Professor Mamas in 2009 - Page 3

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by namaste_mom

rcr - i delayed tenure for one year. I didn't want to but I had a year of unproductively after my DD died. it didn't release me from my production for that year but gave me more time to make it up.

D~ Are you sure about that? My understanding was that the tenure delay rules we have here are pretty standard: You have an extra year in which to complete the same amount of work. That is, if tenure is 6 years, you have 7 years in which to do 6 years worth of work. There shouldn't be much in the way of "make up."

Originally Posted by kerc

Question: I have a pair of students (married couple) who are nontraditional students. They are in one of my intro classes, but are significantly SLOWER than the other 28 in there. If it was just one of them, I would easily pair them with a decent lab partner and it would be smooth. Since there are two and they don't want to split up (the woman is stronger than the man), I'm at a loss for what to do. Last night I had a 2 hr lab. I wrote the lab to take 1.5 hours to ensure that all students would be able to finish.

After the allotted lab time was over I was planning on working on my own stuff on my computer in my office. I did this. But left the students to work on their own -- it took them 3 hours to finish the lab that others successfully completed in 1. Do I worry about it? Do i only let them hang out when it is handy for me?

Are they actually working on the lab or are they gossiping/texting/spiffing their hair? Are they coming prepared? If they just work more slowly, then I would be less likely to kick them out. If they aren't spending their time working, then they are abusing your kindness and I'd kick them out.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Are they actually working on the lab or are they gossiping/texting/spiffing their hair? Are they coming prepared? If they just work more slowly, then I would be less likely to kick them out. If they aren't spending their time working, then they are abusing your kindness and I'd kick them out.

LOL. I wish I could show you a picture of the couple. They are working, they just take forever. Like geez how many times do I need to say that the brown line on the contour map is indeed a contour line and by definition shows elevation.

[Geofizz]

"I love that you are spending so much care on your labs. Have you spent a few minutes discussing contours so that both of you are confident on their definition? Please trust that these labs are not designed to trick you. If it's labeled as a contour, that's what it is."

[rock_dr]

Dear Editor of Major Journal In My Discipline,

thank you so much for sending my manuscript to one of the prickliest, stuck-in-his-ways, curmudgeons in the field. I am struggling to reconcile his non-constructive negativity with the very positive comments from renowned Reviewer #2, but your comment that 'you agree with reviewer #1 and therefore I should lean towards addressing his concerns first' is immensely useful. I will now proceed with adding in tons of additional detail and figures to address his pet peeves (and of course cite him endlessly), while simultaneously cutting the manscript length in half.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

"I love that you are spending so much care on your labs. Have you spent a few minutes discussing contours so that both of you are confident on their definition? Please trust that these labs are not designed to trick you. If it's labeled as a contour, that's what it is."

snort.



and rock dr. your post is pretty funny too (well, not really).

[Geofizz]

Actually, I meant there to be a thread of truth to it. My students seem to be on constant alert to getting tricked. I find myself constantly reassuring students that I'm not trying to trick them. I've been wondering where this comes from.

Then I looked at DD's first grade homework for today:

"Figure out how many 3 ounce cookies there are in a dozen.


______ cookies"

At first she told me 36. Then she asked me why it said "cookies" and not "ounces" on the answer line.

We agreed to write down 12.

[catina]

glad to find all of you

I'm so glad to find all of you. It's hard to be a working mom, but the hardest thing about being a prof mom is that the work is never over. I have had to put research on hold because I have neither the time nor the focus. I am an English professor. I envy my male colleagues who, despite being fathers, never seem to miss a step. I just can't get those blocks of time like I used to have. . . . But part of this is my fault b/c I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my daughter (now 3), and I figured, hey, I have tenure, I"m not at a top research institution by any account--I can relax at work now and spend more time with her than most working moms can imagine. And I have enjoyed a lot of that. . .but I haven't enjoyed being somewhat scattered and fragmented and unable to write.
My husband used to have more time and energy for my daughter, but he is now chair of his dept and is absolutely swamped with his learning curve (how's that for a mixed metaphor?)
Any hints on how to get focused again after a hiatus?
Catina

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Actually, I meant there to be a thread of truth to it. My students seem to be on constant alert to getting tricked. I find myself constantly reassuring students that I'm not trying to trick them. I've been wondering where this comes from.

