You're sitting over a refill of your drink, feeling that you might be ready to get going again, and considering what you'd like to see next, when a member of the museum staff approaches you. At one point you wrote something that they've found very insightful and useful (what was it?), and they saw your name pop up on the morning's museum admissions, so they came . . . not only to say thank you, which is already a big boost, but, as a more tangible token of appreciation, to take you back into the Staff Only rooms and show you something!
What will that thing be, for you? A new acquisition? The restoration section, where you might help with some fiddly bit of care-taking on a very old and delicate item? A store-room where they're unpacking crates from a long-forgotten legacy? Writing the signage for a new exhibition, or creating a realistic setting for a historical room, or working on a scale model?
If the prompt speaks to you, answer any of the questions you like; if not, let it go and just check in with your report and new goals. I know we're a small group this time, but this does seem like a short list---my apologies if I left you out, and please come and check in if you feel moved!
Daisy
1) Paper again…
2) Giant pile of grading, now twice as high as last week
3) My intentional thing for the week: Have walking coffee with at least two colleagues
Dame Eleanor Hull
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Grade 3 sets of discussion board posts, 2 sets of papers, one other set of things, set up modules for next week, write two assignments.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading.
*Service: no service goals this week [blows raspberry].
*Admin: order books for spring.
*Fun stuff: read, bake something, finish 2nd ear-warming headband.
*House/life: pull credit report.
*Track time, at least roughly.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (held over)
One article and annotations 1x5.
Paperwork for planning next semester.
Pick up new glasses and contacts.
Write 300 words on Illustrated 1x4.
Walk 2x7; meditate 1x7; something positive 1x7.
heu mihi
1) Read something for research. Anything.
2) Grade a batch.
3) Review 2 tenure cases.
4) Preliminary revision of journal materials (letters, website).
Humming42
1 work on creative piece
2 write weekly blog post
3 grade every day
4 write and submit current book review
5 write and submit abstract for history piece
6 finish review of journal essay submission
oceangirl101
1. Bib searches/copy edits on Ch 1-4 of book
2. Work 4 hr on co-authored paper
3. Make Dr appts- knee, mammogram etc.
4. Exercise x 4
5. Bath/stretch x 2
6. Enjoy cooking some healthy meals
Susan
1. 1 More week on each class
2. Figure out submission problem for final projects
3. Send emails
4. Book orders
Service:
5. Pull together comments on big proposal for next Monday's meeting
6. Get people together for discussion of journal proposals
Research:
7: Three hours on Famous Author
Relaxation:
8. One fun zoom
9. Finish the book I'm reading
10. Keep on working out.
Definitely some rare-and-beautiful, maybe even hitherto-unknown manuscript, such as a holograph copy of Gertrude of Helfta's Legatus (my ongoing scholarly obsession), with loads of marginalia and annotations... I'm sure that I wouldn't even know what to do with it right away; I'd just gaze on it in awe!
ReplyDeleteLast week was okay, although I had one day (Wednesday) of terrible Ennui in which I Cared for Nothing. I seem to be pretty much over it. This is the last week of classes and I'm determined to get lots of loose ends cleared up before the influx of grading (which won't really hit until December 4, because I arranged things strangely).
Last week:
1) Read something for research. Anything.
I read 12 pages of the introduction of a book that I need to review. Yay?
2) Grade a batch.
Yes
3) Review 2 tenure cases.
Finished the second one this morning (Monday), but I'm saying Yes.
4) Preliminary revision of journal materials (letters, website).
Very preliminary! I realized that I'm currently in the process of co-revising three different sets of website materials. That is too many.
This week:
1) Order, fetch, and organize gigantic batch of letters etc. related to a Get Out the Vote effort in Georgia. (I volunteered to organize this for anyone in my activist circle who was interested, and have been rather overwhelmed by the response.... It looks like I'll be organizing something like 1400 letters, for 27 people. So this will actually take up a good bit of time. I even had to attend a webinar last night.)
2) Try something to promote better sleep--such as evening journaling or meditation.
3) Draft journal CFP and read journal submissin.
4) Complete email catch-up. (I got through a lot last week, but there's more. Always more.)
