Kelly in Kansas

Students arrive back on campus officially today. We will be more populated tomorrow, however, given that we have more MWF than TTh students given our commuter campus. The weather is a bit iffy this morning but not as bad as it can be. Given that we had no weather-related closings in December, I'm afraid of what January and February holds. Hopefully, students will try to stay safe. With all of our online technology, professors no longer face falling "way behind" unless it is there choice to do so. That is in most cases. I know that when it happens with my teaching methods class at the exact wrong time, we spend a few weeks catching up if it is in the spring semester. With the preponderance of larger projects in that class, missing class because of weather at the end of the semester is less problematic.

We have two grad students who tackled world history head-on. At least one is so energetic that they wanted to switch sections this semester. We tried to advise them that they still had a lot to do to revise what they had only done once and know that later this semester they will be grateful. We are lucky this year since not every year do we have such capable graduate students.

My department chair has given me my assignments of what we need to get done this semester. He is great at delegating and feeling confident that it will all work out. I realize now how much I let other people were glad to let me take all of the responsibility for endeavors that were really supposed to be collectively in support of students instead of an over-reliance on one person to hold up the requirements even when they remained static over the course of several years or even over a decade. It goes back to that concept that you teach people how to treat you. My new chair appreciates and, more importantly, understands how much I do to document how I have helped and supported students in their progress through their degrees and in providing the mechanisms for them to do so. Teacher education programs in the liberal arts are quite a different beast than the BA degree. In the long run it will work better for all of us as students can no longer continue to work their way around requirements that actually do prepare them for what they face ahead. Sometimes they do not realize we are trying to do what is best for them to help them succeed.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to make it through the anniversaries between now and March 4.

Labels: students

With a late Thanksgiving, the end of the semester is even closer. I was able to catch up on grading before the holiday. That was a wonderful feeling. Yesterday, I was able to not only download one class of assignments that had been turned in when they returned (they had time to do it BEFORE the holiday! ;-) )and even get it graded. Today, I just have to post the grades and return the papers with the "tracked changes". I also took care of some administrative paperwork I will follow up on with the department chair this afternoon. We have our annual division meeting with the provost and president and it should be interesting given all that has happened in the last year.

I'll do some more grading in my other classes this afternoon. And, hopefully, I can also get a head start on two other deadlines - getting courses ready for next semester and my annual performance report. I won't sweat the latter as much as usual given that last spring meant a huge downturn given my dealing with losing Mom. I am going to cut myself some slack. Plus, I doubt we get any raises for performance anyway.

I'm getting fired up about some writing projects and also a new curriculum consulting project. I love designing curriculum - sometimes even more than implementing it. And incorporating primary sources, flexibility, ELL strategies, and assessments will be fun - especially working with the person asking me to submit the proposal. Plus, I will spend quite a bit of the holiday break catching up on other writing projects I've had my eye on.

Hope your week is off to a good start.

Labels: curriculum, grading, performance reports, students

I do feel like I have joined a secret club no one told me about and I am finding out there are a lot of members - many of whom are quite willing to help. What frustrates me most is that this is a process and is something that will never truly be over. I will always miss my Mom.

Labels: back to school, death, family, funeral, Mom, student teaching, students

As someone who regularly teaches the courses that prepare students for the real world. And it's a world with a constantly changing and often political target, I heartily agree with this.

Labels: course evaluations, students

Monday has arrived again and we're already halfway through the semester. I've revised our department's report for both of our national accreditation agencies but still managed to stay ahead on the rest of my responsibilities and I think I'm still a bit in shock given that each of those reports by itself is enough to derail a semester or even an academic year. Now, if there were only a way to make clear to students all the tasks we professors undertake outside the classroom to make their educations possible. 

Our department is in transition from the "old guard" to the "new guard" and the evolutions in policy that better serve the students we have now that come with this transitions. In some cases, the "old guard" preferred personal guidance to policy guidance but, as the times change, it's become more clear that we need more policy given that it can be more consistently applied to every student in a particular program. 


The program I'm responsible for "administering" or "overseeing" is much more definitely guided by state and federal mandates, even though either can change at any time. It's an interesting contrast to other programs in the department that are either much more "wide open" or answer to another entity on campus that may or may not have clearly delineated policies. No matter what the parameters are that were are given as professors who do much more than teach every day, we do our best to keep students at the forefront of what we are doing given that, in these days of economic challenge, they literally are not only our bread but also our butter. Now, to help students better understand how much we do for them each and every day.

