Comments | iai_adept: 2/23/09

iai_adept

2/23/09

Feb 23, 2009 00:27

There is nothing like unstructured time to let you know what really motivates you. In my case, it is real, not self imposed deadlines (duh), and knowing that I will be speaking in front of an audiience.
I'm going to Northwestern U. on Thursday to talk research and get some advice on how best to package and "sell" my research to the journals.
I still ( Read more... )

mobile, teaching, academia

Comments 4

slobbit February 23 2009, 11:45:37 UTC

Ouch, about the evaluations.

Have a fun trip!

How's iai been going?

iai_adept February 24 2009, 02:50:04 UTC

Well, I'm dealing with the evaluations by telling myself that I am bound to have a bad semester, and that the ratings weren't bad ratings. They were just lower than the high ratings I usually get.
Of course, I only read the negative comments the students wrote, so it seemed worse than it probably was.
I am also dealing with it by brainstorming some ways to make the course more interesting to the students so they will read the books and, consequently, do better on the exams (rather than just complaining that the books were boring and the tests were too hard).

Thanks, I am looking forward to the trip. It will be great to speak with other subject matter experts and visit one of the best universities in the Midwest.

Iai has been great. I actually thought of something I wanted to post last night but didn't have the time.
I found out that I missed the deadline for the conference by a few weeks (!) so I have a little more time than I thought I would tonight. I'll see what I can post.

lllvis February 23 2009, 14:43:22 UTC

Eeek about the evaluations...sorry to hear about those.

Best of luck on the proposal!

iai_adept February 24 2009, 02:54:57 UTC

Thanks for the sympathy. I'm trying to treat the evaluations as an opportunity to improve certain aspects of my course. I just worry about dumbing down the course too much. Way too many people are doing that already. I know the students can learn the material. I have seen them rise to the occasion semester after semester. I just have to figure out how to motivate them so that they WANT to put in the effort to learn the material.

I totally missed the proposal deadline...by about 3 weeks.
I must have typed in the wrong date on my phone. I got the reminder last night but when I went to the website, I found out the deadline was actually at the beginning of February.
Oh well. I can still attend the conference and, now, I won't have to create two presentations for the trip this summer.