Kelly in Kansas

This semester really does seem to have gone faster than any other.

I am finding Facebook and Twitter more engaging than blogging given that I want to have interaction with others and not just talk to myself. This has been more the personal blog while my technology interests tend to end up on my Typepad blog. I've noticed some people integrating their blog/s with Facebook and Twitter so I will eventually end up doing that - or at least that's the most likely outcome of my personal tech integration.

I have almost consolidated my desktop and old laptop to my new dockable laptop. Still need to go back and get some "My Documents" that didn't make it over and get one login I didn't get written down. But I haven't unhooked the desktop totally so it shouldn't take too much. I am still surprised at how easily the cable internet router switched over to the new system. But I am still perplexed why, even after rebooting, the new Vista laptop appeared not to connect to the XP network yet when I went back to try to make it happen, I discovered I was indeed connected.

Outside the house, the Alltel broadband card is simply indispensable.

And I'm getting to know my Blackberry Storm. I jumped from a basic Motorola flip phone right to the top. I was simply too cheap to lay out $500 and then $400 and then $300 for a phone. But getting my parents the Blackberry Storm sold me and even though mine was about $200 since there were no family members to give a free one to.

It's the usual end of the semester grading and finals. I thought we were getting out early but it appears everyone else is out even earlier. Our summer activities start May 30 so I'm sure this summer will also go fast.

Labels: Blackberry Storm, Facebook, semester, Twitter, Vista

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

Winter is back and the semester is rolling. I'll meet students teachers who are out in the field on campus this week. And grant writing is going on in earnest as the deadline approaches in early March. I have a couple of fun outings planned for later today - seeing old friends and new friends.

Spending more than a night or two earlier in the week at the farm was great therapy to get my head on straight for the semester. I kept the fire going and did some cooking, too. The deer were everywhere most days and, of course, the armadillos was back out and about at night when no one was around to help shoot it.

I have a feeling that this semester will go even faster than last semester.

There are two meetings in DC (one includes Baltimore), a conference in Seattle, and a trip to Albuquerque. And of course, I can't go to Albuquerque without going to Santa Fe. Then, summer brings Boston and other Kansas towns. All in all, engaging opportunities and seeing old friends/colleagues and the opportunity to meet new ones.

I still keep trying to figure out how to get it all done. I think an assistant might help but that is only a fantasy.

Labels: semester, winter

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

We experienced some light snow and freezing rain yesterday - the bulk of the precipitation went north of us. Luckily, the timing is good and won't deter my travel progress the rest of the week.

This is always the time of the semester when it seems as if there is infinity left to deal with in regard to details. I wish the students knew that professors appreciate the endings (and beginnings) as much as they do.

Labels: semester, snow

ADM says it all.

Labels: academic achievement, ADM, college, semester, students

What do you (mostly) use your office for?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Study of Student Entitlement. The SHOCKING Results.


'Entitled' students expect good marks
by Shannon Proudfoot
Canwest News Service

Most university students believe that if they're "trying hard," a professor should reconsider their grade. One-third say that if they attend most of the classes for a course, they deserve at least a B, while almost one-quarter "think poorly" of professors who don't reply to e-mails the same day they're sent.

Those are among the revelations in a newly published study examining students' sense of academic entitlement, or the mentality that enrolling in post-secondary education is akin to shopping in a store where the customer is always right.

The study asked approximately 400 undergraduates aged 18 to 25 whether they agreed with these statements:

* If I have explained to my professor that I am trying hard, I think he/she should give me some consideration with respect to my course grade - 66.2 per cent agree

* If I have completed most of the reading for a class, I deserve a B in that course - 40.7 per cent

* If I have attended most of the classes for a course, I deserve at least a grade of B - 34.1 per cent

* Teachers often give me lower grades than I deserve on paper assignments - 31.5 per cent

* Professors who won’t let me take my exams at another time because of my personal plans (e.g. a vacation) are too strict - 29.9 per cent

* A professor should be willing to lend me his/her course notes if I ask for them - 24.8 per cent

* I would think poorly of a professor who didn’t respond the same day to an e-mail I sent - 23.5 per cent

* Professors have no right to be annoyed with me if I tend to come late to class or tend to leave early - 16.8 per cent

* A professor should not be annoyed with me if I receive an important call during class - 16.5 per cent

* A professor should be willing to meet with me at a time that works best for me, even if inconvenient for the professor - 11.2 per cent.