Labels: accreditation, assessment, new guard, old guard, programs, state programs, students, transition

This article bears repeating given today's real circumstances at most colleges and universities across the country. We're lucky that our upper administration successfully planned ahead and we haven't had to deal with furloughs or non-renewals. So far, we're just not filling all the spaces people leave behind. And while we will do our best to meet students needs, they will have to deal with more financial realities - not taking classes they don't need and following advisement to take required classes when available instead of putting them off until it's too late.

Luckily, we have an upbeat mood on campus and that's always a good way to start the semester.

Labels: Chronicle, finances, professors, reality, students

Friedman - Teacher, Can We Leave Now?

This NYT article explains the importance of our continuing role in the War on Terror - the spread of ideas. From a less than conservative columnist, no less. 

I confess, I find it hard to come to Afghanistan and not ask: Why are we here? Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone. And if its leaders come back, well, that’s why God created cruise missiles.

But every time I start writing that column, something stills my hand. This week it was something very powerful. I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of “Three Cups of Tea,” open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, “Let’s just get out of here.”

Indeed, Mortenson’s efforts remind us what the essence of the “war on terrorism” is about. It’s about the war of ideas within Islam — a war between religious zealots who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam untouched by modernity and isolated from other faiths, with its women disempowered, and those who want to embrace modernity, open Islam to new ideas and empower Muslim women as much as men. America’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were, in part, an effort to create the space for the Muslim progressives to fight and win so that the real engine of change, something that takes nine months and 21 years to produce — a new generation — can be educated and raised differently.

Labels: Afghanistan, democracy, Friedman, New York Times, schools, students, Thomas Friedman

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

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Venting to her friends on Facebook one night, a religion professor at Dartmouth College updated her profile to say that she had just consulted an online encyclopedia entry on "modernity" to prepare for her class the next day.

"I feel like such a fraud," she wrote on her profile. "Do you think dartmouth parents would be upset about paying $40,000 a year for their children to go here if they knew that certain professors were looking up stuff on Wikipedia and asking for advice from their Facebook friends on the night before the lecture?"

Her profile featured other comments as well, including a dig at her colleagues: "Some day, when i am chair, we're all going to JOG IN PLACE throughout the meeting. this should knock out at least half of the faculty within 10 minutes (especially the blowhards) & then the meeting can be ended in a timely manner."

Ouch.

I arrived on Facebook courtesy of recent graduates who needed to keep in touch regarding teaching jobs and, quite possibly, because I was in their address book and they sent out "friend" invitations to everyone there, including old professors like me.

I've also experienced a student using the notes in Facebook as a "rate my professor" venting exercise even though he wasn't even my student but was just passing on what he had "heard". Another student brought it to my attention which meant action had to be taken - esp. when the student pointed out that this was embarrassing to everyone at the university, not just this student.

Most people of "my generation" are on Facebook to keep an eye on their teenage children and others become quite addicted when they find everyone they went to high school with. I found out the hard way that I don't want to know where everyone (all 232 of them) I went to high school with ended up. For me, it's been a less formal version of LinkedIn.

I actually prefer LinkedIn but no one seems to use it nearly as much as they do Facebook.

But I like the sharing features on other sites such as the New York Times that more commonly link to Facebook than to LinkedIn.

The primary rule that the author of this article didn't point out is that it's best to let your student friend you and not inappropriately friend them. And, even with graduate students I would advise caution given that that particular relationship can change in character over time - especially if the grad student gets distracted by their real life or doesn't pursue a research topic in the same way the professor would like them to do.

All in all, it pays to be cautious.

Labels: CHE, Facebook, Linked In, online networking, professors, students, Web 2.0

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

This is going to be an interesting Christmas break - busy getting ready for two conferences; attend two conferences; then 6 days before returning to campus. Online students anxious to start in the meantime. Correction - know what the course is all about, not actually start turning in work. :-)

The conferences will be fun - both in New York City and lots of friends will be there (or already there since they live there). Looks like we'll have decent weather for the flight up. That's always a good thing.

