Teaching vs. Research

I was talking to a friend and colleague the other day and we were both kvetching about how we didn't have enough time to do the things we wanted to do. She was complaining that she had several writing projects with impending due dates and couldn't spend as much time on teaching as she would like and I complained that my teaching preparation was leaving little time for research.

What interested me about this conversation is that it made me realize that my view of the teaching part of my role as a scholar is different than hers. In telling me that she spends less time preparing for teaching than she would like to, I realized that she sees both teaching and research as activities that are manipulable, at least in regards to how much time one devotes to them. More surprisingly, I realized that I have a fairly static view of teaching and the time it takes.

I realized I tend to see my teaching as something static, something that takes up a given amount of time that can't really be changed. If I have a new prep, that time is larger, and if I have a hybrid class, there's a slight increase in the time I spend on the course because of the online interaction, but it's a fairly solid block. This means that when I plan out my work week, teaching starts off as a block of time that will take up most of the week and I try to calculate what little pieces here and there that might be left for research. Even when I have a project to finish, I don't think of teaching as something that I can really carve space out of, and if I need to spend more time finishing a conference paper, I think of it as overtime effort above what I would normally do in a week.

My colleague obviously sees teaching as something a bit more flexible, that one can spend more or less energy on, not because the preparation demands it (you need a lecture/activity at bare minimum for each class), but because you might need to pay more attention to other things.

What I wonder is why we have these different attitudes?

• I'm a younger scholar than she but a few years and have been teaching less (and at the same time, more often outside my area), so maybe some of it is comfort with teaching. 
• She also have a tt job in her area and is expected to publish, while I have contingent work that depends more on continued positive student evaluations and less on whether I'm getting research done.
• The other possibility of course is that we're just different that way and it's a personal difference in approach to time and responsibilities.

But it's an interesting difference to contemplate. And I suspect that if I'm going to get to where I want to be in this profession, I'm going to have to figure out how to be a little more like her, which is fine with me 'cause I think she's fabulous!

Perpetual rejection?

I've had this sense for a while, but the Chronicle just confirmed it in an article on "The Art of Rejection" (which is supposed to cheer up those of us who are perpetually losing in the job market, but fails to do so convincingly). In it, the authors write:

Over the previous two years, the MLA found that more jobs had been advertised in the spring and summer months than in the fall. In fact, 52.6 percent of jobs in English and 60 percent of jobs in foreign languages appeared after the MLA convention in 2011. Those are welcome opportunities, to be sure, but that statistic also means that the so-called season of rejection now runs continuously from October through September. Under such circumstances, we ask, is there ever a time when a job seeker isn't being rejected?

Indeed. Is there ever a time when I might open my inbox or my mailbox without the vague dread that I will find yet another rejection inside? 

Didn't think so.

First Round Two

freefoto.com

That title is a bit of an oxymoron isn't it? But it's true. I realized the other day that this is the first semester since 2006 when I haven't had a new course to prep. All of my courses this semester are round two or later. That realization really picked me up; last semester was really tiring so I'm hoping that a semester full of round two courses will be less exhausting.

I did change the textbook in one of the courses, so there will be new readings and some new lectures come out of it. The course is also a hybrid one, so there will be some podcasts that I'll need to record for the days that the class meets online, but there won't be new material each week. I also might have some time to build up lecture material in the other courses as well, which will improve the way I can deliver those courses.

The biggest bonus will be to my research and writing; at least that's what I hope. I have three confirmed conferences and possibly another between now and summer, which when I type it, sounds like a lot, but a couple of the papers are based on work I've already made a good bit of headway on. But that doesn't change the fact that I'd really like to carve out a few hours every week to attend to my own intellectual development. Even when my research gains from my teaching (which isn't often since I rarely teach in my research area), it's nice to be able to pursue other paths that have nothing to do with teaching prep.

Don't need an interpreter for this dream

Had a dream last night that needs no interpretation. It starts as I'm trying to find an address in an urban area because I have a job interview. It's a bit like MLA in that I'm trying to find this place, but when I get there, it's not a hotel but a little house. But I realize I've made it just in time - I'm 2 minutes early, and pretty happy I'm there.

