Kelly in Kansas

As the end of the semester approaches, contemplating the lessons students have learned is an easy one. Based on student performance throughout the semester, it's relatively easy to determine who is doing well and who thinks they still have all the time in the world and/or already know it all anyway. One student who called themselves stubborn has turned around her attitude; we'll see if performance follows. (Answering the question asked on an essay and/or exam is quite crucial here.)
Several students have worked hard to do well and to learn more. A few have atempted to game the system with varying results.

But what lessons has the professor learned? I've definitely had a truly "light bulb" moment regarding my control - or primarily my lack thereof - over whether or not students want to do well. I can provide them all the tools and assistance in the world short of doing it for them - and that's not doing them any favors in their pursuit of a college degree or in life in general. I've done better this semester at taking a step or two back and letting the chips fall where they may. I've been at this teaching thing since 1985 in some form or fashion (if we don't count playing school until 8th grade if that tells you anything). But, I fear I've discovered students only resent it if you try to help them more than they want it and/or feel they need it.

This is especially important given the sacred trinity of teaching, research, and service. I can better inform my teaching if I take more time to do research, including teaching-related research, and less time overwhelmed by the minutia that can quickly take over my day. Before I know it, all my best productive time is gone. I have done much better this academic year requiring students to use the CMS to correspond about class matters and only checking it once a course day. This is in contrast to feeling compelled to answer it as it comes in - which is obviously very much a misuse of time. It also keeps the email organized so that it's clear what course a student is referring to along with the context (ie related emails) being right there.

I've also balanced some department politics a bit better - primarily by not letting them intrude on my getting my job done. And at least one colleague who lives in a glass house and likes to throw stones had at least one lobbed right back. The biggest joy this year has been a new colleague whom has been everything I had hoped for and more both as a teacher and as a professional colleague. His being involved in tech and blogging (which is how I became aware of him despite our distinctly diverse topical areas of study) is an added plus.

As the semester is winding down, an even busier summer is winding up. As I've discussed before, TAH grants are wonderful things but they also ensure the summer flies by before I know it.

Now to get organized to get done what just has to be done by May 30:

Teaching
Writing
Planning Teaching
Writing
Research
Writing
Finish textbook ancillaries
Writing

Labels: colleagues, historical research, learning, semester, students, summer, TAH, writing

There is plenty to do but a feeling that it is all possible if I don't let myself get overwhelmed. There's still a week before one of my F2F classes meets to start the semester. I will put up some more material for them to prep for the first part of the semester. Seeing who has taken time to take a look and work on some of it enough to have questions will help me get to know my students a bit better before I see them the first time. I keep thinking of ways to get around the various issues perplexing students when they enroll in a class late. I don't want to hold the rest up but it's hard not to create extra work for yourself when students seem to think it is up to you to catch them up instead of their showing a bit more initiative - esp. with all of it online on the university's CMS site. (If I'm rambling a bit more than usual, it's because I'm thinking aloud.)

The best news right now is that my annual performance report that is due Tuesday is already submitted. I was able to get enough of it done before break despite the numerous distractions from the normal semester. This year I'll aim to get it done before I go on break and maybe just have to wait for the end-of-course evaluations.

One of the small breakthroughs I've had lately is to look at these evaluations as what they are - course evaluations - and not evaluations just of me. Some students love the technology throughout the classes while others are still struggling with it apparently unaware how much of it will govern their future work lives. I have a course release for an outside service responsibility for the next two semesters and am hoping that, unlike my last course release, I don't let the work on fewer classes just expand to still fill the normal time it takes to handle a 12-hour load.

I've been able to get quite a bit of Truman work done even if it's not as much as I'd like. And I can finally give up the hope of finishing all the big household rearrangement tasks (if I haven't used it since I moved in over 15 years ago, I can probably get rid of it or donate it to charity) and resign myself to just keep plugging away on them. At least the outside isn't calling as much given the weather although more leaves need gathered. (That's probably related to the immediate neighbors who haven't picked up any and they keep blowing this way. . .. )

Not meeting my first class until the second week is preferred to meeting it once right away (it's once a week) and then having a week off. There's not as much playing catch up with the students who add in between.

I've posted the graduate syllabus for the course on political cartoons for the semester with all of the detail on the assignments. All that is left is creating the unit folders and links in the CMS. But that's a task for late in the day or evening and not when I'm at my best writing.

I had been feeling guilty that I wasn't working til 11pm like I did back in my 20s and 30s but am discovering that I can actually get more done if I take some time off. And in talking to a colleague that is a prolific scholar, she said she always stops at 6pm (unless there's an immediate deadline for indexing or proofs) and chills out - watching tv reruns is a favorite. She says some of her best ideas come then when she is letting her scholarly brain rest. I remember my major professor saying my best ideas would come when I was walking on the beach (my first TT job was at the University of West Florida) and while I didn't quite believe him and did NOT spend enough time on the beach the year I was there, I did finish the dissertation.

So, this week I need to get in my regular pattern for the semester before the grant teacher institutes and travel starts in late February.

But I am now ensuring that I take Sundays to read the newspapers. I used to not let myself do that until late in the day but have decided that is a good reward for working so hard all week. Besides, I will be working later today anyway.

