Woo hoo!

Yesterday was my last day teaching for the YEAR! I still have a number of students meetings and 12 reports to grade but formal meetings for my course are complete for the semester. Plus, I got a fellowship for the fall semester so it is over for 2008! Yay!

Off to celebrate (aka sleep) and get down to the business of that progress bar in the morn'...

Nobody puts DancingFish in Grading Jail...

The concept of grading jail is pretty much lost on me. Since my final on Thursday I have...

• Cleaned the house so we could have people over
• Hosted a lazy persons' holiday party (pizza, beer and Cranium around the Xmas Hibiscus)
• Drank too much at said soiree
• Went to a movie (Lars and the Real Girl is fantastic. Go see it if you can!)
• Sunday.....something happened here, but I don't really remember what....not grading, though...
• Oh yes, made gingerbread pancakes
• Tried to make bread for Xmas gifts, but had no eggs due to pancakes
• Went to the department holiday party
• Watched the Bears game
• Got a haircut
• Got a manicure
• Not finished grading my exams yet.

Final of Doom

• One of my students told me they'd see me at the Final of Doom. Is a cumulative final in an upper level course really that bad?
• One of my other students got into all their special professional schools they applied to. They now just have to choose which state to move to. Oh yeah, and get a B+ on my final in order to pass the course and graduate.
• Hmmmm, I thought I had more bullets than that...

Shameless

There is this student across the hall who has been arguing his grade on a final that has not happened yet for 25 minutes. The prof has stated 3 times that he cannot give anyone special consideration in this class of over 100 and that it is morally reprehensible to give some students special considerations and not others (outside of situations with extenuating circumstances). Student replies "I know what you are saying but..." The main issue seems to be that he has had other profs look at 'the progression' of grades on exams so there is no reason Dr. Across-the-Hall shouldn't do the same. Student doesn't understand that if you need 385 points for an A and you have 383, that you do not get an A. "But it is close and I have improved all semester!" retorts the student.
Of course, in this case, he really is talking about a A to B difference and the final hasn't happened yet. Why not just STUDY MORE for the unweighted final to make up those 2 damn points???? Maybe you could've learned something in 30 minutes rather than bug Dr. Across-the-Hall about bending the rules just for you. I know that there are stories like this at every university in every subject matter but it still bugs the heck out of me. While it would not make a difference in my grading, at this point, I just wish my students that really NEED those 2 extra point for their grade (it might mean they get to graduate on time) were as impassioned about it as this clueless sophomore pre-med.

At their mercy

I really hope my students aren't too upset about that 'no curve' thing. Tomorrow I have to administer my student evaluations. My feeling from conversations with others and, of course, the internets is that these are very important to department heads and administration for tenure decisions, but how important are they now? They don't mean anything in terms of TA assignments or funding in my department so I didn't bother much with my bad reviews last year (I agreed that I didn't seem 'knowledgeable about the subject'- the prof I was assisting routinely gave the TAs homework keys with wrong answers. There was no way ANYONE could have properly explained them!). But this year is different. I know that just having taught my own lecture course is supposed to look super fantastic on my CV but what if the ol' students skewer me on evaluations? Will they ever be asked about? Will it seem weird if reference letter writers don't reference my evaluations? Can you tell I watched too many Sex and the City reruns over the weekend by my string of questions? (For the record it was only like, 4 reruns) As far as I remember, I haven't seen evaluation statistics on any CVs of candidates or faculty members. Anybody else?


Note: Every word meter I use crashes. Bah! I am up to 1305 words on ZF Manuscript. 37% baby!

Bullet style!

• My students got their 3rd exam back today. They had looks of panic in their eyes when asked if I was going to be curving the course I replied a simple "No." I really see no reason to. My exam averages have been between 78 and 89. There are anywhere from 4-9 As on each exam and less than a handful of Ds and Fs. They still have the final to pull those Bs up to med-school-approved As anyway!
• V and I are running a 5k on Saturday. Today I did 3.25 miles on the treadmill in about 29 minutes. The cold should slow me down quite a bit but I think I will be able to finish with little trouble.
• Lookey! 21% completed on my second InaDWriMo project. After the Big Deal paper (which I haven't gone back to) and the Big Grant, this interesting little paper is a piece of cake to write. No word limits! No page limits! Methods! Results! There will be some tricky theoretical stuff to write in the intro but it is stuff I get excited about so even that should be...fun?!?
• As of today, I am back in the lab! Between teaching and needing a specific set-up that was being used by a more senior student, I have been doing next to nothing in the lab. Experiments will be run on Wednesday! Data will be collected! This is very good as it is going to be added to that ZF Manuscript that is currently being written....
• We have been married for 6 months as of today! Pizza to celebrate!

