the thing about living close to my CC...

is that I run into students EVERYWHERE!

In the coffee shop today, one of the dorkiest looking guys I've ever taught was shooting me dagars from across the room. He didn't do well in my course. Of course, showing up awake and having an IQ higher than my paperweight rock might have helped...

I guess it all balances out...
At the Chili's Parkside to Go parking lot I parked next to one of my favorite students. When I met her she was a newly recalled flight attendant for the local monopoly air last fall. She started class laid-off from monopoly air and then got recalled after the college's drop period. She came to me worried about how her work schedule would impact her coursework. She and I made a plan about how to manage the inevitible schedule interruptions and she both went back to flying and finished my class -- including fully participating in a group presentation! All she needed was a little bit of flexibility from me to make it work...

now, back to work on the hot dog paper...

papers and hot dogs...

Papers and hot dogs have a lot in common... they say the way to truly quit eating hot dogs is to watch them being made.

Today, watching me revise this paper would put you off of reading papers for a long time.

Suffice it to say it isn't pretty.

It also isn't anywhere close to being done.

Three guesses at what I'll be doing this weekend?
the first two don't count.

Some good things...

• Hubby has an office -- finally. This lets him feel grounded and have some space that is 'his'. Being away from home is stressful for hubby and the house sitting arrangement is convenient, but he isn't in his own place. He's spending the weekend working on his research in his own office. While I'd rather have him sitting on the other half of our long worktable, the fact that he has someplace to call his own is good.

• Hubby also got some good work news. That is all I can say -- but YEA!

• It is starting to be fall -- it isn't really hot (90's!), it is kind of rainy and windy, so it is a good day to spend at the coffee shop working on my paper.
• It is good to be the person saying that the emperor has no clothes. Since I'm no longer beholden to the group but have recently left, now is the time to say what I've been thinking. The thing is, I think that most people involved with the naked emperor mean well, but they are so caught up in the details that they've just believed the PR claims made on behalf of their activity. I know they have critical thinking skills, but asking the hard questions has consequences and what I've been saying lately is politically dangerous -- which is why I'm the one who can say it.
• I'm going to a water aerobics class this morning with an instructor named "Gladys". She HAS to be an old woman, right? The close club has some awful instructors. They treat water aerobics just like a regular aerobics class. They teach it in regular clothes, so they couldn't demonstrate from the water if they wanted to. Worse, they teach it at the pace of a regular class with TERRIBLE music. It is a physical fact that the resistance of water is going to slow us down. Yelling "faster" isn't informative... So, I haven't had Gladys yet, but it has been my experience that older instructors are instructors because they were taking the class and wanted a new challenge.
  

Connections, connections, connections...

Today was about making connections, and it was really nice.

My students are connecting with me, with the material and with one another.

In ethics I've started making time for in-class conversation in small groups -- and it is working. Once they have a chance to chat with a few pals to sort out their ideas, they are more confident speaking in class.

In logic they are getting more comfortable asking me questions in class. They are speaking up when they don't understand something and letting me know when I've made a mistake on the board... I always tell them that they need to watch me, as I sometimes have the equivalent of typos on the board -- and it is up to them to watch me.

I made a great personal and professional connection...

I had a great meeting with a really dynamic woman at my college. She has an amazing program she's worked really hard to establish -- and it looks like I could be part of it. We are considering a learning community pairing that combines an ethics course with a women and gender studies course. I think it could be fantastic.

Hubby gave me some good news about a conference...

An actual conference in my area -- military ethics -- in a warm place, in January... sounds lovely!

It isn't that hard... people...

Aargh...

I'm having a wide-ranging bit of irritation today, all of it caused by "academics".

