Summer Semester

Our university just switched to a trimester approach - and we are in our transitional phase. Which means I handed grades in last Tuesday for spring semester and today I started teaching summer semester.

Is that insane, or what? I mean, seriously, who is ready for their next semester so quickly?

But in other news, I got tenure and promotion, so I am not complaining all that much. In fact, I am not really complaining at all, but wonder at the reasoning behind this scheduling.

Literature Review

I may just stop assigning literature reviews because every time I read them the students are plagiarizing. Do they not understand that if they are reviewing someone else's work that there MUST be some citing of the work somewhere? That turning in an assignment without a bibliography is completely UNACCEPTABLE?

What are they teaching them in those required writing courses? Or do they think those skills only belong in that four month semester?

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Conference

I went to a teaching and learning conference last week. I spent four days away from my family to have intellectual intercourse. My university paid for this trip in these very lean times. The conference was about civic engagement in political science courses and political scientists presented ideas about civic engagement assignments. It was great. At one point a woman presented an assignment that was essentially a simulation. I do simulations all the time, they are great for learning for students. And generally, the kids love them. But, I argued at the conference, they are not civic engagement. If the student has not left the classroom, then the student has not done civic engagement. My raising this offended the woman and she didn't speak again.

Today I was chatting with some friends about this. I was told that I wasn't influencing people or winning friends and that I take stuff too seriously.

I've been mulling this over. I was at a conference, again, intellectual intercourse. First of all, there should be nothing offensive in an intellectual conversation about how to teach. We should all bring our best game and then have a great argument about it. If indeed it is the case that we can achieve civic engagement without leaving the classroom, prove it to me. I am skeptical enough to think that even my own position could be wrong. Second of all, the woman's response to me was, "I knew someone would say that." Really? If so, you have brilliantly anticipated a question and you should have a good answer. Not a pout for the next two days, but a good answer. Oh, and since I am really into intellectual intercourse, if you were persuasive, I'd buy it.

I was at a conference. I was taking four days of my life to learn something. Don't waste my time with crap. And when I call you on it, if I am wrong, tell me how I am wrong. Let's not all insult each other with schmoozing.

Right?

Conference

Tomorrow I head out to what will probably be my last conference for a while. As budgets are tight, travel will be at a premium. Thus, I will be staying home. For the past 10 years, I have gone to 2 conferences (at least) a year, so this will be a new era in the travel life of the Duchess.

And what, you might ask, is my last conference. And the answer is, a teaching and learning conference. I plan to sit in my room most of the time, lonely and bored. But I will survive, learn something, and come home on Sunday and give my baby a big kiss. Hopefully I will have internet connection and will pay attention to the world while in Baltimore.

Baltimore - seriously, couldn't my last conference have been in Savannah, GA? It is beautiful there.

Peer Review

I am supposed to do a peer review assignment for a class I'm taking on how to make my classes better. So a pal and I met at the Starbuck's to do the peer review. We both thought each other's class was fabulous.

Anything wrong with this method? smile.

Grading Fog

I am in a grading fog. When I come out of it, I will post again.

Election Night

I just spent some time with my students at a restaurant watching the results come in. It was fun. I've done this now 3 different times and it is so much fun to sit with a whole new generation of political junkies.

It reminds me of watching the returns in 1994. I stood there crying because the world had ended - remember Republicans won everything, including some idiot from Peekskill beating Mario Cuomo. I was devastated. And my professor looked at me and said, Leah, children will still eat tomorrow. It's not the end of the world. And he was right - kind of - smile - and now I realize I'm the professor saying, half the country survived the last eight years, you'll survive the next eight.

I love my life.

Kumi Tucker Time

Click to this link to see how famous I am: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4425980

Oh and - scroll down and pick vice presidential debate creating interest and see how I'm famous on Fox: http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/

Interesting

Sitting here grading like crazy and all of a sudden I come across a paper held together by a hair pin - that's new, never had that before.

Um - gross!!

Conference

I am currently at a fabulous conference at Snowbird Resort in Utah. Here's why it's fabulous:

1. We have a very good team.
2. We have a very good project which we finished early leaving us plenty of fun time.
3. My parents brought Elizabeth up to see me.
4. Today I got to spend the day walking around with my husband and daughter.

It's a good life.

Last Week

Thank the Lord!

It is the last week of classes. In fact tomorrow is the last day of classes, in which I am doing reviews, so technically I'd say the last day of classes was yesterday. Students are on high overdrive - I wonder if that happens in places where people can and do drink - and can be a bit annoying. They have a million questions, they are freaking out, it's annoying.