5) Request blurbs for program website from majors.
6) Enjoy my husband's birthday on Thursday.
Also 7) Read intro and chapter 1 of review book; type up notes.
DeleteHave you tried melatonin, for sleep? It helps me, no side effects.
DeleteThree sets of website revisions is a lot. But yay for some reading, grading, and service. I hope you & your husband can do something fun for his birthday.
My first thought was that the curator had noticed my reference to a tapestry in the biggest hunk of the MMP, and wanted to let me see it. But that's probably something I could request and get access to, and I think I'd like to be shown something I didn't even know about. Maybe something in the restoration lab; that would interest me.
ReplyDeleteI felt like a lot of days last week were Jours d'ennui dans lesquels tout m'était égal; I didn't even have Moleskine pages for most of the week. And yet I think I did okay on most goals, anyway. Probably I was ennuyée because fatiguée, and a lot of that was from staying up too late watching the Vuelta à España, and we finally finished that (several days after it actually ended), so let's hope for better sleep this week.
How I did:
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough. YES, TWICE, meh, NO.
*Teaching: Grade 3 sets of discussion board posts, 2 sets of papers, one other set of things, set up modules for next week, write two assignments. TWO, ONE, YES, YES, YES.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading. YES, YES, um, 3 pages I think.
*Service: no service goals this week [blows raspberry]. DID one small thing that cropped up.
*Admin: order books for spring. YES.
*Fun stuff: read, bake something, finish 2nd ear-warming headband. YES, YES, YES.
*House/life: pull credit report. NO. (Sigh. I know why I'm putting this off: b/c if it does show any problems, dealing with them will eat time. I know, better sooner than later, but I'm being an ostrich here. I'll re-phrase for the coming week and see if that helps any.)
*Track time, at least roughly. 2.5 days, then I gave up, though I could probably reconstruct the rest of the week from assorted scattered notes. Apparently even when deeply ennuyée, I've acquired the habit of doing some kind of time-tracking.
New goals:
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Grade discussion board posts (2 sets? 3? I've lost track), 1 set of papers, set up modules for next two weeks.
*Research: work on revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading.
*Service: set up drafts for some recommendation letters.
*House/life: do some responsible-adult things.
*Track time, at least roughly.
Ooooooh the back rooms at a museum!!! I love this prompt!! When I was an undergraduate I worked as a lowly assistant in a big museum picking through samples to find tiny tiny things… The best part of that work was to be able to see the non-display academic collections! For my behind the scenes tour I’d like to be let into the research collection in my field and be allowed to open drawers and just stare at the beautiful samples for a day! The random drawers are the best, so many things one would never get to see!
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals:
1) Paper again… REALLY GOOD!
2) Giant pile of grading, now twice as high as last week NOTHING
3) My intentional thing for the week: Have walking coffee with at least two colleagues ONE, next scheduled for this week
This was a great week for my paper, I am making excellent progress and have not felt this energized about a piece of writing in ages! It does mean that I worked on very little else though… That’s ok, those balls bounced and I will get the paper off to other desks in a few days and catch up with the rest. One of my courses is a complete disaster, providing flexibility and choice in assignment types (because pedagogy!) for students has backfired spectacularly and only about a third of the class is on track for completing most of the material by the end of term. The scaffolding and formative assessments and discussion boards and all that nice pedagogical stuff has made no difference whatsoever, so I’m feeling like a complete teaching failure. I know some are getting a lot out of it, but at this point I feel like some of those “teaching experts” who sit in their cubicles giving advice and tell us everything “traditional” is “bad” can bite me! My more “traditional” course with 3 times the number of students and a much higher level of difficulty is going fine…
This week’s goals:
1) Paper off to co-authors
2) Giant pile of grading, now three times as high as when it started
3) Record ALL remaining lectures
4) My intentional thing for the week: sushi takeout with child and walking coffee with 2 colleagues
I would definetely be in the back restoration lab, hopefully seeing work on a Tahitian mourning costume or the unwrapping a god figure to see what is inside.