Then I looked at DD's first grade homework for today:

"Figure out how many 3 ounce cookies there are in a dozen.


______ cookies"

At first she told me 36. Then she asked me why it said "cookies" and not "ounces" on the answer line.

We agreed to write down 12.

Sorry I got drawn away by the phone and got distracted. What I meant to finish is that the couple is the classic rural, 50ish, alcoholic (I can ALWAYS smell it on one of them), don't trust the government type of stereotype. The guy said to me, "Well how can the USGS know so much about the topography here? I bet they just want us to think there's a hill there."

I know, I sound like I'm totally complaining (and I am) but what I'm really coming around to is that I'm fine with telling them they can stay late when it works for me, but that it won't always work.

[Geofizz]

Welcome Catina! My strategy is to promise myself 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Right now I'm teaching a new class and it's taking all my time. I'm keeping the research in my head, though, by working on it for 15 minutes. I get the rest done while I'm commuting, showering, awake in the middle of the night with a puking child.... When I can't keep it going, I sign up for a writing club with academicladder.com. It's $$, but I find it's worth it to light a fire under my rump. Even if you don't sign up, there are good articles there.

Kristin, ok, that's a little different. I'd give 'em a time limit and say sorry, I've got to go get my tinfoil hat adjusted. I'd say showing up drunk falls under the category of gossiping/texting/spiffing their hair. They are not using their time well and are therefore abusing yours.

[namaste_mom]

geofizz - that is a good question. My tenure committee and myself are operating as if I still have to make up that work. I don't know if I created that in my head or if there is documentation somewhere. I need to go to the original letter from the Dean and also to the policy on stopping the tenure clock (which is officially for giving birth to live babies because they never considered the latter). I can also ask the chair of the tenure committee. Oh
and I had to read that cookie thing a couple of times to get it....no wonder my students always think I'm tricking them too.

kerc - I would let them hang out if I had the time. I don't teach my own labs but that is what I would recommend the TA to do. But, most likely you don't have a lot of free time. Nontraditional students like to take their time and make sure they understand the material.

CJ - that gave me a laugh. I suggest you do as little of that as possible while saying that you did a bunch of it in your cover letter by pointing out where in the articles their concerns are already addressed.

Catina - welcome. I suggest you take inventory on what needs to be done. I would make a list that contained absolutely everything down to the littlest detail of what needs to be done (you can limit this to a short amount of time like a week, or a month, or longer). Then, look over the list and choose something to do and do it. Once that is done, do something else on the list. This will give a feeling of accomplishment and make you feel like your getting somewhere instead of being overwhelmed.

[rcr]

Originally Posted by catina

and I figured, hey, I have tenure, I"m not at a top research institution by any account--I can relax at work now and spend more time with her than most working moms can imagine.

that is my dream right now. I can't wait until (cross fingers) I get tenure. I spend almost no time with my LO right now, and it is all in the hopes of getting tenure and being able to have a job and spend a lot of time with my LO.

[KalamazooMom]

Technological devices at meetings?

Do any of you have policies about this at your institution or in your department? I have been increasingly annoyed with people and their laptops, PDA's, Blackberries, iphones, and whatever else at meetings. Some small segment of these people are probably taking notes or doing legitimate work. But I KNOW many of them are doing e-mail, facebook, surfing the web or whatever. I just brought this up at a faculty meeting and was met with a lot of hostility and people who suggested that to have a policy like that would make them "feel like a 15 year old." Anyone dealt with this issue in an academic environment?

[namaste_mom]

Isn't it just common courtesy? We don't have a problem in our faculty meetings. Some make a big deal about taking out their device and setting it to meeting mode. I think actually scrolling around on a PDA or a cell phone is rude. Only the note taker has their computer out. We only have about 11 in the faculty meeting.

We used to have a guy who insisted that he needed to read papers and edit papers in the faculty meeting. But I think it is just for show. Something like "Hey look at me, I'm a busy person" I think people doing that in meetings are trying to show how important and busy they are. But, I'm not impressed.

[KalamazooMom]

Originally Posted by namaste_mom

Isn't it just common courtesy?