But Saturday, it's done. Grading and then a full four months of no students at all....woo hoo!!

Funny

I teach political science, which includes math. Sometimes this is how I feel the students must think.

Famous Famous

The other night I was on KSL Local News at 630pm being interviewed about Eliot Spitzer. I figured there were probably 3 people watching, and those were my Utah family who had to watch because the Princess was with them being babysat and they felt obliged. But yesterday I received all sorts of emails from really random people...so that was kind of cool.

Again, if only I were six feet, weighed 100 lbs and had blonde hair, I swear I'd have a career on television.

Conference

For the longest time I had thought a particular brand of pedagogy was bullshit. I did not like discussions about service-learning. I was not persuaded it had any value. I thought it was a way for people to not do good teaching in the classroom. This weekend I was invited to a S-L conference, and as I have an open mind I went. As it turned out, I was completely wrong. The deal is most people of my acquaintance have been doing S-L wrong (or at least not well) and so what I thought was crap actually was crap but was not what the pedagogy entailed. I am persuaded. I am excited to move forward in trying this out. Students were there telling stories about their experience, and while most of the students were idiots, these were very compelling for why this pedagogy is good.

Thanks to my colleagues for having such a naysayer along.

Why am I an Academic Again?

It's like being in college. For the rest of your life. You wait until the last minute to do work. Then you have deadlines and you are up all hours of the night to finish it. It's like finals week. Jeesh!

Now I have to go teach classes and I am exhausted. And I don't drink diet coke anymore, so no caffeine.

Parking at my Campus

In most of the world professionals are given a parking spot. Here in the academy, we have to pay some amount of money to get a parking pass and then we are launched into a Darwinian competition with everyone of the 17000 people coming to campus a day to find a spot. I arrived for my first day of the semester 1 hour and 15 minutes early, thinking I'd have time to unwind, settle in and then teach. I drove around for 45 minutes, thus arriving almost late and had to hike through the cold weather to get to my office.

Insert all sorts of big swear words here.

Classes

Holy crap!

Classes start Monday here at WSU. What is wrong with these people? I mean, seriously, 2 weeks for Christmas holiday? We need more time. More time. I have been working like crazy to get my courses in order. CRAZY!

How am I going to ski more if I am expected to be at the office so much?!?

December 10

Sorry it's been so long. It's the end of the semester so all hell has broken loose.

My absolute favorite is the students who hand in a bunch of papers that were due in October. I kind of wish I were ballsy enough to say, dude, I'm not even reading these. But of course I say, you can have partial credit. Next semester I'm just not grading them. I am going to say right up front, unless you tell me beforehand, you cannot do it late. I say it in the syllabus but I am going to mean it next semester.

ARGH!

Funny Funny Students

My senior seminar students are writing reviews of major pieces of literature. In order to complete this assignment, they need to send me via email their 7-8 page paper (book or article review for which they received explicit instructions) which I will then post on a website for all students to read. These are due a week before the presentation is due. So, the first set of presentations are tomorrow. Two students haven't sent in their paper, so I guess they get zeros. One student sent me the paper Friday at 530pm (the email is time stamped) and then sent me an email today wondering why I hadn't posted it on the website. I want to know, do they think I have nothing else to do on a weekend but check my work email anxiously waiting for their product, that is four days late?

So I'm thinking I may put on my syllabi in the spring that I will only be expected to answer emails from 9am to 5pm M-F. I often think how great it is to be a professor with email, but one of the drawbacks is I did not have instant access to my professors in undergrad. I could not send them an email and just assume that covered whatever I was doing. I actually had to make time to go to their offices during their office hours. This made me more responsible and also made it easier for my professors. I know I can't tell students they can't send emails, I am seriously not that much of a Luddite, but I am thinking that a work week limit might be appropriate.

On another professional note, go listen to my podcast:

Mayoral Debate

Colbert Prompts a Research Idea

One of the things I do for a living is research young people and how they behave politically. The other night on the Colbert Report I got an idea for a research topic. Do young people thing that blogging = political behavior/activism? Does blogging = political activism? Have we channeled all possibilities for mass movements into elite blogging resources thus losing any chance for a new revolution?

I personally do not believe blogging is political activism and that it fails on a number of criteria to possibly be activism. But believing ain't science, so the political scientist in me is thinking, this is the next fun thing to think about.