Midyear Session 2025 Week 2

In the US, we have a 3-day weekend to celebrate Memorial Day. As an official holiday, it's supposed to commemorate those who served in the armed forces, but I think it has roots in older customs of tending graveyards and giving them a good spring-clean when the weather warms up enough to do so. So the theme for discussion this week is a dish or meal that you associate with someone you'd like to memorialize: Grandma's cookies will do fine if you don't want this to get too heavy.

I hope you've had a good week, and that Contingent Cassandra and heu mihi are enjoying their travels! Late additions are welcome, as some of us are still goal-setting for the session, so if you've been thinking about it, here's your engraved invitation. Please join in! 

For a bit of inspiration (I hope), roughly five years ago we were imagining magical assistants to help us tame the monster of preparing to teach online in the fall. If you want an alternative to this week's food theme, is there a magical assistant you'd like to have for this session?

Let us know how you did with last week's goals, or what fun things you did on vacation!

Daisy

Catch up from conference absence
Extensive journal tasks
Read and edit thesis chapters
Read and edit three student project proposals
Write outline of paper from conference talk

Dame Eleanor Hull

* prep food for 2-day symposium, go there, try to have a good time
* finish new raised bed and plant veg
* swim x2
* write 2x 1 hour
* scholarly reading/note-taking 2x 1 hour
* hang out with visiting friend next weekend

JaneB

1) set session goals in personal and professional spheres
2) TRY to get caught up with feedback to graduate students on written stuff (four items to do - realistically I should manage two)
3) mark two pieces of undergrad work that had extensions
4) set up a new teaching notebook
5) do gentle stretching workout three times
6) DON'T do any work work at least two days at the weekend

Julie

Finish marking exams (due Thursday)
Book travel for two workshops in June.
Finish assembling new patio furniture (unless it rains); buy new pots and plants for patio.
Prep for daughter's birthday party on Saturday.

Susan

1. Keep plugging away on Famous Author. With luck get everything just about done by Friday. Including asking for permissions.
2. Exercise
3. Enjoy myself in my last two weeks here.

Midyear session 2025 Week 1

This will be our first goal-setting week, and it's a good time to set session-long goals. How long is the session? Fourteen weeks, once again, so the final goal-setting week will be week 13 (10 August) and the reporting and rejoicing week will be 17 August. We'll have a midterm check-in on 6 July, week 7.

What do you want to rejoice about in the middle of August? That is, what accomplishment of yours shall we celebrate? Since it's summer (for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and in recent sessions that's been all of us [anyone Down Under want to join in? please do!]), I think some Fun Life Goals would be a good accompaniment to academic goals. 

Our theme is food, so consider whether you want to have a starter, main course, and dessert, or a succession of small plates, or a buffet from which to pick and choose.

So, three things, this week, assuming you introduced yourself in week 1 (and if not, please go ahead and do that this time): session goals, goals for the coming week, and, if you like, a suggestion for a quick and tasty meal, maybe a one-pot wonder.

Oh, and here's the boilerplate from previous sessions about goals: Goals can be in any aspect of life, although the key focus is often writing tasks that are personally and professionally important but that never quite tip over into important AND urgent. Urgent things sometimes find their way in here too; that is completely okay, and process goals are also most welcome. 

If you've been thinking for awhile about joining in, we'd love to have you try us out this time around!

Midyear session 2025 week 0

Hello there! It seems like time to have some announcement of a new session. I hope things have been going well during the time since the last "real" session wound up (and thanks to Susan for doing the intersession posts). The end of my term seemed like a mad scramble, and I dropped some small balls like sending congratulatory e-mails to students who won awards, but all the big stuff got done (so far as I can tell . . .) and I've just attended graduation. 

JaneB and I both offered to host for the summer, but we've had no further discussion of whether we're sharing or what. That's one reason to have a Week Zero. Another is that you may just be finishing up a term, or not yet done, or have done so a few weeks ago and be on holiday; one way or another, you might want some time to think about goals for the next session, rather than starting right in.

I'm thinking of a cooking/recipe theme for this session, both literal and metaphorical. On the metaphorical level, at Week Zero we don't even have a meal plan, just a mass of ingredients: staples in the cupboards, stuff in the fridge that needs to be used up, some bags of groceries that someone else shopped for, through which we're searching for what we need and finding various things we didn't put on the list ourselves. 

