To do lists

Somehow, this blog turned into a place to post to-do lists. I don't want it only to be that, but one of the goals I had for this blog was to give a sense of what it's really like to be a writing professor. To do lists give one lens, for sure. And, as I'm pretty busy lately, they're a quick lens. So here we are, my to do lists through the weekend.
(Striking-through as I go through the weekend)

• Respond to a final project proposal
• Meet with a graduate advisee
• Meet with an undergraduate student 
• Respond to my Expos 3 students' prospectuses (prospecti? "Precis" would work, but I don't like that word. I just don't like the look or the sound of it. It's irrational, I know. I've made peace with that. I also don't like "pods." In truth, I have a whole list of words I don't like. But I digress.)
• Put together my PAC narrative (four pages, single spaced. It's a process we go through every year to determine merit raises -- that's probably the easiest way to explain it).
• Fill out the PAC faculty activity form
• Put together supporting materials for PAC (Okay, so it turns out I didn't have to do this b/c I had to do it for reappointment, but I'm crossing it out instead of erasing it b/c it makes me feel better)
• Read and score an instructors' students PEP submissions (it's our midterm portfolio system. I'm not going to explain it all here, but everyone reads someone else's students' essays and scores them. This term, I'm reading two sets)
• Read and score my own students' PEP submissions (the primary instructor scores them, too, and as my students have revised, I need to reread these essays).
• Respond to (i.e. grade) my Expos 3 students' film essays. 

Update: I'm now thinking these will have to get shifted to Monday, and that the Expos 3 grading is going to end up taking a few different chunks of time throughout the week.

• lesson plans for my two courses for next week. We're starting a new unit in one class and are in the middle of a unit in the other. 
• Work on the department facebook page and contact our dept. tech person for help with a problem I'm having with links on that page. 

I think that's it. I also drove to Wichita today and presented at the Kansas Association of Teachers of English (KATE) conference. As some of you know, I only recently (this summer) got my driver's license; this was my first longish drive on my own. I drive around town all the time, but this is about 2.5 hours away. It was a little stressful as it was a bit rainy and pretty windy and there was construction that closed down the exit I needed and the detour signs were tiny and bent--seriously--so that took a bit of figuring out, but I made it there, presented to a generally great group of teachers, and made it back. I just finished dinner, am in the midst of laundry, and am thinking of starting that proposal draft and those Expos prospectuses.

The question is, when am I ever going to get back to my article draft? I'm thinking something like December.

Weekend Update

Okay, didn't quite get everything done that I wanted to. Shocker. But I technically have a draft of my conference presentation done, it's just that I realized I want to change some big chunks, so it's not done, done. If I had to give it tomorrow morning, I could, I just wouldn't be happy with it.

I have an MRI tomorrow morning to try to figure out what's going on with this back/hip pain (again), and am then heading to campus. So I'll reread the Expos 3 stuff and get my lesson plan for that class under control, then work on revising my conference presentation. I'm "chairing" a proposal defense tomorrow; it's my first as major professor, so I'm hoping it goes well. I'm ready and I've done what I can, I think, to make sure the student is as ready as possible. Then it's back to work on the presentation and handout.

We do midterm reading this upcoming week, too. Yikes; it's going to be another busy week.

This weekend (Oct. 17-18)

To do this weekend.

Today:

1. Reread advisee's final project proposal and provide a few more comments
2. Email advisee with proposal defense reminders
3. Put together my conference presentation for this Thursday
4. Put together an invention handout for my Expos 2 class
5. Informal midterm evaluation handout
6. Put together my conference handout

Tomorrow:

1. Expos 3 lesson plan
2. Keep working on conference handout and presentation
3. Start working on PAC

Also, I STILL haven't registered for the Cs, and I haven't figured out if I want to use technology for my KATE presentation. It's about using pop culture and it would be nice to be able to show some clips, but I don't want to be flustered about it, you know? I don't want to rely on it. And I STILL haven't added those sections to my article draft. 

