the rest of it

While pulling out a book earlier today, an old (AmE) planner/(BrE) diary came with it. I don't know why this thing was shoved into the bookcase all by itself, but I couldn't help but have a look. Seventeen years ago today, I was in Rome with my parents, spouse, and one-year old, on a memorable vacation. But I was more interested in the following week:  That week, the first week of summer term 2009, is analogous to this week in 2026, which is the first week back into spring semester, after our three-week Easter break (itself a holdover from when our university had a three-term structure). The blankness of those pages struck me. Here's what 2026 looks like: My first reaction was: wow, that really shows how much more complicated and pressurised academic life has become. But then I looked at it harder.  My Google calendar is colo(u)r-coded: the old-blood-stain red is work. Lilac is self-care and life admin. Orange is social. (The bits of blue and green can be ignored.)  work ...

I have finally found the solution for collecting thoughts I have about teaching a class "next time" when I'm teaching it "this time" or when I'm not teaching at all.  In the bad old days, I'd write ideas down in notebooks or scraps of paper or in files on my computer, and then I'd not remember to look at them when it would be helpful to do so. These would come up when: I was reading an article or listening to a podcast and getting good ideas for the reading list or classroom activities. I was marking the students' work and realizing which aspects of writing I needed to teach more explicitly—or find some supportive resources for them. I had just given a lecture that was a bit too short/too long/too detailed/too loose...and needed to note that somewhere so as not to do it again next year. I got helpful feedback on students on what they found too tough/too easy. I was at a conference and learned something new. Colleagues shared some clever assessmen...

Blogger has just told me that they're retiring a blog I haven't logged into since 2006. It's the anonymous academic blog I wrote (and no one read) before Separated by a Common Language. The economics of higher education are worse than then, but I think it still holds up.  I may move more of these posts over to this blog as I go through it... economic determinism A friend pointed out  an article in Slate  that discusses an economic study of what happens to PhDs who graduate to a good job market versus those who graduate in a bad market. The upshot is: in good job markets, talented people get hired by good universities and have productive careers. In bad markets, talented people get hired by mediocre universities and don't produce much. Not really a surprise--the people at the 'top 50 universities' (i.e. in the US) they're talking about generally have much lower courseloads than those at Podunk State--not to mention more pressure to produce and the infrastruct...