Labels: semester, students, teaching

The students who presented yesterday all continued to improve and are almost ready for student teaching next semester.

I still find it interesting that when you email students two weeks ahead of time suggesting their options for what courses to take in the upcoming semester, they still wait until a few hours before their enrollment windows open to check to see if they can come by to talk to you more. (Hint: It's time to start making some of these decisions on your own. I'll be glad to put together your entire schedule but you won't like that it includes courses before 10 am . . . . :-) .) I wish there were way to help them understand that they are actually adults when they are in college and responsibilities come along with the freedoms. Because of administrative guidelines, I do the "here's what I suggest you take at a minimum" (ie keeping in mind prerequisites - especially when they affect a string of more than 2 years of courses and, almost as important, taking required courses before options/choices from larger groups so you don't get yourself in a corner. And, while I clearly understand we can't "make them" (signatures on a piece of paper before computers didn't guarantee that either), it's their responsibility to understand that they can easily prolong their stay at the university if they choose not to. We know their brains aren't always fully developed on the "long-term" scale until they are past college age (that's actual brain research, BTW) but there is a time for them to learn consequences if they haven't yet (and most have).

It was winter cold yesterday. I'm almost ready for that but would like a few more fall days first.

Labels: advisement, presentations, semester, students

Grades . . . are . . . DONE . . .

Labels: grades, semester, students

It's another beautiful day. We're getting some cool evenings and mornings - we thought maybe we had missed out those with it staying cold so long into the spring. But it looks like there will be some easy into summer heat. Given that fall and spring are my favorite seasons - but I really do like the best of all four seasons - this is good news.

Molly is getting more settled in. She's eating better and enjoying romping in her yard. I'm still getting used to the contrast of a male dog compelled to mark and a female dog who just takes care of business a few times a day.

I went out with a friend last night and had fun, including a trek to Target - always a dangerous thing for at least one credit card during each visit. I found Molly a new dog bed that is all her own. I will spread out Shadow's old ones for back-up and donate extras to the humane society. I'll also donate the dog "coats" that are too big for her to them. I did buy her one sale coat just so we have one on hand when needed. We go for utility more than cuteness and only put her in a coat when necessary. If all goes as planned, she will get her first bath tonight.

The yard is drying out a bit more but the city should be here this week to work on the dumped in area that is blocking drainage behind our houses.

Neighbor Mark was back yesterday to mow. He will continue to be missed even though he is just across town. My newer neighbor on the other side just bought a riding lawnmower - it's just too heavy to get much into my yard given the wet ground.

I have a bit of grading to finish up before the semester is done. My thesis workload has decreased given that a student chose to vent publicly on Facebook. Lessons learned for him.

I also have some grant reviewing to do but have through tomorrow to get that done and the agency understands that we've be in heavy school mode since they asked me to participate.

If all works as planned, Molly and I will be at the lake next weekend and visit with Uncle Bill when he comes through Springfield. His moving us away from Christmas makes the scheduling much more problematic for 5 adults.

Labels: dog adoption, Facebook, grades, grants, Molly, mowing, semester, students, yard

Trips to Baltimore (gorgeous spring in bloom) and Dallas went well. Getting from Balt. to Dallas was hell, however. A side stop in Omaha (NOT on the route) because of t-storms and running out of fuel. Missed connection but made next flight. Plane at gate and additional four hours because of line of storms. Planes were coming in right and left at Love field when I arrived - and this was at midnight. Thank goodness major prof brought Mexican food home from the dinner I missed and is a night owl who didn't mind picking me up late.