This week, so far

I thought it might be interesting, if only to me, to see what I actually DID get done this week. Here's what was on the list:

• I need to prep my presentation for the graduate application workshop on Friday
• I need to put together my handout for above workshop
• Fine tune schedule for next unit of both undergraduate classes
• Schedule observation with mentor
• Apply to Peer Review Teaching Program
• Send thank you email to Women's Studies Dept.
• Add those two sections to my article revision
• Figure out a new direction for above article
• Send proposal template to advisee
• Set up observations with GTA advisees
• Set up file review meetings with advisees
• Register for 4Cs conference
• Register for KATE conference & request technology for presentation
• Finish responding to Expos 3 memos
• Make sure late add is prepared to catch up in class
• Email a few sample lesson plans to an advisee
• Send follow up email to online journal
• Meet with writing partner to talk about article revision
• Steering committee meeting
• Teach 2 classes twice this week
• Start putting together reading lists & assignment descriptions for grad course for next term.

I also accepted the 4Cs invitation, but I haven't registered for the conference yet, and I set up one file review meeting. I have three more meetings to arrange.

On the more personal side, I didn't actually see my husband for more than two nights this week, although I did get some sleep, did do quite a bit of laundry, some grocery shopping, talked to Anne, and stopped at Target. So far, despite some of my students' best attempts, I do not have the flu (knock on wood). I've straightened up the house, but not really cleaned it.

Now, the week isn't over. I'm planning to spend a good chunk of the day on campus tomorrow and maybe Sunday. Because tomorrow I absolutely have to finish those Expos 3 memos (did two more tonight, which leaves me with, I think, 8 more total). I'll send that follow up email tomorrow and will try to register for the two conferences. But I also have to add to this weekend:

• Construct handout on application letters
• Review and make suggestions on four sets of lesson plans for advisees
• Do 1 set of file reviews (this is where I read through student essays that one of the first year GTAs has commented on and graded to check for consistency and tone)
• Lesson plan for next week
• Check out some journal submission guidelines 

Put that together with what's left over from the original list:

• Fine tune schedule for next unit of both undergraduate classes
• Schedule observation with mentor
• Add two sections to my article draft 

What does that spell? Probably no football. But let me say this, if the Packers are on, I'm at least taping the game.  The reading list and assignments for the grad course will probably get pushed back again.

This upcoming week I have observations of the new GTAs, the rest of the file reviews, meetings after observations and file reviews, writing the memos for both of those things, responding to student revisions in my Expos 3 class, and making a poster for my spring grad class.

Deep. Yogic. Breathing.

The Second Year

As I was desperately trying to find my footing (and my balance) during my first year as an assistant professor, people tended to tell me that I would only get busier, but that I'd get better at managing it. I hope they're right about the second part; I'm certain they're right about the first part.

A few things that I'm trying to keep in mind for this week:

• I need to prep my presentation for the graduate application workshop on Friday
• I need to put together my handout for above workshop
• Fine tune schedule for next unit of both undergraduate classes
• Schedule observation with mentor
• Apply to Peer Review Teaching Program
• Send thank you email to Women's Studies Dept.
• Add those two sections to my article revision
• Figure out a new direction for above article
• Send proposal template to advisee
• Set up observations with GTA advisees
• Set up file review meetings with advisees
• Register for 4Cs conference
• Register for KATE conference & request technology for presentation
• Finish responding to Expos 3 memos
• Make sure late add is prepared to catch up in class
• Email a few sample lesson plans to an advisee
• Send follow up email to online journal
• Meet with writing partner to talk about article revision
• Steering committee meeting
• Teach 2 classes twice this week
• Start putting together reading lists & assignment descriptions for grad course for next term.

I *think* that's it. For this week. Next week I'll need to do observations for four advisees, do file reviews for those advisees, meet with each of them, and write 2 memos for each advisee (one observation report and one file review report). 

