Trying to stay organized [work, teaching]
Mar. 4th, 2021 03:24 pmI haven't had the bandwidth to update since this last Sunday, looks like.
Sounds about right.
On Monday afternoon, a shipment of animals finally showed up, just 4 days later than it was supposed to. I wasn't sure whether or not the animals would make it, but they're still alive today, so I think we can consider the outcome a success and so I can share photos with you.
New juvenile leopard gecko:

Betta who refuses to be photogenic:




Here's the lab space Ilive teach in all day on Tuesdays:

And some other new stuff in my office:

That's a bike stand for my bicycling class, and here's a slightly closer photo of the reproduction of a painting by a friend of mine that I just bought:

I can never pass up a good pun.
I'm now at the point in the bicycling class where it's time to work on drumming up bikes for the students who don't currently have access to one. This is a multi-stage run-around project. Tended to the first two steps today - we'll see whether/how they bear fruit.
As for now, back to this embarrassingly overdue manuscript review. Got to do that, three meetings, and cricket care before I'm done for today.
It could be worse. Every single day I thank myself for NOT recording lecture videos this semester. They take way too much time and trying to stay ahead on them is awful. (have to stay far enough ahead so students have time to watch them).
I posted this on another social media site, but: I don't think the whole concept of the "flipped" classroom necessarily works in the same way during a pandemic as during non-pandemic times. I suspect that most evidence indicating that flipped classrooms result in more effective learning was collected in non-pandemic contexts, where just one or two of any given student's classes is flipped, not the majority of their classes. During a pandemic, things are screwy across all of the classes that a student takes, so I'm skeptical about whether this teaching approach is actually any more beneficial than the alternatives.
I already knew that the general pre-pandemic advice for faculty was to not attempt to flip their class prior to obtaining tenure.
Instead, it seems like a better plan to have structured class meeting times and interactive lectures, either in person or on Zoom.
Sounds about right.
On Monday afternoon, a shipment of animals finally showed up, just 4 days later than it was supposed to. I wasn't sure whether or not the animals would make it, but they're still alive today, so I think we can consider the outcome a success and so I can share photos with you.
New juvenile leopard gecko:

Betta who refuses to be photogenic:




Here's the lab space I

And some other new stuff in my office:

That's a bike stand for my bicycling class, and here's a slightly closer photo of the reproduction of a painting by a friend of mine that I just bought:

I can never pass up a good pun.
I'm now at the point in the bicycling class where it's time to work on drumming up bikes for the students who don't currently have access to one. This is a multi-stage run-around project. Tended to the first two steps today - we'll see whether/how they bear fruit.
As for now, back to this embarrassingly overdue manuscript review. Got to do that, three meetings, and cricket care before I'm done for today.
It could be worse. Every single day I thank myself for NOT recording lecture videos this semester. They take way too much time and trying to stay ahead on them is awful. (have to stay far enough ahead so students have time to watch them).
I posted this on another social media site, but: I don't think the whole concept of the "flipped" classroom necessarily works in the same way during a pandemic as during non-pandemic times. I suspect that most evidence indicating that flipped classrooms result in more effective learning was collected in non-pandemic contexts, where just one or two of any given student's classes is flipped, not the majority of their classes. During a pandemic, things are screwy across all of the classes that a student takes, so I'm skeptical about whether this teaching approach is actually any more beneficial than the alternatives.
I already knew that the general pre-pandemic advice for faculty was to not attempt to flip their class prior to obtaining tenure.
Instead, it seems like a better plan to have structured class meeting times and interactive lectures, either in person or on Zoom.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-05 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-05 12:33 pm (UTC)Please tell me that your gecko is going to have a long and happy life in a sumptuous terrarium, feasting on cornmeal-fed crickets. And that sometimes, late at night, whem nobody is around, you will let him/her out so that she/he can dance on the ceiling.