Chipping away

First, thanks to those of you who identified the song and singer I talked about yesterday: "Breathe (2 a.m.)," by Anna Nalick. See if you can find it online: great song.

Now, about today: I overslept (but it was nice to start making up for the week-long deficit), so got in later than I intended, then spent too long noodling around getting my feet clear. Consequently, as I was plowing through sabbatical applications, adding my dime's worth, I got a call from the main office: they were going home, and the application folders needed to be locked up. Damn and damn and damn. I'll have to try to blast through the rest on Monday, since we're supposed to be ready to talk about them in P&B on Tuesday. I'm interested in how different the tone is among the various applicants, from the elegantly scholarly to the jovially informal. One of them was barely more than a page or two, and I was all set to scoff--but caught myself, as the first draft of my promotion folder may not be much more. It was helpful (though a bit daunting) to go through the promotion folder for the one of my mentees who submitted hers to me early. (Reminds me: I need to bug my other mentee, reminding him of the draft deadline.) Her application is truly impressive--and she didn't even explain all she's done as fully as she should. I'd be utterly disheartened, but she's going up for full, and I'm only going up for associate, so....

Anyway, because I had to stop work on the sabbatical folders, I had to turn my attention to writing up the observations: done and done. I observe one more colleague on Monday. If I can get his written up by Wednesday, I will; otherwise he'll have to wait until after the 26th.

Once that was finished, I suddenly realized I hadn't set up an alternative date for my own observation (a member of P&B has to observe me, in addition to the observation by the chair). (That suddenly sounds funny, as if I am referring to an inanimate object rather than the nongendered title for someone who heads a department. I've heard that in the past, before Bruce was elected our fearless leader, people might have felt they were being observed by an inanimate object.) Also, I got the written form of Bruce's observation of 229, and I thought, "Wow, did we really do that??" I don't think the class was operating quite on the rarified level Bruce's reportage suggests, but one student's question ignited the linguist in him, so he let that rip in the write-up. OK by me: it makes me sound fearsomely smart. I just hope to hell no one asks me about the various constructions of "ka" in Pawnee....

In any event, realizing I needed to set up that alternative date to be observed, I realized that before I could do that, I needed to work on adjusting the syllabi to compensate for the classes I'll probably cancel next week. (The student who is following this blog is probably monitoring that decision very closely: Yes, Laura, it's a pretty good bet you won't have your English class on Thursday--but don't count on it just yet. There's still a minuscule chance I'll be working so efficiently I won't have to cancel anything.) I hashed out an adjustment that I think will work (actually is better than I thought it would be, doesn't create as much of a crunch as I was afraid we'd run into--that is, if I didn't screw something up; I have to reread what I did when I'm more alert). I e-mailed Allen to suggest two possible dates. I wish he was coming to observe RB, but the KC section will be fine. Whichever date he selects, we'll be going over a relatively complex reading, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

But then, getting back to reworking the syllabus, I realized I have assigned a review sheet that I don't seem to have created (I'd swear I did in some previous semester, but I didn't have the patience to go hunting for it, so I just made up a new one). And since the next paper assignment requires that students do a little research--specifically on databases, dammit, so they understand there are sources of information other than Google and Wikipedia--I had to test-drive the search terms to be sure the kids can turn up something they can understand. Paul was going on about that last semester, not only about research but also the material they often choose to plagiarize: as he said, they either find the Proceedings of the Annual Conference for the Croation Lapidopterist Society or Billy Bucktooth's "I Love Butterflies" web page. They can't comprehend the one and the other is some idiot's random bilge. I actually have had students use articles from Ranger Rick as support for their essays. For those of you who are not familiar with Ranger Rick, I had outgrown it by the time I was in 4th grade. Even if I was a bit precocious, it still is hardly appropriate for college-level research.

And keeping them out of Wikipedia is really hard. We all try the "it's a place to start, but you need to track down the sources that are used by the people who post" approach, but most students just can't stand to take more than one step when it comes to research. The first thing they light upon is what they use, whether they understand it, whether it's useful--and if they can't immediately get to the full text of it, they say they can't find anything at all. (Sweetie, did you scroll down?)

Anyway, so here I am, at the office at 8 p.m. again. I don't know yet whether I'll come in tomorrow; I do tend to focus better here, but I'm starting to get some horrible kind of cabin fever. I've just been going from office to home to office to home (with only the inside of my car as a change of scenery) for so long I'm not sure I remember the concept of "outdoors." The fact that it is suddenly winter doesn't negate the fact that I miss actual air. (However, that plunge in temperature, in addition to clouds, rain, and wind, did make it easier to feel OK about canceling my ride again.)

I've got an entire thermos of tea that I didn't drink (kept forgetting about it), half my lunch is uneaten (got distracted), and I've been sitting so long my knees hurt. I can't remember the last time I got on my exercise bike, but ye gods do I know I need it. Maybe tomorrow. Depends on energy and how much work I get done. Story of the semester.