Everybody in Fur.

InaDWriMo: I am down to 9 pages instead of 13! And 1-2 of those might even be acceptable.

Tonight I got my first email from someone wanting to drop my class. This kid really shouldn't be doing this poorly. They could still salvage the grade if they put a lot of effort into it but are citing a heavy class load and I assume, want an A/B instead of a B/C or worse. It is a shame, they ask decent questions in class.

Anyway, pet pics! It seems all our pets either look crazy or like they should be in a Gap ad...

Crazy: Not that we encourage it! I was bundled up just because our house is freezing and V is head to toe in Bears gear dispite the fact that they were not actually playing this week.

Gap Ad:Crazy: This is the greatest freakin picture!Gap Ad(s): Even V got in on the fun!She is like Kate Moss Kitty. With a pen problem instead of a drug problem.

Great lecture week!

My super fun filled picture post is waiting till Blogger lets me upload pictures! Boo!

In other news, tomorrow is Blog Action Day. Everybody blog about the environment!

Work has been plugging along. This week I get to lecture about the topic most closely related to my own research and am thrilled. It will prove to be challenging because there are only 2 days devoted to the topic and I must pick out what to cover and not go into too much detail. The book we are using leaves much to be desired so this might be a prime time to highlight original research. A lot of my students do research in our department and have responded well to talking about data in class. They have issues with the bigger picture research questions though. Existing areas of research, conflicting data, or unresolved research problems just throw them for a loop. They want answers, not unresolved questions I guess.
I hope everyone is enjoying fall now that it finally has arrived!

Worst Class Ever!

I am preparing for the worst class ever tomorrow morning. I assigned a paper for the students to read. It is a difficult paper but I tried to define the terms in more general language so they would get the gist of it. They are not getting it. Not only that but they are getting confused early and giving up before even figuring out the point of the paper.
Of course, this only pertains to the less than half of the class that has looked at the assigned paper.
Web-based-learning-tool lets you track who and when people look at things! Who knew!?! It is like being a blogstalker* of your students homework habits. This feature makes me want to specifically call on the students who probably** didn't read the paper during our discussion tomorrow. Is that horrible? Do I care?
I should have assigned a summary of the paper or told them there was going to be a short quiz on it or something. Bah. At least I know to prepare more of a lecture on the paper to fill in all the blank stares....




*Hi blogstalker! Hope all is well!

**They could have had a friend print it out for them if they study together or something. Not looking at it is not a 100% guarantee they didn't read it.



UPDATE: Class actually went alright. There were a number of students who had read the paper despite not downloading it. The students that did read it had important and thoughtful comments. The rest had priceless 'oh shit' looks on their faces. We didn't make it through the entire reading so maybe more will have read it by the time we continue on Friday...

My mathematical mind

I've assigned my first set of homework problems. The first email I got from a student about it was very respectful and very relevant (a word could be interpreted two ways- my bad). The second came asking if we could meet today. It came 20 minutes after my office hours were over. hmph.
Ok fine, I will be in my office all day anyways. The third. Oh, the third. The third did not ask a question. The third was writing to inform me that the problem was written wrong because it didn't work correctly when they worked it out. The fourth was the student from the third saying there is another problem that I wrote wrong, based on their calculations.

Really? I admit that I am obviously not infallible. I messed up and didn't use as specific a word as I could have in a different problem and I totally get that. But writing two problems completely wrong? It didn't occur to you that you might be doing the problems wrong?
No? Not at all?

Of course not.

Whew!

It is over! It went well! Well enough at least! Thanks for the good lucks and encouragements! I've even already had a student email me asking for a reference from an example I used that is related to what she wants to study in grad school someday. How cool.




Oh, and the shoes ARE green (but are not the wedding shoes).

