekend (river cruise down the Yangtze - I am not excited about doing a cruise - nor a guided tour, but we are both semi-nervous about traveling in China in the current political climate, and a river cruise seems better to me than an ocean cruise). So that will be pretty exciting!
Ah students. Welcome to the world of supervision! I do find most shared supervision difficult (and I'm sure students do too - they lack the information and skill needed to filter what they get, and lack the power to confidently challenge anyone... and then many of them also have great trouble assessing their own progress. My favourite Head of Department said that once we realised the depths of our own ignorance we were ready to start the PhD research properly, but that sadly it could take several years to get there...).
DeleteGood luck!
My aunt & uncle did a river cruise in China recently, they said that for them it was the perfect compromise, as they had much more experience of the country than they had on ocean type cruises, got to see a really wide range of views and places without all the packing and unpacking and logistics, plus there were all sorts of options for excursions (my Uncle is younger and healthier than my Aunt, plus has retained the young man's assumption that everything is possible well past the point where evidence might say otherwise, so they quite often did different things to suit what they felt up to that day). Hope you have a similarly great experience!
Thanks for your thoughts on shared supervision! Thank you also for sharing about your Aunt and Uncle's experiences with the river cruise - I imagine it's the same cruise lines as there aren't that many that go down the yangtze! I'm pretty excited (and we get to see pandas!).
DeleteI've recently hosted and don't want to be intrusive, but will be happy to step up if there are no other volunteers to join Good Enough Woman for the next session.
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad to co-host the next session. Does someone want to flip a coin to choose between me and Humming42?
ReplyDeleteDEH, if you want to co-host this session, I'll gladly take the next.
DeleteAnd if no one else is up for it, I'll co-host...
DeleteOK, sounds like a plan: GEW and I will do the next, and humming42 with JaneB or someone else TBA will take the one after that.
DeleteSounds good! DEH, I can get us started on Saturday if that works for you.
DeleteP. S.: Has anyone tweaked the settings, or is this a Blogspot thing? I haven't been able to comment using the name/URL option, only when signed in to Google. Otherwise, comments just disappear without triggering the Captcha step.
ReplyDeleteI like the topic, but I may also need tips rather than being in a position to advise. Road work has added 10-20 minutes to an already lengthy commute and I am so tired all the time. I'm also on an extra committee.
ReplyDeleteLast week I got things done on non-teaching days by dint of skipping the gym, which worked for one week but is not good for me long-term. Since I'm on campus such long hours, I'm considering joining the university gym, so I can work out properly instead of just going for walks on teaching days, and see if that helps my energy levels. My classes are interesting and students are nice, but the material and physical obstacles are significant. Since I teach MWF, I really don't want to spend the week local to the uni---if I had a 3 days in a row schedule, I would consider that, but even for the future, that really isn't an option because of things I want to do and other people's schedules.
JaneB, thank you again for setting up this intersession post. I didn’t even set any goals for this past week, but I have been toiling along. I found some commentary that I had written on my phone, saved to my external drive, and (I thought) saved to the cloud. Not so--the silver lining of wondering where the heck that section had gone, and rewriting part of it, is that when I found it on the external drive and brought it back into the “definitive” document, I added 1,500 words.
ReplyDeleteThe coming week will be pretty sparse on getting anything done, because my husband and I are travelling to a Queen concert. He is making it a “deep breath before the plunge into the semester” sort of thing, and I get to laze about for a couple of days, so I’m fine with that as well. I am taking some work, and some knitting, but I have to recognize the possibility not much of either will get done.
I’m looking forward to the fall/spring session with Good Enough Woman and Dame Eleanor as our co-hosts, and will plan my list of session goals this week. Excelsior, everyone!
I don't have any great hints for the topic, beyond that of meditating in the morning, and planning the next day the night before. I have blocked writing periods on my calendar, but I won't know for a couple of months how well those will work. I am also going to borrow some of the suggestions from the summer session, like not checking email until lunch time.
ReplyDeleteSorry I have been MIA. I had a posting problem last week like DEH mentioned. And my Mom's health has not been good. I would like to participate over the semester, but will need to set small goals. We are starting the process of moving my Mom into in home intermediate hospice care, I am not 100% sure what this means (I go there this Friday) but know that it means I will be making trips out to see her when I can. If anyone has any suggestions for how to balance that and school/work I would be happy to hear.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your mom, oceangirl. I often found work to be a respite from the stress when I was in the same position. It's good to set small goals, as you plan to do.
Delete