Yes, EXACTLY! That's what I thought. So I don't get why people reacted so strongly against what I was saying. Apparently I work with a lot of people who will NOT be told what to do. Grrrr

[Geofizz]

Hmmm, yeah, that doesn't happen here either. There's one guy that answers every phone call he gets (he leaves the room) because he's more important than the rest of us, but otherwise people pay attention.

I have, however, started to demand common courtesy of those calling meetings. I only go if there's a published agenda. My division head seems to like to meet for the sake of meeting.

I got comments on my dissertation, though, by realizing my advisor would read anything in his hands during faculty meetings. I'd hand him a hard copy of a chapter before the meeting, and I'd always get it back two hours later. For him, his attitude was that we was smarter than everyone else and that he could pay attention to the meeting even though he was reading something else at the same time.

I'm constantly tempted to bring knitting to the meetings. It would help prevent my urge to strangle some of my colleagues.

[mirlee]

Originally Posted by rock_dr

Dear Editor of Major Journal In My Discipline,

thank you so much for sending my manuscript to one of the prickliest, stuck-in-his-ways, curmudgeons in the field. I am struggling to reconcile his non-constructive negativity with the very positive comments from renowned Reviewer #2, but your comment that 'you agree with reviewer #1 and therefore I should lean towards addressing his concerns first' is immensely useful. I will now proceed with adding in tons of additional detail and figures to address his pet peeves (and of course cite him endlessly), while simultaneously cutting the manscript length in half.

Ok, now I have to get back to my blasted book edit. It's due by Thursday, next week!

[rcr]

I have never seen it as a problem in faculty meetings, but I have banned laptops and other electronic devices from my classroom unless the students ask me for permission first. The students who are really taking notes have asked, and I have no problem with it. The students who are emailing and facebooking don't ask, and so they are not allowed to do it. I had a huge problem with students emailing and facebooking during lectures. I have even had students texting on cell phones in my class. ugh. Of course, this is in anenvironment where students also think that wikipedia is a sorce that they can cite in a paper.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by rcr

I have never seen it as a problem in faculty meetings, but I have banned laptops and other electronic devices from my classroom unless the students ask me for permission first. The students who are really taking notes have asked, and I have no problem with it. The students who are emailing and facebooking don't ask, and so they are not allowed to do it. I had a huge problem with students emailing and facebooking during lectures. I have even had students texting on cell phones in my class. ugh. Of course, this is in anenvironment where students also think that wikipedia is a sorce that they can cite in a paper.

I'm doing this for the first time this quarter, and I'm really happy with how it's working. People are paying attention more, and I'm finding I hate the back row of the class less. Facebook hasn't been my biggest problem: fantasy baseball was the worst.

I still have some people texting. I talk right at them until I get their attention, and to keep myself interested in the "game" I time myself with the clock in the back of the room. It's kind of a one sided staring contest. Last week I went 110 seconds talking straight at one student. By the time she noticed, everyone in the class (about 150 people) was looking at her. Normally if it goes longer than 20 seconds or so, a neighbor taps the offender.

... and I dance to cell phone ring tones. Once per quarter, because it doesn't happen more than that. I guess that tells you something about my dancing.

[kerc]

I provide a warning (one per semester) and then kick students out for texting in class. I'm pretty sure I have a facebooker for the first time this semester. I'm taking notes and am going to ban laptops without permission next semester.

[Realrellim]

Originally Posted by KalamazooMom

Do any of you have policies about this at your institution or in your department? I have been increasingly annoyed with people and their laptops, PDA's, Blackberries, iphones, and whatever else at meetings.

DH's dept doesn't and apparently most people are doing other things during their meetings. That only seems to be the case at large meetings (department/divison) though. DH usually edits papers. In small meetings I think he actually pays attention. They also have a ton of meetings. He spent two days last week in meetings, all day. It's over the top.

We don't seem to have that problem in my dept, but we only have a large meeting once per semester. I just sit and knit because at least 50% of the meeting has no bearing on what I do. It's all guidelines on what students need to do for recitals, recital attendance, preparing for their recitals, not having food in the practice rooms, explaining that students who join an ensemble can't just drop out and get an NC halfway through the semester, more about performance students...and I teach gen-ed students music appreciation. Online. So...I don't feel badly about knitting in the least.