Listen to what you've got

In 12 short hours, I will be just about finishing up going over my syllabus in class and starting in on the topic of the semester. Now that I think about it- it is the actual FIRST class of the semester. 8am on Monday morning!
Grad students full on teaching classes doesn't happen every day around my department so I am very very thankful for the opportunity I have been given (and for the new faculty who negotiated a semester off to set up his lab).
The one condition was that my advisor must sit in on classes. He didn't mind because sitting in saves him the work of actually teaching it which seems to have been the other option. His presence makes me more nervous than the 30-or-so students though! And the chair of the department said he was planning on stopping by in the morning as well. Grrreeeeaaatttt!
The weirdest thing about the whole arrangement is that I have to explain why the advisor is there without having it undermine any confidence the students might have in me. That and I have to tell them to call me Ms. Fish. Which is weird. I am not Professor or Dr. and if it were a lab I would have them call me Dancing. It just doesn't seem best for this situation though and all parties queried agree that Ms. Fish is best so Ms. Fish it is.

Just now as I have been working on lectures for the entire weekend am I understanding why everyone keeps asking why I agreed to this. I mean, I knew it was a big time investment but damn, it is a BIG time investment. Hopefully as I get rolling with lectures, the learning curve will kick in and time per lecture will decrease. hehe he.

Today my break was to go shopping. I needed at least one pair of jeans that fit and more non-t-shirt tops. I think I picked out my first day outfit- grey slacks and either a button down or a nice v-neck knit shirt (ok, technically it is a t-shirt but not in the band t-shirt sort of way. No words or anything!). Don't want to go too overboard on the formal even if it is the first day. Totally wearing the awesome-est shoes I own though.

While I can distract myself with shoes and try to ignore my nerves, I just keep coming back to the thought that I really hope I do a good job and the students learn a lot.

Out of gas

I am back home for another 20 hours. Here are some more travel bullets...

• The conference was good. Tons of great work presented and lots of ideas to ponder! There were lots of white background ppts. I like the growing populatity of the black background. Also, typos piss me off.
• I got to meet my old advisor's baby for the first time. She is so ridiculously cute it is just, well, ridiculous.
• I put in my requisite time drinking/networking-- even closing down the hotel bar not once, but twice!
• There are really good contacts and possibly two invited talks on my drive back to PA from those (and other) nights at the bar.
• I was only really unfortunately socially awkward once- to a very good friend/colleague to my lab. It was right before I had to go talk to MAJOR people and my nerves got the best of me. Sometimes I just shouldn't talk.
• Apparently, it is about time I started looking for a postdoc. Crap. More on this soon.
• V came to do some collecting the first few days of our trip. Yay for spending time in the same state as your spouse!
• Although I am here for 20 hours, I am going into school tomorrow before my flights and long drive back to DO.
• We are in the home stretch of this research position. In about a month I will start teaching again. This fall I have been given the opportunity to have my own class. I get to write the syllabus, lectures, tests- everything! AND it is an upper level course. It is going to be a lot of work and I might be crazy for trying to pull it off but I think I can do a really good job. That was my big announcement.
• Here is a kitty that tried to run away when we were gone. She came back the next morning.
• I am exhausted.

Between a bullet and a target

• I taught my last class for the semester today. Yeah!!
• I had students sit outside the classroom door until they heard I was done teaching and then walk in just to get their tests back. Jackasses.
• I had a BOY KNITTING during my class today! That was actually pretty exciting. I think he was working on a brown scarf on needles that were less than 8s but that was all I could tell- he put it away before I could bug him about it. (I couldn't really ask him either because I don't know his name- I think it was the first time all semester he showed up).
• I saw an amazing woman defend her dissertation this afternoon. Congrats to the newest Dr. B! (the armwarmers for her did not get finished).
• I defend my dissertation proposal in 14 hours. I don't feel ready (but do I ever? uhhh, no.)
• I am exhusted already and haven't slept well since last week.
• I need to practice more in the morning.
• I don't know what to wear. I usually dress up really nice for things like this. Any excuse to wear cute skirts and shoes! I didn't shop for new clothes or shoes (too poor) so will have to make do with whatever I might find clean in the morning. It is too cold for skirts anyways. Usually I wear red or green for presentations. Green is my favorite and red is a powerful color. I made my PPT in red so both red and green are out for this one. Light blue or white I am thinking...
• Off to do more reading- Stay tuned!!!!