Working on a List

I'm doing my best to check items off of my To-Do list. Today, I sent a draft of my article off for faculty review, I emailed off my OPI materials, and I renewed my IRB application. I've got a variety of projects that I can work on this semester, but they are coming at the expense of other duties. In addition to projects and teaching, I ought to be doing more to train and support our teachers, but that isn't really happening. At this point I'm mostly expecting teachers to figure it out by working together or reaching out to me proactively. Hopefully I will catch up with my projects and book in time to support teachers.

Another Push in the Write Direction

The hints have no longer come subtlety. In fact they could hardly be called hints. Demands might be too strong, but mandates is probably not far.

In the past three weeks I have had two professors encourage me to get back to work on submitting my thesis research to an academic journal. I told them that I was working on a collaborative article, but the truth is my collaborators are not collaborating, so nothing is happening.

Then I figured it was time to start getting my job application skills back on track since I'll only been in my current position until 2009. And of course that means adding publications to my CV.

And then today my boss strongly, strongly, strongly urged me to get my article published. A political, greater good sort of thing. And so that's what I have spent this evening trying to do. Write.

And it's not really working. But somehow I will manage.

OPI Round 1 Deadline

The practice round of my OPI certification is coming up next week. I did the training earlier this summer and I conducted interviews all summer long, but my plan to get everything smoothed out and ready this fall got complicated by my busy teaching schedule.

However, I hope to get it all wrapped up and sent off next week before Kimberly and I head to the Grand Canyon for a short weekend trip.

This may not be the most relaxing semester, but at least we are having lots of learning opportunities.

Fresh Start, New Setback

September marks the beginning of a new semester. It will be my first official fall semester as a PhD student after officially being admitted in spring term.

Spring term was useful and busy even though I had the two months off from my job. I spent the time in professional development and in graduate course credits. Summer, however, was more frustrating. I never quite got into a good teaching groove for my teaching, and the graduate course that I took (well, that Kimberly took since the professor held it during a time that I could not meet) was the worst course that I have ever taken. It was poorly organized, poorly articulated, poorly graded, and the instructor still has yet to submit grades even though the term finished about a month ago.

Still, I was ready to let go of the summer and head into a productive fall. Unfortunately I have a heavy teaching load for this semester (my two regular classes, plus a graduate writing class and a a double-section for one of my regular courses), but I am confident that it will work out just fine. I was looking forward to being a student in an interesting technology course, however that plan has been altered. The department, without informing students, has added a required course to the already hefty list of required classes. This new course conflicts with my teaching schedule (yet again), but the instructor has agreed to let me attend for the portions that I can.

I'm not happy with the lack of organization and communication of this department. But then I remind myself that I am not paying for tuition and that regardless of what happens with my credits, it is a great learning opportunity. So long as I approach it with that attitude, I will be less likely to be disappointed and frustrated. And since I never really intended to do my PhD here to begin with, I can feel good about whatever the outcome over the next two years.