It was fun being recognized as one of UNT's outstanding alumni and seeing my grad professors that haven't retired. Seeing Bob Caro talk about his work on LBJ was inspiring as well the talk on Lady Bird by Jan Russell. Caro walks across Central Park to work every morning - what a way to start the day!

The Denton Benefit League ball was also a great time had by all.

But I never been so glad to be home in my life.

Today's the last regular (non-test) day of my in-person Modern America class and my last set of assignments for the online class. Student teacher visits are complete - just reports to finish.

A cardinal is hanging out in the branches in front of my office window - a truly wonderful site of nature. Need to get out and mow before we have 3 more days of rain . . . .at least it's good exercise.

Labels: airplanes, cardinal, classes, Denton, semester, teaching, travel, UNT

Enrollment was last Wednesday and classes started on Thursday with a day off for MLK Day yesterday. That means I see my first F2F students on Monday. This morning I woke up ready to teach - all kinds of ideas swirling in my head about how to approach the new semester. I have a course release to work on a book project and am doing the usual teaching one class online, Modern America, 1912-41, and supervising student teachers. The latter varies from 3 students in nearby towns to 15 that may be spread around 250 miles in two directions. (I don't mind being dragged to Kansas City, though . . . )

My F2F class is Modern America, 1941-1968. I took a different approach to the narrative text and made it optional since they can also utilize a survey text from a previous class to get the background. Hopefully that means less complaining about textbook costs - which I find difficult given that if I require a text, they use it and are tested on it. Winkler's Homefront USA from Harlan Davidson, a nice compact discussion of the topic, is one of the other texts along with Lizabeth Cohen's Consumer's Republic. It's my first time using Cohen and I've already found the graduate student notes that summarize it in 3 pages that shows up on the first page of a Google search. Wonder how long it will take students to find that. But, forewarned is forearmed.

Another facet of the class will be studying Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I think it's important that students read some of the literature of the period so that they better understand it. in the past, I've used Peyton Place for this class but it's not longer available for the last publisher and I don't want to encourage the used book market. Plus, I can still show the Peyton Place film and accomplish some of the same results in student learning. What always amazed me about using Peyton Place was how the men enjoyed reading it. And, of course, a "banned book" is such a foreign concept in today's culture.

The anniversary of the publication of On the Road was one motivation to use it along with my visiting a Kerouac exhibit in Lowell, MA, when we had teachers there to tour the mills last summer. Getting to view the scroll of On the Road was interesting as well as the modern exhibit interpreting his life. This was in contrast to the Lowell exhibits that are in need of updating once they get more funding - the machinery was intriguing but not anything I hadn't seen before.

I found a book in our university library about the "women in black" - the females who have often been overlooked in regard to their contribution to the Beats - not only psychologically and physically supporting the men when they weren't doing so for each other but their actual artistic contributions. So it should be a fun exploration for all of us.

One of the first things students will do is examine and debate the causes of World War II. That will be a good way to review how we arrived in 1941. And, of course, it's obvious to highlight the drama surrounding Pearl Harbor with some comparisons to what our intelligence services could tell us then and how we still have some of the same coordination problems in this century. The next challenge is how to "review" the New Deal without getting lost in that massive topic while emphasizing that World War II ended the Great Depression and not the New Deal. Taking a close look at FDR and Eleanor will also be fun.

The online Modern America, 1912-41, class will focus first on Woodrow Wilson as a person and as a president before we jump into World War I. In that course, students are reading Willa Cather's One of Ours. Cather spent a great deal of time just across our northern border - that's the Nebrasks she describes in her book and much of it isn't that different in psyche than the Kansas we know down here except that we are closer to larger population centers - especially in modern times.

Another change I made this semester is just having the graduate students write the analytical papers over the Major Problems texts from Houghton Mifflin. By confining it to that group, I can expect a higher level of achievement given that they are supposed to be surrounding by historiography and not just being introduced to it.