In one instance, a group has been making claims about the impact of their area on students. Problem is that, when challenged to back-up those claims their backs GOT up instead. This discipline often wants to be considered a social science, but when it comes down to it, it doesn't seem to be able to formulate and complete a research project.

ummm--- if a philosopher like me can throw out three distinct assessment methods without thinking about it too hard, y'all can do it too. I don't suppose you actually paid attention in your research methods class now did you? I didn't have one (philosophical research is quite different) and what I suggested was based on some limited work in writing assessment, a few critical thinking skills and a little bit of info gleaned from hubby. You have degrees in this stuff, get your poo in a group and support your claims.

In another instance -- DETAILS are important.

• If you send a memo saying that the courses in bold need to be revised, isn't it important that you actually bold ALL the courses you think need to be revised? If y'all are going to nit-pick stuff about the forms we are filling out, the least you can do is to be accurate in what you are sending out. Also, checking the dates is important, as is using the 2007 calendar to schedule stuff in 2007.
• If you get a memo telling you that a whole bunch of classes need revision, and your class is only ONE of the listed ones -- but, you are the only one formally responsible for that area, wouldn't it be a good idea to share the need to revise with the other people who teach that stuff? Bringing it up in casual conversation isn't quite enough. I took it upon myself to let those other people know -- but, you could have said something 3 weeks ago... or, LAST YEAR when the rest of us started the process.

And.. haa, haa -- the fight you have been avoiding is here. Deal with it -- years of janky class development has come back to bite you in the butt. BNCC isn't about you teaching just what you want to teach -- it is about what the students need when they transfer. When your curriculum revision consists of adding new classes and changing your discipline's NAME, you are avoiding something. Of course, I may be jealous because I can't call "Philosophy" anything else... I have to deal with real issues.

In all cases, I don't think it is too much to ask faculty members with multiple degrees and credentials to act like adults. Being responsible for the consequences of your action or inaction may REALLY suck for you in January. When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you. I'll have a pile of e-mails telling you to get off of your asses and get stuff done -- and, I'll be in a discipline that won't have a problem filling classes.

Why is it....

Why is it that the least attractive girl standing in the hall, with the whitest, fattest, dimpliest legs is wearing the shortest skirt? I had to look at her a couple of times to make sure she wasn't wearing a figure skating skirt... She'd have been fine in a pair of jeans, but a skirt that barely covers her backside just isn't attractive... someone needs to tell her.

Why is it that my 7:45 class is sleepy when I have all that caffeine energy, and my 12:45 class is all wide-awake when I need a nap?

Why is it that some faculty members don't accept the fact that THEY need to revise some of their courses? I'm wondering what else I can do to persuade those folks down the hall that they ARE responsible for the pitiful state of their course outline and transfer-curriculum documents? I suppose the fact that they haven't really had consequences before gives them the message that they can get away with it this time -- but, the mandate comes from outside the school, so pulling rank in administrator's offices won't cut it this time, sorry.

Why does monopoly air suck so much? I can fly to California cheaper than I can fly to Red State... there is no real relationship between the distance flown and the ticket cost.

Why do my cats still "fight" ?-- New Kitty and Extra-toes had it out in the kitchen tonight. I'm not sure what they could possibly be fighting about, but since they can't talk, don't spend money and don't have sex -- I'm really at a loss as to what could be the source of their disagreement.

My Dean almost got a strange phone call from me...

I just had a dream that I forgot to teach my 7:45 class....

tomorrow.

At the end of the dream I couldn't find my dean's phone number. When I woke up it took me a minute to realize that I couldn't have forgotten to go to a class that has not happened yet.

Can you imagine Dean listening to her voice mail...

Voice mail system: Call received Monday, 4:34 AM
Dean's Voice Mail: Hello, this is Dean, please leave a message

ME: Hi, I'm sorry I forgot to go to my 7:45 class on Tuesday. I don't have a good excuse, maybe that it was the Tuesday after Labor Day and I was thinking it was still summer or something. It was a really stupid thing to do and I promise never to do it again.

Dean thinks: Dammm.... those philosophers really ARE in another world --