Saturday, March 03, 2007
very very busy
This past week has been incredibly hectic, one of the busiest on record.
In addition to my normal teaching stuff--preparing lectures for this week, writing/grading homework assignments, writing a lab, etc.--I had:
* to read/rank about 40 applications for the physics freshman scholarshipss
* to read/rank about 100 or so applications for all of the other freshman scholarships
* to read/rank 15 applications for the "Murphy award" for the top graduating UW-L senior
* to conduct interviews with two incoming freshmen for one of the scholarships (I'm chair of the university's scholarship committee)
* to prepare all of next week's lectures, since I'll be out of town Monday afternoon - Thursday night. (I'm going to the APS "March Meeting" conference in Denver)
* to write up the prepared lectures in such a fashion that people can decipher my notes when they substitute for me for Wednesday's lectures
* to prepare homework assignments to be given out next Wednesday while I'm away, for two of my classes
* to prepare the lab handout for next Friday's Circuits lab
* to write an exam for next Thursday's Physics 104 class
* to grade some "Fermi question" exams and short papers for my senior "Capstone class".
* to transcribe and analyze the comments from the focus groups I conducted back in December, regarding how things went when the students had closed book/notes exams vs. note sheet permited vs. open book vs. take home exams.
* to write a survey based on the stuff I learned from last year's focus groups, to give to the people who took last week's Circuits exam. I gave the exam to half the class as closed notes, and to the other half with a note-sheet allowed; now I have to assess things like how their study habits were affected. (This is part of my project for the Wisconsin Teaching Fellow's program I'm in.)
* to choose components and order a new computer (OK, this isn't something I had to do, but it's something I wanted to do :-) )
* to help a friend load a moving van this morning
* to conduct a baptismal service this afternoon
* to write the talk that I'm giving next week at the conference
Well, I didn't get that last item done, but I did do all the rest!
Unfortunately I still have to prepare my research presentation talk. I'll have a couple of hours on Monday before I leave, and maybe some time on the airplane (although I haven't had much success trying to work on airplanes in the past). Of course, my talk isn't unil Thursday, so I'll also have Tuesday and Wednesday evenings; that'll have to be good enough, unless I want to skip conference sessions during the day.
Wow, no wonder I'm tired. Time for bed!
In addition to my normal teaching stuff--preparing lectures for this week, writing/grading homework assignments, writing a lab, etc.--I had:
* to read/rank about 40 applications for the physics freshman scholarshipss
* to read/rank about 100 or so applications for all of the other freshman scholarships
* to read/rank 15 applications for the "Murphy award" for the top graduating UW-L senior
* to conduct interviews with two incoming freshmen for one of the scholarships (I'm chair of the university's scholarship committee)
* to prepare all of next week's lectures, since I'll be out of town Monday afternoon - Thursday night. (I'm going to the APS "March Meeting" conference in Denver)
* to write up the prepared lectures in such a fashion that people can decipher my notes when they substitute for me for Wednesday's lectures
* to prepare homework assignments to be given out next Wednesday while I'm away, for two of my classes
* to prepare the lab handout for next Friday's Circuits lab
* to write an exam for next Thursday's Physics 104 class
* to grade some "Fermi question" exams and short papers for my senior "Capstone class".
* to transcribe and analyze the comments from the focus groups I conducted back in December, regarding how things went when the students had closed book/notes exams vs. note sheet permited vs. open book vs. take home exams.
* to write a survey based on the stuff I learned from last year's focus groups, to give to the people who took last week's Circuits exam. I gave the exam to half the class as closed notes, and to the other half with a note-sheet allowed; now I have to assess things like how their study habits were affected. (This is part of my project for the Wisconsin Teaching Fellow's program I'm in.)
* to choose components and order a new computer (OK, this isn't something I had to do, but it's something I wanted to do :-) )
* to help a friend load a moving van this morning
* to conduct a baptismal service this afternoon
* to write the talk that I'm giving next week at the conference
Well, I didn't get that last item done, but I did do all the rest!
Unfortunately I still have to prepare my research presentation talk. I'll have a couple of hours on Monday before I leave, and maybe some time on the airplane (although I haven't had much success trying to work on airplanes in the past). Of course, my talk isn't unil Thursday, so I'll also have Tuesday and Wednesday evenings; that'll have to be good enough, unless I want to skip conference sessions during the day.
Wow, no wonder I'm tired. Time for bed!
# posted by John Colton @ 8:29 PM 