I go in and am greeted by a woman who tells me I need a name tag before I can join the other job candidates who I can see sitting in another room. So I write my name on the tag and prepare to enter. But the woman tells me I've done it wrong and I need to try again. I ask her what I need to do, but she just turns her back on me. So I try again. And again. Repeatedly, the woman tells me I've done it wrong but won't answer when I ask what's wrong and I can't see the other candidate's tags to figure out what it should look like.

This goes on and on until all of the candidates have been interviewed and the interviewer announces the interviews are over. Everyone leaves and I'm left sitting in the little house, still wondering what I was supposed to put on the nametag.

Pretty obvious, isn't it? Something so simple as my name, and I can't get it right and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. It's clear that the constant job applications over the last couple of years are getting to me. I'm doing everything right, and yet nothing has come of it. And as much as I know the market's hard for everyone, it's hard not to see it as a personal failure, hence the problem in the dream is that I can't get my nametag right.

*image source: desdechado's flickr stream

Getting to know students

We're at the end of the second full week of classes, and for the most part, I think I've got everyone's names memorized. That's about 120 names, so I don't feel bad that there are a few students who I have to think about when I call out their name, but overall, I think I've got them nailed. For some reason this semester has felt harder as far as remembering faces, and I'm at a bit of a loss.

I know one cause. In two of my classes, there are conflicting forces at work to make it easier/harder to remember names. I'm teaching two sections of a hybrid course, which means we meet half the time face to face and the other half online. The fact that I only see students once a week makes it a bit trickier to remember their faces because I've got a lot of time in between to forget who they are. On the other hand, some of the online meetings are through digital technologies (e.g. Google+) that incorporate a picture, which makes it easier to remember who they are. So it's a mixed effect of remembering/forgetting in this class.

But that doesn't explain why matching names to faces this semester has felt harder in the other classes as well. I really don't want to admit that maybe it's just age and/or exhaustion after a hectic Fall term, but it just might be.

e-reading

I got an e-reader for Christmas and have been happily trying it out. I've been reading both public domain texts (free is always nice) and more mainstream texts. I've been loving it. It's just the right size to hold, and I actually really like the dictionary feature since I don't have to read with another device near me if I want to look something up. (I've been known to take my smartphone out with me when I'm reading a novel, just in case I want to look something up...)

But the one thing that surprises me is the cost of ebooks. I was compiling a list of books I'd love to read this year (a short one, thankfully! - these lists aren't always so) and two of them would cost more as ebooks than as paper versions. And since I always buy enough to get the free shipping, why would I want to pay more for an ephemeral ecopy? This I do not understand. Can anyone explain?

MLA blues... sort of...

Feeling oddly strange not being at MLA 2012 convention. I've been for the last three years, and while it's not exactly an enjoyable conference in the way that many of the others I attend are, I feel oddly strange not to be there. I haven't been in Seattle for probably a dozen or so years, and then it was a quite fly through, so I wouldn't have minded being there.

I won't complain though. This way, I've got time to prepare for the upcoming semester, which I've just discovered is going to require a bit more planning than I thought it would at the end of last semester, mostly because the scheduling of my classes is less than ideal.

The problem with tenure isn't academic freedom

The Chronicle yet again weighs in on tenure, and while I don't agree with much of what the article claims (some of which is poorly argued), one sentence stood out:

The fact is that nontenured and non-tenure-track faculty are toiling in undesirable positions at low pay and subsidizing the interests and security of tenured faculty members...

Exactly. The problem with tenure isn't that academic freedom might be under fire. The primary problem is that a shrinking number of tenured positions are subsidized by contingent faculty, who when they are doing research themselves in an effort to change those undesirable ones into desired ones don't have research freedom, or even in many cases, teaching freedom.There are places that attempt to provide comparable wage schemes for their contingent faculty, but others that don't, and as a whole, the discrepancy between what the tenured and not tenured are paid for teaching the same course remains. That's the problem of tenure, not whether or not academic freedom is at stake.

Turing year

I find it odd how I picked up and read Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects (which I've had for over a year) over the last two days, that is, the first days of 2012, only to realize that Chiang is a bit of a fan of Alan Turing, and this year is the centenary of Turing's birth.

