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THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

Since I am no longer a professor in the classroom, this blog is changing focus. (I may at some future date change platforms, too, but not yet). I am now (as of May 2019) playing around with the idea of using this blog as a place to talk about the struggles of writing creatively. Those of you who have been following (or dipping in periodically) know that I've already been doing a little of that, but now the change is official. I don't write every day--yet--so I won't post to the blog every day--yet. But please do check in from time to time, if you're interested in this new phase in my life.


Hi! And you are...?

I am interested to see the fluctuation in my readers--but I don't know who is reading the blog, how you found it, and why you find it interesting. I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to use the "comment" box at the end of any particular post to let me know what brought you to this page--and what keeps you coming back for more (if you do).





Monday, March 28, 2011

Brain break

Before I plunge back into the sea of papers that I managed skillfully to avoid over the weekend (thereby creating a huge amount of pressure on myself for the next three days), I wanted to blog clear my brains a bit. And to record a few things before I've used up every ounce of mental energy I've got.

I don't know what possessed me, but over the weekend, I sent out an e-mail to the entire campus, as follows:

"As many of you know, NCC's administration has recently made it very clear that anything we do on campus computers, using the campus inter- or intranet connections, is potentially subject to access by 'the college' at any time. Let us set aside for the moment the fact that, as one of our colleagues pointed out, there is no clarity about who constitutes 'the college' (faculty and staff are members of the college too: do we have the right to scrutinize each other's e-mails and web surfings?). The larger question is, what might lead a member of the administration, for instance, to access someone's electronic records? There are a lot of people on our campus using campus-provided computers, NCC e-mail addresses, the campus's access to the net. Why might one person's activities be singled out?

"The issue apparently is not just one of intercampus policies and politics: Wisconsin is providing a fascinating test case of the intersection between state politics, freedom of information, and academic freedom. I refer you to the case of historian Dr. William Cronon: http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/24/open-records-attack-on-academic-freedom/."

Well, this has stirred up quite a bit of response, both in terms of e-mails (many of which state what I already said, as if I hadn't said it: typical of academics, for whom nothing has been said until I've said it my way) and in terms of people remarking upon it when I see them around campus. Paul just told me that the union posted the link on their web page, noting that I contributed it. And I am now fiercely aware that anything I write in this blog is subject to being read by the administration, as I usually write it on the campus computer. With that e-mail, I have painted a large target on my chest: anyone who is nervous about what faculty are up to may consider that I have provided sufficient reason for my computer files to be scrutinized. I'm not concerned about anything I say in the blog (though perhaps I should be: confident or naive?), but it's strange to contemplate the idea that what I write might be gone over, looking for evidence of some kind of misbehavior. I've never assumed that I had any particular privacy with this blog--it is a blog, after all: the point is that it is available to be read widely. And I'm a pretty good girl about following the rules. Still, it does give one to think. Cronon also thought he was following all the rules, and he's come under scrutiny at least, if not outright attack. Well, it will be interesting to see if this ends up biting me in the ass.

Turning my attention back to more joyful matters, however, the second class today was great, truly terrific. The students were fascinated by The Left Hand of Darkness--confused, but fascinated. And they were already picking up on the primary theme, on gender. Often when I've taught the novel in the past, students haven't gotten to that point until the very end--if then--and often not without a lot of prodding and Socratic questioning from me. This time, they've read three chapters and they're already getting it. Well, this one section is: the earlier bunch didn't have the same moment of brilliance. But I love that they're racing ahead of me with their questions, wanting to know more more more more. I think having them create their own glossaries is helping: they have to keep track of who's who and what's what. And since I'm collecting the glossaries weekly, I can see when they're way off base (as on occasion they are).

I've done something that may or may not be a mistake. I gave them the web addresses for two informal, non-scholarly study guides to the novel. I did tell them that they still need to read the book, and I did tell them that they must not plagiarize from the study guides when doing their reading journals--nor use the guides at all, in any way, for their final papers. My worry is that they may use them not as a guides but as an end-run around having to do the work of reading the book. My hope is that they can get the big picture stuff cleared up by using the study guides and thus can turn their attention to more in-depth understanding of the novel, which is why I took the risk. My guess is that I'll get a mix of both.

I also realized I assigned an insane amount of reading for next week. I'm going to give them all the good news next time I see them and even things out a bit. It's still a hell of a lot of reading, but not quite so wildly optimistic. I already told the morning section of 102 that I'm postponing the due date for their revisions: since I won't return their first versions until Thursday and then see them again Monday, I didn't think it was fair that they have less time than the other sections to get their work turned around. Now they have more time--which also is not fair, so though I wasn't going to, I will postpone revisions for all the sections. Realistically, I probably won't get to marking anything until that weekend anyway. It will mean they have less time to do the reading instead (easing pressure one place leads to crunch elsewhere)--but it will also mean that they have to have the reading done for the first class of the week, which would be better, as it will give us more to discuss.

And OK, I admit it: part of why I'm blogging now instead of at the end of the day is procrastination. Not only did I encounter the semester's first instance of blatant plagiarism yesterday, which put my nose seriously out of joint, but all of the improvements that students made in the revisions of their first papers have disappeared in the first version of their second papers. I understand that this is to be expected, but it's still disheartening.

But the papers still need to be graded, no matter what--and I have a lot to do yet: twelve for Wednesday, and another slew for Thursday (somewhere between twenty and thirty: I counted but have blissfully forgotten). And I have meetings during club hour tomorrow and Thursday, and students coming in, and a zillion things to eat up every second of my time. And that 5:30 alarm thing has knocked the proverbial stuffing out of me. Still, there's no way out but through. So (as my buddy Jane and I used to say) onward and awkward.

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