Here we go . . . . .

Labels: classes, Kansas, Kerouac, learning, Modern America, Nebraska, on the road, One of Ours, semester, students, teaching, Willa Cather

Starting a new semester, no matter how much pre-planning, is always a bit hectic. It's good to have students back around and am looking forward to working with them on learning more about Modern America and about teaching history in the schools.

And, we even had a light dusting of snow last night.

Labels: semester, students, teaching

I'm almost ready for the new semester to start but have spent a few days at the farm "building my base".

It's still difficult without Shadow but I did a lot of things today that would have been harder with him here given all the back and forth and his propensity to take off. I am quite frustrated I can't get the 4wheeler to start. Dad put in a new battery at Thanksgiving and I didn't think about seeing if I could get it to start while he was here given that I've never had trouble before. So although I couldn't get to all the brush/downed wood that I wanted to but I DID get a lot of exercise.

The sunsets yesterday and today were just gorgeous and I was in the perfect spot to watch them and watch the fire. I'm also gradually (and finally) making headway on cleaning the garage.

Tomorrow is enrollment and there are numerous appointments over the next few days. The hotel site was finally straightened out for the OAH so I will be in New York right at a week in late March - I'm also going to the AERA meeting. The week before that is spring break and I'm thinking about going out west. Discovering that the Southwest Social Science Association meeting is in Vegas right before our break (I could go and not miss class) is a bonus - not only in timing but because it's also on the way to where I'm thinking of going for vacation out west!

I can't believe it's 2008!

Labels: 2008, farm, fire, semester, sunset

Thanks to Profgrrrrl:

Thursday, August 30, 2007
I've been saving this gem for a rainy day.

Dear Ms. Grrrrl,

I am registered in your Complexification for Future Leaders course, but did not attend class today. I want to apologize. Let me explain. I drove to campus and then could not find parking, no matter how much I hoped or prayed. At 12:30, when class was starting, I gave up and drove home. I had been looking for at least 10 minutes and no one left the lot or anything during that time. Then I thought about walking, but when I looked outside the sky seemed gray. I thought it best to not take any chances.

Please excuse my absence.

Sincerely,
Staydry Sally

Dear. Sally,

Thanks so much for your note. I'm actually relieved that you chose to not attend class today when you found parking to be a challenge and then feared the weather too inclement to walk. It actually wasn't bad weather at all -- I should know, because I walked 20 min to the classroom building and 20 minutes back in blazing sunshine. There were a few white fluffy clouds, but nothing resembling rain. Anyway, I digress. I am glad you made this excuse because it means that certainly you will excuse me when I neglect to show up for class because of the rain --- yes, that pesky 20 minute walk from my office could mean that I'd get quite wet on the way to class. I suppose I could drive the 1.5 miles from my office to the classroom, but as you already noted, parking is hard to come by here. Even for faculty.

In the future, may I suggest using the campus valet service? From what I hear, they'll even escort you from curb to door with a huge umbrella! And detail your car while you attend your lecture!

Absolutely consider your absence excused. And feel free to not come in excessive wind (messes the hair) or heat (wouldn't want you to perspire), if you have cramps, if you have a blister on your foot, if your best friend is in town visiting, or any other situation in which you might experience a tiny bit of discomfort or inconvenience. I'll excuse you for all of these absences. Of course I will. As I'm sure you'll excuse me when I deduct from your grade for them, per the policy on the syllabus.

Love & long walks,
Dr. Profgrrrrl

Labels: absences, campus, parking, semester, students

Things finally clicked today so that, while there are many impending deadlines, they appear to be manageable. In fact, most will be fun tasks to complete. I'm also gradually making progress on the yard - at least the growth should start slowing a bit as the side effect of all the recent heat.

Meetings are on tap for tomorrow. Then I should feel on top of the new teaching semester.

Labels: deadlines, semester, work