Labels: classes, CMS, colleagues, students, teaching, work, writing

Yesterday began the semester with a 3-hour meeting on MTSS. It was great seeing colleagues. We were disappointed, however, that the secondary team members who could answer our questions were not able to attend.

A few students who didn't take care of what they needed in November are now in panic mode since consequences are now quite clear.

Today, I'm finishing the online syllabi for the grad course on political cartoons and the 20th century diplomatic history course. Since it's a Monday course and we're out for the MLK holiday, that course won't meet in person for about 10 days.

There's a little male poodle at our local humane society. Fighting the impulse to go get him, I sponsored him via Petfinder. You can also find him through sekhs.org

Labels: classes, colleagues, meetings, MTSS, poodle, semester

I survived four days without email (okay, I checked before I left on Thursday morning and when I returned last night so maybe not quite 4 days). Stress level is noticeably down - especially after seeing colleagues at conference in New Orleans. And the mango daiquiris may have also been a contributing factor.

Now it's back to the real world.

Labels: colleagues, email, New Orleans, real world, stress, technology

We offered our current grant teachers the opportunity to attend the joint KS/MO NCHE meeting in Blue Springs. It was the caliber of a national meeting not only with an excellent schedule but keynotes by Sam Wineburg and Bill Brands.

Glenn Wiebe from ESSDACK beat me to the punch in calling Sam a stud. I thought everyone already knew that . . .

This is the first time since his March 2008 Journal of American History article on American heroes that I have heard Sam speak. He was his usual engaging self with the audience. It's clear he knows how to connect with whomever is his audience. Since most of our grant teachers took an online course on Historical Cognition centered around Sam's work last fall, it was even more meaningful them to see him live and in person.

Bill Brands is also an engaging speaker and keeps me interested in topics like Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Jackson that are normally beyond my 20th-century-heavy focus of interest. His forthcoming book on FDR should be especially interesting.

Both scholars are quite personable and enjoy speaking with teachers. It probably doesn't hurt that both started out life as teachers.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute had a presence at the conference and I was proud to see one of my former students and one of our MA grads through Project eHIKES names the Kansas History Teacher of the Year - congratulations, TJ!

I picked up a Colorado colleague whom I encouraged to attend downtown after he and his son arrived on Amtrak Thursday morning. I met up with them at the Liberty Memorial and then we met Elise at the National Archives and headed over with Reed and Diana to eat at my all-time favorite - Gates. We also got a meal in at On The Border and Bristol's downtown. On Saturday, we headed to Lawrence so Rich could show his son his alma mater. Then, I headed home to the farm to recharge. I'm noticing I'm not 25 anymore . . . if I could just keep getting more of the "calm" energy that is supposed to come with being 40+ . . .

Yesterday in my teaching methods class, we talked about historical thinking and Wineburg. I told students we would read some more work by him later and do a sample "think aloud". I explained it wasn't quite time to do that given our current involvement in developing lesson plans - they are already overwhelmed, in other words given that they are finishing up their first full blown lesson plan. We start by putting a lesson plan they find online into the template that seems to fit what many area schools use. It is an interesting challenging getting teacher candidates to start understanding what will really be expected of them in the professional world that goes so far beyond and is quite distinct from the primarily paper-and-pencil passive tests they have been taking throughout their student careers. Only after student teaching do they fully come to realize that there is a method to my madness.

Labels: Brands, colleagues, conferences, Kansas City, Lawrence, NCHE, Sam Wineburg, stud, students, Wineburg

It always seems to take until about the third week of classes for students to fully demonstrate that they realize the semester has indeed started. That's especially true when Labor Day shortens the second week.

We had enrollment the Friday before classes started on Monday. However, more than a few students waited until Monday to come to campus to handle diverse issues that could have much more easily been handled on Friday - especially if it meant attending class on Monday and/or arriving in class at the start time. It still amazes me that students will bang their way into a closed door instead of waiting until the door is opened for them. But I digress.

I always like to get a "feel" for my students before finalizing the semester's assignments and always reserve the right to tweak assignments to ensure that students fully understand what is expected AND that I've been as clears as possible in conveying those expectations. I continue to reiterate to them that earning an "A" does not mean that they "met the requirements". Instead, that means a "C" or average. I have used some of the explanatories that Liz Lawley has used over the years to try to more clearly express this to students. That goes along with explaining that grades are earned and not negotiated.

A large project is about to be put to bed and for that I will be more than thankful. It's been more stressful than it needs to be by design - especially given how much of it is out of our control. That's the nature of a group project. But, when it is out and available - hopefully within a year from now - it will have been well worth the various ensuing struggles. And, the best part is that I have gotten to know several colleagues much better and, as a result, have even more admiration for the work that they do. We do similar work as this project will attest but almost every one of us comes at it with a different mode of thought and/or approach. In other words, great minds think alike but also distinctly.