Not sure how much I should say here about students who procrastinate and then report you to the dean when you don't "hop to it" during the last two hours of the semester when you are attending a funeral and helping out the family. I might need to write a "Dear Stu" letter a la profgrrrrl - "Dear Stu - You missed a required course meeting despite four reminders; you asked another prof to write you an excuse instead of responding to my after the fact reminder email of what else you needed to do to finish the course; you ignored an additional email. Then, when you realize you have been issued an "Incomplete" since your work is indeed, incomplete, you not only complain to the dean but call my parent's house. My parents are retired and don't actually have anything to do with my work anyway. I hope when you are in charge of teaching next semester that you will have students who procrastinate less."

That feels better. It is the Christmas season, after all.

I did some cooking (macaroni and cheese not out of the box) and baking (grandmother's cinnamon bread - the storemade cinnamon bread just isn't the same!) and so now it's finishing wrapping presents, research, and writing.

Labels: Christmas, students

ADM says it all.

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

Here's something I'll share with students. It follows along advice in earlier years not to go to the liquor store in the town they are student teaching in. Yes, it will probably be some parent there that "reports" them to the school board but it's best not to push the envelope of community expectations at that stage of the game. It's just reality, folks.

And, I'm afraid, many of our students really do think Facebook and Myspace are private spaces just for their friends and "cute" members of the opposite sex. They are much more and only a window opening into the larger Web 2.0 world that connects us all.

Here's the Chronicle article:

Judge Sides With University Against Student-Teacher With 'Drunken Pirate' Photo
A federal judge has ruled against a former student who sued Millersville University of Pennsylvania for denying her a degree in education in connection with an online photo of her drinking, The Washington Post reported.

The former student, Stacy Snyder, sued Millersville in 2007. A year before, the nearby high school where Ms. Snyder was student-teaching had barred her from its campus days before the end of her semester-long assignment. Prior evaluations had criticized her competence and professionalism in the classroom, the legal decision says, but the school’s discovery of a photograph of Ms. Snyder on MySpace — with the caption “drunken pirate” and a note alluding to her strained relationship with her supervising teacher — precipitated the decision to end her assignment.

That prevented Millersville from awarding Ms. Snyder a bachelor’s degree in education. Instead, the university reclassified some academic credits and gave her a degree in English, a decision she appealed and lost. When she sued, alleging violations of her free-speech and due-process rights, she sought the degree in education.

Labels: Facebook, MySpace, student teaching, 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

I'm still settling in to "losing" the student headaches for the semester. If only they had listened to us earlier in the semester, everyone could have been spared some angst. But I guess that is a normal part of the process - students have to learn in their own ways about the realities of life and in their own timeframe - even if you could have saved them months of time.

I'm headed to a lecture presentation this evening that should be fun - both the presentation and the crowd and then will be doing some research prep for our grants at the National Archives. And that is always fun!

Labels: fall semester, NARA-KC, students

This week again started off with some challenges but they're starting to pile so high that I know it can only get better.

My methods students did a great job working on lesson plans and discussing NCLB yesterday after we watched the Frontline episode on Testing our Schools.

Today I'm off to see student teachers. Hopefully before the rain really starts . . .

Labels: NCLB, student teachers, students, testing

I hit the proverbial wall with work stresses yesterday and I'm finally learning, now that I'm in my 40s, that I need to pay more attention when that happens if I don't want to pay much more dearly with my health later. I primarily need to start learning to say no. So many other academics are able to protect their intended course of action and I need to keep improving those particular skills instead of being pulled into things I don't really want to do in the first place and, furthermore, don't do anything to advance either my career or the checks arriving in the mail. I'm more than productive and need to preserve my own sanity.

Student teacher observations and classes went well yesterday. Now for the inevitable grading.

Labels: projects, stress, students, wall

I arrived at the farm today to find one less armadillo alive. That is definitely a good thing considering how much landscape damage they are doing.

It was a beautiful evening out here. I can't believe we're still getting 80 degree daytime weather. But the good news is that it shouldn't rain except for the day we arrive for the Southern History Association meeting in New Orleans later this week.

Last week was a stressful one - but mainly due to situations beyond my control. I just need to keep repeating that there will always be things I can't keep in line and I need to keep practicing "let it go, let it go". Mainly, I need to distract myself when my negative thoughts start swirling around and going deeper and deeper.

I'll start seeing student teachers this week and that is usually a great validation of all the hard work that has been put in to getting to that point for students - especially when they are student teaching for former students that are doing quite well.

Labels: armadillo, farm, students

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