Week 13! The "theme shape" this week is the weird mis-perceived shape, like the bear that's actually a tree stump, or the unicorn that's a horse in front of a branch at just the right angle, you know the sort of thing. It's more common in a new house, when your furniture takes on odd shapes in a new configuration, or when you visit old friends who have rearranged their living room so the coat tree looks like a monster just broke in. Though these shapes are often spooky, they don't have to be. Sometimes they're the cushion pretending to be a cat (or vice versa). What's yours?
Here are the goals posted from last week. Let us know in the comments how you did, and what's coming up in the last week of our session #3. Next weekend there will be an end-of-session party post, where we can reflect on the whole session, but for now, give us one more set of goals.
Daisy
Finish final exam and practice exam
Finish enough of the out-of-my-field discussion paper to send to co-authors
Endless meetings, lots of association-related cat-herding
Clean out office space for new student
House stuff as much as possible
Dame Eleanor Hull
- finish the essay and send it
- finish all the grading, work out and post final grades
- pack for week visiting family
- exercise as usual
heu mihi
1. Finish, prep, give talk; don't
stress too much.
2. One yoga class (online), for God's sake.
3. Journal: Find second reviewers for two articles; process latest article.
4. Schedule haircuts
5. Enjoy Strasbourg as much as possible and do some of the things on our
Last-Things-Before-We-Leave list.
JaneB
* get rest of Christmas packages to
friends wrapped and posted
* wrap family gifts
* get next week's teaching prepared - including lots of NAGGING of students who
need to sign up for 1:1 meetings
* mark a lot of things
* work only 30 hours... (not compatible with the previous point at all).
* restore baseline habits, like movement every 45 minutes and eating the foods
that suit my body FIRST
* NOT feel pressured to drive to campus if I still have hip pain
Julie
1. Final teaching prep of term
(yay!)
2. Marking
3. Writing maybe, depends on progress with 2.
4. Read a PhD chapter for a student
5. Final meetings with students stressing about essays.
6. Try not to stress about next term's teaching.
7. Lunch with friends
8. Exercise - pilates x 1, run x 1 at least, walks
(JaneB, sorry this is late by your standards; I'm not in my usual time zone doing my usual things.)
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- finish the essay and send it. YES. Am so glad this is done.
- finish all the grading, work out and post final grades. YES (plus changed grades for half a dozen students because I made a mistake, sigh, but the student who pointed it out was very kind about it).
- pack for week visiting family. YES. Also got here safely but wow was traffic horrible out of the city I flew into.
- exercise as usual. YES
I'm visiting family in the Pacific Northwest, so although this can produce its own stresses, I'm otherwise on vacation. Thus, new goals have nothing to do with work:
- visit my dad at least once daily while I'm here*
- walk and do yoga daily
- be polite to brothers and their attachments
- rake the driveway and otherwise be a good houseguest
- make my flight home on time
- take weekend to decompress from trip
*It seems like an hour or two in the morning and a shorter visit in the afternoon works well for him; in between he naps and I can get lunch. The brother I'm staying with lives close enough to the nursing home that this is workable. My dad likes to see me but he sleeps a lot now.
A lot of yes, and well done on the essay. Hope the visit with family is helpful downtime and not too stressful. Raking a driveway definitely counts as being a good guest in my book.
DeleteCongrats on all the done things! Yay!
DeleteAnd extra kudos for deliberately building in "weekend to decompress"... The return after a trip is often so stressful that it negates any good from the trip, very wise to not schedule much immediately after! Hope the rest of the trip is pleasant!
It's a good thing I have no plans for the weekend, because my Aged P developed a case of Covid while I was there and I've caught it from him. At least I got home before it really hit me (and I masked the whole way, knowing I'd been exposed). Happy Christmas to me!
DeleteOh, no, that's such bad luck! Hope you and your dad are ok and better by Christmas.
DeleteSo sorry about the Covid!!
DeleteOh no! I hope it's not too bad...
DeleteInteresting prompt. Mine would be the vase that's also two faces looking at each other. If I were going to use it to think about work stuff, I suppose the idea that something can be very different depending on perspective is key to what I like about history. I like the fact that there are no simple answers and that there are lots of examples of unresolved tensions or things that may have been X or may have been Y, and we can't ever know. (That's not to say it's completely postmodernist-everything goes - there is evidence we have to work with.) Students often have a very hard time with the lack of clear answers - I think the mark of a really excellent student is whether they can accept this lack of clarity and run with it.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I have a much harder time dealing with something being two things at once in the sciences. Light travelling in a straight line but also being a wave is one of those points when I realised I should stick to arts and humanities.
Last week:
1. Final teaching prep of term (yay!) - YES (too much time, given attendance)
2. Marking - YES, but still sooo much left.
3. Writing maybe, depends on progress with 2. - YES (a few hours in a to-hell-with-the marking mood)
4. Read a PhD chapter for a student - YES
5. Final meetings with students stressing about essays. - YES, too many
6. Try not to stress about next term's teaching. - In denial. Probably not good.
7. Lunch with friends - YES
8. Exercise - pilates x 1, run x 1 at least, walks - YES to pilates and short walks. No to running, because we have had snow and the pavements are lethal. I live somewhere that is mostly hills, so snow is a challenge.
This week, I am done teaching so really want to power through stuff while the kids are still at school (I am the cruel mother who desperately hopes there will be no snow days).
1. Marking
2. Finish current journal article
3. Do teaching prep ONLY if 1 and 2 finished (so no chance)
4. Deal with last bits of admin (references, scheduling stuff) in as little time as possible.
5. Finish Christmas shopping
6. Book car MOT
7. Have lunch in favourite cafe, with book/notebook.
Love the "lunch at favourite cafe" goal! The change of scene and the chance to sit and think is so valuable... Enjoy!
DeleteThat was a week with lots of "done" things, I am impressed, especially given the time of year and everything going on!
Hmmm… Mystery shapes… I love the duck/rabbit one, there is a lovely children’s book using that as a theme where the duck and rabbit argue about what they are… At home I have lots of cats pretending to be pillows – with their colouring they blend right into a chair and a comforter so one has to be quite careful before sitting down.
ReplyDeleteThat was a crazy week, lots of stuff got done but the house stuff stalled with the need to patch walls before painting, and the paper stuff stalled because student stuff was intense and I spent many hours at a mandatory training course (better than most, but not as good as I hoped, at least resources provided were good). My new graduate student arrived, so this week so far has involved lots of logistical help from groceries to bank account to office keys and a multitude of forms to fill in… But for a very good cause! This week also has a bunch of kid activities so I’m keeping the week small.
Last week’s goals:
Finish final exam and practice exam MOSTLY DONE
Finish enough of the out-of-my-field discussion paper to send to co-authors NOPE
Endless meetings, lots of association-related cat-herding DONE
Clean out office space for new student DONE
House stuff as much as possible SOME
This week’s goals:
Finish, supervise, and grade exams and submit final grades
TRY AGAIN for finishing enough of the out-of-my-field discussion paper to send to co-authors
House stuff as much as possible, try to put rooms back together!
It's not so much shape as movement, but I keep confusing dry leaves blowing in the wind with little birds flying down to feed.
ReplyDeleteSo it's (next) Sunday.... Not much point checking in! I spent the week having a cold, finishing off our last-week-abroad list, and getting ready to leave. I'll look for the next check-in!
ReplyDeleteThat was me, heu mihi!
ReplyDelete