Just TYPING that made me sleepy. Let's, of course, not forget things like 

• seeing my husband at least two nights a week (our schedules don't coincide often)
• trying to get some sleep
• trying not to get the flu
• doing laundry
• grocery shopping
• making a feeble attempt to clean the house (ha! Like that's going to happen)
• trying to call family members who I haven't talked to in 1-3 weeks or more
• trying to call friends who I haven't talked to for 3-4 weeks or more
• oh, I don't know, showering, eating, random Target runs

I'd like to say I'm not complaining, but clearly I'm complaining a little bit. It can just get overwhelming. But somehow I do actually feel like I have a better sense of how to handle all of this. And I am doing a better job with balance so far this semester. I still need to be more organized, I still need to get ahead of the game a bit more, but I'm still on my feet and moving forward. You know, mostly.

Goals, an update

We're into the third week of the semester and, as I sit here taking a quick break from responding to student essays (already? Student essays already? I mean, I know I assigned them, but still), I thinking about these goals I set for myself.

How am I doing? How nice of you to ask. In some ways, I'm doing well. In others, not so much.

Overall I feel like I have a better handle on this term than I did last term, but organization and balance are still struggles for me. On the personal goals I'm doing okay. I've been bringing my lunch and, knocking out two goals in one, it's almost always a salad. I've been *generally* eating better, drinking more water, less pop. I've bought fewer coffees at Caribou.

Kara and I are having our second meeting of our writing couple (it's just the two of us, so it's hardly a group) this afternoon and will meet again next week when I'll have SOME sort of revision of my argument article draft. So that's going well. I got into one conference so far, applied to another, and am planning to apply to two more.

In terms of teaching, though, it's still throwing other things out of whack, and I'm not as far ahead as I want to be. I keep saying "THIS weekend I'll get ahead," but then I'm scrambling at the last minute to stay up to date, and "ahead" seems impossible. But hope springs eternal, so maybe this weekend I'll get ahead.

Fall Semester Redux

Tomorrow the new semester starts, so today, as I let lunch settle in and wait for the caffeine to take effect, I thought I'd write a quick blog about my goals for the new academic year. I can't remember if I got this from Clancy or from Billie, but instead of New Year's Resolutions, it's New Academic Year's Resolutions. Here we go:

Personal(ish)

• Bring my lunch at least two days a week. This is a common resolution for me, and I'm not particularly good at it, but I'm working on it.
• Buy super-good but super-pricey coffee at Caribou no more than 3 times a week. Right now I do it at least 5 days a week. I have a little coffee maker in my office and need to use that more often. The trip to Caribou, though, is often more about a quick break, a quick walk, and a quick moment with a few friends. So if I'm heading over, I should get cheaper tea or cheaper coffee as opposed to my beloved vanilla white chocolate mocha or caramel high rise. *sigh*
• To stick to more of a schedule, even though I'm only teaching two days a week.
• To try to eat better, to eat more salad, to less fried food, drink more water & less soda.

Teaching

• In some ways, this seems counterintuitive in a section on teaching, but I need more balance in my life. One of the ways I need to achieve that is to streamline my teaching practices. Last year, teaching took over. And it needed to. New job, new program, new curriculum, new classes. But this year, especially this first semester, I'm more familiar with these courses and I need to do a better job putting up some teaching boundaries. Teaching is like goldfish -- it'll grow to the take you put it in. I need to keep this tank just a little bit smaller. Do more with less. Reign in my comments. Teach smart(er).
• Try to stay a little more ahead of the curve than I was last year. I think I can do that this year. But I feel better, more centered, when I can see at least two weeks ahead. Last year I was so frazzled so much of the time that it was hard for me to do. I'm going to try to better this year.
• Organization, organization, organization. This is a constant goal, constant refrain for me.

Professional/Research

• Again, organization, organization, organization.
• More specifically, that idea of keeping my teaching in check so that I can do more research and writing.
• And even MORE specifically, this term I want to finish my article draft on argument and textbooks.
• To that end, I want to make sure I write at least 15 minutes a day. This is advice from Anne from a book about getting your journal article written in 12 weeks. It's good advice.
• I also want to figure out a new research project. I have about four ideas for KSU centered research and a few more text-based ideas I want to get to.
• Also, actually get that writing "group" going with Kara.

Overall Trends

• Balance, balance, balance
• Organization, organization, organization