Labels: colleagues, fall semester, projects, students, teaching

This Chronicle article points to a not often recognized yet readily acknowledged fact of academic life - the fact that a significant number of academics do not play well with others and, more importantly, don't necessarily want to do so. This one took me a long time to figure out. Here's the essay author's take:

The Function of Dysfunction

An associate professor ponders the cause and effect of academic infighting

By NATHAN REESON [a pseudonym]

"I know something about academic infighting. After all, I was at Duke University when the English department famously imploded in the 1990s. The collapse was headline news in The New York Times. According to The Times, the department's decline was seen, in part, as the inevitable result of its attempt to buy its way to the top. You just can't shark up academic celebrities, the article observed, and expect them to get along. With so many international egos in one place, a blowup is bound to happen.

Since leaving Duke, I've discovered that you don't need world-class critics to have first-rate fireworks. Nobody in my current department would qualify as an academic superstar, but it's not unheard of for meetings to end with somebody stomping out and slamming a door. Even when everybody sticks around, things aren't always civil: Some faculty members silently pout. Others snort derisively and roll their eyes. And still others hurl insults and curses."

He goes on to offer the excuse that maybe academics fight because they like intellectual exchange. I would argue that those outside the ivory tower also like intellectual exchange but don't have to slam doors or roll their eyes (at least not in front of everyone) to make their point at a meeting.

It has more to do with having to earn the "first spot" in the seminar class in graduate school in which you have the "best right" answer. The problem is that, in real life, there is rarely one best answer and one needs to move forward. But, when academics go at it from another angle, there is often too much emphasis on process - my guess is to make sure that we've thought absolutely everything through. We do not, however, acknowledge that even if we think of every possible contingency, we can control the outcome. Some of us even try to control our research by determining the outcome of our scholarship and only looking at sources that confirm that outcome. (Someone forgot to tell me that one, too, early on. I thought I was supposed to look at all the sources.)

You can read the rest of the article here: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/06/2008063001c.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
(The line of formatting options is absent for some reason this morning.)

The glass half version of this story is that many of us do seek out those that play well with others, or at least those that play well with us . . .

Labels: academics, Chroncile, colleagues, ivory tower, professors

Good managers already know this. Tenure makes it even more difficult, however. From Cliopatria:

The No Asshole Rule

Abridged and Cross-posted from Blog Them Out of the Stone Age

Over vacation I read a book I bought earlier this year: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't, by Robert I. Sutton. I'd picked it up strictly on the basis of the eye-catching title, the fact that the author was an apparently well respected professor of management science at Stanford University, and a couple of paragraphs from the introduction:

I first heard of "the no asshole" rule more than fifteen years ago, during a faculty meeting at Stanford University. Our small department was a remarkably supportive and collegial place to work, especially compared to the petty but relentless nastiness that pervades much of academic life. On that particular day, our chairman Warren Hausman was leading a discussion about who we ought to hire as a new faculty member.

One of my colleagues proposed that we hire a renowned researcher from another school, which provoked another to say, "Listen, I don't care if that guy won the Nobel Prize. . . . I just don't want any assholes ruining our group." We all had a good laugh, but then we started talking in earnest about how to keep demeaning and arrogant jerks out of the group. From that moment on, when discussing whether to hire faculty, it was legitimate for any of us to question the decision by asking, "The candidate seems smart, but would this hire violate our no asshole rule?" And it made the department a better place.

I found this passage arresting because it spoke to my own profession, academe. The book as a whole, however, focuses on the business world -- a world in which, to be sure, I was immersed full time for several years between my undergraduate and graduate studies, to say nothing of many part-time jobs during high school and college.

Sutton's basic thesis is that the presence in a given organization of even a few assholes can poison its culture and easily cost the organization several hundred thousand dollars a year: because of employees who get fed up with the asshole and quit, thereby obliging the organization to pay the cost of hiring and training replacements; reduced productivity on the part of employees who remain; the cost of the extra time managers must devote to supervising the asshole, doing damage control, etc.; the cost of dealing with sexual discrimination and harassment complaints; and the cost incurred when assholes damage the culture to the point where employees are no longer willing to "go the extra mile" for the organization -- what Sutton calls "discretionary investment."

The trouble is, most organizations do not really perceive these costs. As Sutton's opening vignette suggests, in academe an asshole is tolerated because she or he is considered a "star" who brings prestige to a given department: the Nobel laureate his department rejected was undoubtedly courted assiduously by many others. In business an asshole is tolerated because she or he generates a lot of revenue. And of course, many assholes of rather ordinary ability are tolerated simply because too many of us are conflict averse and have no idea how to confront an asshole -- particularly since many assholes actually revel in personal conflict.

We know assholes when we see them, but Sutton proposes two useful tests to determine whether someone is acting like an asshole:

Test One: After talking to the alleged asshole, does the "target" feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him or herself?

Test Two: Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those who are more powerful?

Nobody likes an asshole. But as Sutton's book documents, too many business organizations lack effective policies for dealing with assholes. (The challenge is especially difficult in academic organizations, where assholes are, for the most part, bomb proof because of the lifetime job security that is tenure.) Yet solutions to the workplace asshole problem do exist. It's a matter of whether an organization is willing to face th

e problem and take determined steps to address it.

For more on the No Asshole Rule, see this brief article.

Labels: academe, bullies, colleagues, collegiality, tenure