I frequently mention the Turing test in my class on Cultural Perspectives on Science as an introduction to the idea of thought experiments in both science and science fiction because it's one that students find fairly easy to understand. Of course, Turing's codebreaking work was highly valuable during the second world war, which is why the disgraceful charges against him because of his homosexuality are being sought to be overturned. (If you live in the UK, you can sign the petition here.)

I've read mixed reviews of Chiang's book, but I'd have to say I tend to side with those who enjoy it. The link above takes you to an ecopy, but if you can afford the hard copy, it's far more rewarding because of the illustrations and intricate maps included in it.

Running Technologies

I've been thinking about running technologies the last few times I've been out, but I don't mean some kind of fancy new shoe or some type of space-age fabric that's supposed to be more comfortable, wick moisture away, prevent chaffing etc. No, I've been thinking about the music I've taken with me and how the device I use to take it with me has changed over the decade and a half that I've been running.

Take the Walkman. Yup, old school, for certain, but man was that thing durable. The one in the picture isn't an actual Walkman, but regardless of the brand, they could take a beating and keep playing. The very fact that I still have one that works is a testament to that, but so too are the multiple times that clutzy me accidentally snapped the headphones and flung the device to the ground.

In fact, the device itself seemed pretty durable and the only limitation was the cassettes themselves. As any child of the eighties knows, heat and/or overuse can kill a cassette. I recall ruining a whole case of cassettes by forgetting them in the rear window of the car after a vacation. As a lowly burger slinger with a 5 buck an hour job, I can tell you that one hurt the pocketbook severely!

But then of course the CD player came along. The stereo CD player was pretty much a staple by the time I got a portable one, but frankly, it was a bit of a disappointment after the cassette player. The original portable CD players weren't made to handle much movement (somebody apparently didn't look up the word 'portable' in the dictionary before designing the thing...) They skipped and slid across the CD's tracks like a thing possessed. It was a real disappointment, at least until they got wise to the fact that many people wanted to, you know, actually move with the things in hand, and they started building delays and shock absorbers into them.

The portable CD player actually had another downside in that it emerged long before CD burners did, so if you wanted to use one, you were stuck with the CD you'd bought. At least the old cassette players could play mix tapes. I made one after I discovered that my running pace fit perfectly with a bunch of 80s pop songs. Not sure what it was, but David Bowie, the Police and Foreigner in particular seemed to match my stride just perfectly.

At least I got the playlist back when I received a Zune as a present. It was a bit big, sure, but the screen and  simple button arrangement made it really east to scroll through. And the graphics were of course really nice given the size of the screen. I suppose in size it's similar to a full-size iPod, though it was about half the cost, which made it a more practical choice for someone on a limited budget (like me!) Unfortunately, the battery on mind gave up the ghost after a few years. It couldn't seem to retain a charge for more than two days, and I was forever finding myself annoyed at wanting to go for a run and finding the battery dead and facing the prospect of only listening to the heavy breathing/wheezing that occasionally characterizes my running efforts. Not the prettiest sound to listen to, that's for sure!

I must say that the most recent device is the one I'm probably the most fond of. It combines small size, with the ability to create playlists, but even more delightfully, it records my workouts as well. I hadn't realized the mini iPod could do that, so you can imagine my delight in finding out that it would track my time and distance as well as provide me with just the right tunes. I was tickled! There's even a voice that tells me how the workout compares to a previous one, and I know it's silly, but there's something rewarding about hearing a little voice tell me I've just run further than I ever have before. It also doesn't hurt that I recently upgraded the software and it erased all the previous records, so now I'm impressing myself all over again!

I suppose the only way to make my music even more running friendly would be to get rid of the device and headphones all together and implant my playlist right into my head. Of course, that seems a bit extreme, not to mention a bit science fictional. I like science fiction. But on paper, not in my body!

Happy New Year!

I find myself wondering exactly what we're celebrating as midnight hits on December 31st. Are we celebrating the end of a year? If so, is it a celebration of our survival for one more year? Or is it more along the lines of 'thank goodness that year's over!'? Are we celebrating the beginning of a new one with all its possibilities? Perhaps a bit of both? Maybe if you're a pessimist it's the celebration of the end of the year and if you're an optimist, it's the beginning of the new one?

I suspect it's more-so the beginning of a new year we're celebrating as the clock strikes. Otherwise, how does one explain the jump in gym memberships in January?