ReplyDeleteLast Week:
1. Bib searches/copy edits on Ch 1-4 of book UP TO CH 3
2. Work 4 hr on co-authored paper NO
3. Make Dr appts- knee, mammogram etc. NO
4. Exercise x 4 YES
5. Bath/stretch x 2 YES
6. Enjoy cooking some healthy meals YES
Like many of you, I am horribly tired, burnt out, and not super motivated. I am still doing light copy edits of my book this week, in the hopes that I can get into heavier content reading/revisions next week. I stupidly said yes to reviewing a book proposal series, an article, and an outside PhD, so I also need to get these off my plate this week. I am calming myself daily, as we have 12 weeks off until late January classes start, so winter will be like a mini-summer this year. I am also trying to set up some check ins with friends as, while I don't miss ZOOM, burrowing too deep into the work only hole will not be good for me either. I just cancelled a road trip to see family in between the holidays, with rising numbers it seemed prudent. So it will be just me and my cat trying to stay merry.
This Week:
1. Copy edits Ch 3-8
2. Review article, book series, and PhD
3. Walk/exercise x 4
4. Healthy meals
5. Vet for cat, set up Dr appts for me
I'm not sure what I'd see in the back, but I think the conservation room where they were repairing some manuscript that would be vital to my research. But, true story: something that really DID happen to me was at the Huntington Library:I was taken into the back where they were preparing an exhibit on Regency London, and was shown a ticket to Almacks. As someone who spent her adolescence reading Georgette Heyer, this was amazing.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, so much for the back corners of libraries and museums! How I did:
1. 1 More week on each class YES
2. Figure out submission problem for final projects YES
3. Send emails YES
4. Book orders NO, but I'm thinking!
Service:
5. Pull together comments on big proposal for next Monday's meeting YES
6. Get people together for discussion of journal proposals YES
Research:
7: Three hours on Famous Author 1 1/2? too much other stuff
Relaxation:
8. One fun zoom YES
9. Finish the book I'm reading YES, started another
10. Keep on working out. YES
It was, by and large, a good week. Plodding along (and 6 hours of meetings on Saturday was a lot) but not crashing. Students are so stressed. But I've got all my grading done (next batch of papers come in tomorrow) and I have only one week to add into the mix for one class. Otherwise the LMS is done. The two big service projects are on a new glide path, so I'm beginning to relax on them. On the other hand, this Saturday's zoom goes from 9:30 AM to 4:15. It is lucky that you can't assault someone across zoom.
Goals for the next week:
Teaching:
1. Get last week module up
2. Grade next batch of projects and create groups
3. Get book orders in
Service:
1. Get in touch with the press re. journal
2. Deal with any other stuff that comes up re Big Proposal that is terrible
3. Deal with Church stuff
Research:
Four hours on famous author
Fun:
Keep reading new book
Keep working out
At least one fun zoom
Meanwhile, here in CA our county has gone back into the highest level of transmission, so it's just hunker down. And figure out how to do Thanksgiving.
The museum directors could be frustrated with me for talking about how I dislike object labels and all the biases that end up being imposed as fact. I readily admit that there is no objectivity, that every curator and museum worker tells the stories they know through their own subjectivity. All writers do. I am astonished when the museum invites me to participate in a public talk about object labels and meaning-making. I eagerly agree, knowing that not only will the talk be on Zoom but that I will have to put together a fantastic set of slides so I can Share Screen and try to create a solid argument in the process.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1 work on creative piece: yes. Some stuff that was challenging to write about, so it was a bit draining. But in a good way.
2 write weekly blog post: no. Maybe when the online class ends, I will make time for blogging
3 grade every day: pretty much
4 write and submit current book review: yes
5 write and submit abstract for history piece: no, decided against it
6 finish review of journal essay submission: no
This week:
1 work on creative piece: this is the last week of the online class I’m taking. The assignment is to revise a previously submitted piece, so I’m ruminating.
2 grade every day: the heat is on.
3 write and submit current book review: ok, it’s a tiny bit TLQ but my editor is very forgiving
4 write and submit abstract for conference workshop: one of those opportunities from pandemic to virtually attend a conference that I normally don’t even consider because it’s adjacent to my discipline and there’s only so much money for travel in a given year
5 finish review of journal essay submission: that one just fell off my map.