Took Sunday off, went to a CRAZY pizza party, took Monday off: had a party here. American flag, steaks, lamb rollups, potato salad, brownies.
Today I finished revisions to chapter 5, and I've just looked at what I have to do for chapter 8, which my adviser sent me last night. Chapter 7 is still hanging around for revisions, too. I found some really old notes on environmental issues to help flesh out Chapter 5 - an added bonus. I originally thought I would write about environmental issues, but that's something to be deferred to future research, if I ever pick it up at all.
Tomorrow I really have to get a head start on the lit review, which is currently a string of 15 single-spaced pages of miscellaneous "takes." Yuck.
To take a "break" I've been working on course development. Pathetic.
My dad told two new stories last night: one about the tailor who slaughtered cows on the side ("he had SOME scratch"); and the other - oh dammit I can't remember. Something about lamb? No, that was the slaughter thing. Moving around from house to house in the village? I'll have to ask B. Sometimes I think I should have a tape recorder on standby when he comes over: there's always a snippet.
He had read the series in the Boston Globe about finding the remains of MIAs in the South Pacific too. For some reason, I have been fixated on the sacrifices represented by Memorial Day this year. Car and appliance ads are MORE than grating: is that what this day really means to American business? Maybe it's a whole year of teaching World Regional Geography and thinking about American geopolitics? Or reading the "Best Essays of 2007," which also has a few meditations on our current engagements? And of course thinking about those who died at the hands of repressive governments in central and eastern Europe. Unfortunately, no shortage of human inhumanity.
It's all so depressing - and I really don't know what I can do. The world seems to be escalating into increasing terror and violence, and the current presidential election is just a bunch of useless. pathetic rhetoric. None of them dares to say (if even they know) the truth about what they will do.
Last night I finished the chapter on economic development discourses and sent it off to my adviser. That's TWO FINSIHED CHAPTERS in 10 days, not bad. :)
Today I am going to learn from a mistake earlier in the week, and take the day off before I embark on the next chapter. I have that one to finish, and then I have to write the concluding chapter, and then I have to put the whole thing together.
As a sort of break (and also to find long-lost 'treasures') we have been unpacking boxes this week. (That means there's a lot of mold in the air, probably.) I am torn about my wardrobe treasures - the things I love but can't wear anymore. Part of me wants to save them and hold onto the memories, but part of me says (logically) that if I goodwilled them, other people could enjoy them by actually WEARING them and I'll always have the memories. Also, I am feeling REALLY oppressed lately by all our STUFF, and it would be good to have the psychological lift of clearing some stuff out.
B says we are never gonna move again. Given the pain of last August, I tend to agree - but of course the fall job hunting season beckons.
I was entranced by the idea that weeds in my yard could provide sustenance. Despite a bad experience cooking them in childhood (yeah, I was quite the Euell Gibbons) I thought that perhaps my cooking skills had improved sufficiently to produce better results.
Well, they haven't. Or perhaps there is no cook in the world who can make dandelion greens taste un-bitter. I selected the best leaves; carefully washed them; sauted up some garlic; wilted the greens in the garlic.
The garlic tasted sweet and delicious by comparison - the greens were bitter and stringy. Sad: but when Armageddon comes, that's what we'll be eating. And crabgrass probably. Too bad maple leaves are so fibrous: they'd probably be sweet.
In other news, we removed the maple limb that was scraping on the garage yesterday, and I finished Chapter 5 of my dissertation. I'm having a bit of trouble rejuicing for Chapter 8.
Before I forget everything I learned, a few notes:
1. It's best to intervene early in problematic behavior in the classroom. There was one junior-highish clique that bugged me all semester, but I didn't want to call them out publicly, and never spoke with them privately (I fear confrontation!) and so it ate away at me all semester. Likewise, a couple of floundering students might have been able to turn around their grades with a little interest/support from me, but I didn't do it, and I regretted it when I was calculating final grades. It's not pleasant to give F's, especially to students who came to class and participated.
2. Assign less graded work. My grading load (my LEAST favorite activity of teaching!) was heavy this term, and end-loaded. I flew through it, but that wasn't too satisfying, to me or to anyone who read my comments. Better to do less, and do it better.
3. As usual, worry less about maximizing content, and more about connecting students to the ideas. Their range of experience and knowledge is so incredibly limited that you really have to step back and think about how to reach them. I'd say this is my #1 challenge.
Possibly more later. This is all I can think of at the moment.
Today was mostly a day taken up with retail therapy (new towel rods: I have an exciting life!!) and a new-to-us Mexican restaurant over in Beverly. In and amongst that I graded hundreds of short assignments in one of my courses and set up the spreadsheet for the gradebook, so that when the final exam is finished (around 2 pm tomorrow) I will be ready to fly through the LAST requirement for the semester.
Also I worked on the assignments for an workshop I am taking on online education: I'll have more to say about that anon. There may be some value in online education, but I fear that it just depersonalizes and commodifies learning even more than is already the case. I am collecting evidence, and may amuse myself by writing a critical essay on same in the next few weeks.
Mostly I must get my dissertation draft done. After 7 pm tomorrow, I will be free, and then I will have 16 days til the end of the month, which I believe is adequate to the task of completion. I will not say more about it now, but am developing a schedule. Short bursts of writing, following by weeding, housepainting, cleaning - all the contemplative activities, yeah. It's ambitious, but possible. And then - June/July/August are MINE.
Proctored two final exams; graded them; and calculated final course grades.
Read a book for my dissertation and took notes on it. (and returned it: it was SERIOUSLY overdue.)
Met with the Dean and got my reappointment squared away for next year.
Not bad, eh? I think I am owed a few minutes of chilling with Detective Adam Dalgliesh before falling asleep. (LOVE, just LOVE, summer reading! Yeah, I have a bunch of serious things to read this summer, but I feel I am OWED some well-written fluff to begin.)
Here's the amazing thing about academe: my salary for working 8 months is amortized over 12: so I will be paid June-August for just chillin'. I have lots to do, but it will be a delight to stop and smell the lilacs. I am trying to build more dellight into my daily awareness.
Tomorrow: a nice long walk before I go to campus for the workshop on documenting myself for reappointment/tenure/promotion purposes.