So, stop by in the comments to introduce yourselves and give us some idea of the ingredients you're working with this time. Next week we can think about the actual meals we need to produce/goals for the next few months! Right now, it's just "What's on your plate?" or "Oh dear, here's this Jerusalem artichoke I'm going to have to do something with." Feel free also to make suggestions about how long this session should run, though I'm thinking of winding up around mid-August. 

Newbies or returners very welcome! Come hang around the kitchen and have a drink while we take inventory of the ingredients.

Intersession week 4

 Sorry for the late posting -- a friend was visiting over the weekend and I had NO TIME!  

But, since we did lots of fun things, tell us one fun thing you did in the last week, something that gave you pleasure.

Goals from last week:

JaneB

- mark three final year projects and at least two questions from first year short answer quiz
- get caught up on dishes
- read an entire novel and an entire non-fiction book as a MINIMUM

Daisy

ALL the admin things - I have a two-page list...
Finish all grading
Read new thesis chapters
Do a bunch of analytical work for upcoming talk/paper (THIS IS IMPORTANT!)

Susan 

1. Finish restructure of chap 6/7 into 6/7/8
2. At least look at Epilogue and think about how to split (this is less difficult)
3. Do Conference submission
4. Finish expenses
5. Weights x2, Yoga x1, walk x 2
6. Enjoy activities with friend from home who is visiting this weekend.

Intersession week 3

 Posting a bit late, as I got caught up in cleaning the house and making dinner for some friends.  

I hope everyone had a good Easter/ holiday weekend.  Did you get a chocolate Easter egg or Easter bunny? Is it as good as the one you imagined?  

Goals from last week:

Contingent Cassandra

--Continue recovery, including completing assigned PT exercises, adding back in walking and other leg-focused exercises as feels appropriate, humming and other gentle vocalization
--Continue leisure reading
--Write/submit at least brief written comment re: DEI resolution
--Maybe a bit of drawer and/or paper sorting if I'm feeling up to it

heu mihi

This week:
1) Read 4 more chapters of the manuscript (let's be ambitious)
2) Request or track down library books for abstract due 5/30
3) Process journal revision
4) Read honors thesis draft
5) Stay on top of grad student's exam prep documents
6) Finish fundraiser emails (probably with the help of a colleague who's much better at this kind of thing!)

Ughh I want everything to be DONNNNNNNE.

Susan

1. 2 more chapters at least. With luck, figure out the 3rd, which I need to split
2. 2 image requests
3. Do panel submission for conference
4. One more set of expenses
5. Weights x 2, Yoga x 2, walk

Intersession, Week 2

 I don't know about everyone else, but now I need to buy myself some easter candy (I think I'm more of a bunny person than an egg person, but no one buys them for me, so it becomes one more way to take care of myself!

I hope people have had a good week, and Contingent Cassandra's surgery was as uneventful as possible (or just having the expected events, anyway).  And I know some people are on holiday this week, so I hope you enjoy it!  

If you feel like it when you check in, tell us one nice thing that happened this week.

Articulated goals from last week:

Susan

1. Revisions of at least next two chapters of Famous Author. If there is time after doing 2-4, start on the third.
2. Request at least 2 of the needed images for Famous Author
3. Do the Panel Submission for next year's conference.
4. Do at least one set of expenses.
5. Weights x 2, yoga x 2, walking

Daisy

A thesis defence and resulting corrections
Exam marking
Grant application to finish

heu mihi

1) Send off Alignment essay (or whatever I'm calling it)
2) Read intro + 2 chapters of the manuscript I'm reviewing (it has 12 chapters, so they're short)
3) Look into building permit for our new deck
4) Draft emails for fundraiser

Contingent Cassandra

--Get through surgery and begin recovery
--Do a bit of leisure reading
--If I'm feeling up to it, follow and participate in campus discussions of current issues (including an anti-DEI resolution coming up on the docket for one of our governing board's committees next week)

Julie

Enjoy holiday without laptop!

JaneB

Wait for goals

NOT REALLY A SESSION WEEK 1

 So this is very informal for those of us who find it helpful to keep setting goals.

For this week, please let me know how long you think this will be helpful -- through April? Mid-May? 

If you want to set session goals, do, but I'm just thinking this is more just a weekly thing. 

Anyway, what's on your desk for this week?