First Round Two

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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.