The fine example we set

OK, really, I'm tired of this. It seems that virtually every flier that gets put up around campus--and not by students, I might add, since students have to go through a complicated process to get fliers approved and therefore don't seem to post any, ever--has some trivial but appalling spelling mistake.

To wit:

• "your" for "you're"
• "insite" for "insight"
• "verses" for "versus"

These gems are sent out through email and highlighted on posters on every college building.

Semester after semester I try to teach my comp students that yes, there is a difference between "your" and "you're," or "there"-"their"-"they're," that getting them wrong makes you look unprofessional and sloppy, that you need to follow conventional spelling, and that proofreading is important. Is it any wonder that my weak little message doesn't sink in, when this is what their college models as acceptable communication?

Sigh. It's 8:23 in the morning, and I'm just about done.

Aggravation, oh aggravation,* I am so tired

I skipped a talk tonight that TM has to go to (it being on a topic that marginally relates to religion) so that I could stay home and prep for tomorrow's seminar, during which I'll be observed by a senior colleague. (For the record, may I say that this will be my third observation in a week???)

And yet, I just discovered that the flash drive on which my prep notes (I was so proud of myself for starting this while I was still on campus!) is still stuck in my office computer.

Bleah. I can take a few more notes, I guess, but will have to drag my ass into the office early AGAIN tomorrow to finish up before my 9am meeting with a student who wants to ask me questions about a scholarship I know nothing about. Is it likely that I will research the scholarship before we meet? No. Is it likely that this student--who is quite a smart and lovely person, don't get me wrong--will nonetheless manage to hang out in my office for the better part of an hour? Yes. Yes, it is.

Might I also report, for the record, that I spent two hours watching teacher ed presentations today, and will spend two hours doing so tomorrow, and next Monday, and next Tuesday? And might I also report that these presentations are all variations on the Children Are Our Future theme? Which is intolerable and makes me want to kill myself? Truly?

Even so, I am feeling moderately guilty for skipping the talk when now I can't really do my prep anyway. Luckily, I have plenty of grading to do, so there's no fear of idle hands in this house!

I want to go to bed.

*I know that Dr. Virago hates the misuse of this word, the proper meaning of which I only learned courtesy of her blog. But I think that this post can legitimately claim to be about the heaping up of exhausting burdens, and thus I will retain it as a significant part of the title.

Yippee. I think.

The article that I moaned about here is off to one of the fanciest of the fancy-pants medievalist journals.

I sent it off today, because in my job letters (for yes, I am applying to exactly three fantabulous jobs, at least one of which I stand no chance of getting, and that's okay), which I mailed this morning, I said that it was currently under review (without saying where, for I Am Nothing If Not Modest).

Being incapable of a lie (I Am Nothing If Not [Mostly] Honest), I couldn't even wait until tomorrow to send the thing off. So there it goes--out into the ether--quite remarkable, really, that such things are possible from my own home. Now, the inevitable wait for the inevitable rejection!

I swear I'm not pandering

Sorry about the bad blogging. Most of my mental posts lately have been on the subject of how busy TM and I are--when you teach at a college with fewer than 45 full-time faculty members, the four classes that you teach every semester are just a fraction of your work-related activities.

But I shall forgo lamenting/congratulating myself for my busyness, for today was an easy-ish day, with 10 student conferences instead of my two sections of comp and Brit Lit's being devoted to letting students work on their Dramatic Presentations in groups. I feel more relaxed tonight than I have all month.

And on the subject of Brit Lit: I scored me some major points in that class today, methinks. This is the first time that one of the surveys hasn't gone super well for me; it's not a problem class, at all (and I'm struck lately by the fact that I haven't really had problem classes since my first year; I wonder whether it's really that the classes have changed, or just that I don't personalize the bad ones in the same way? Of course I totally personalize the good ones and take them as hard evidence that I rawk). But it's kind of...duller than usual. Oddly enough, it's a smaller section than I've ever had before--only seventeen students--and I have a handful who will always participate and another, larger handful who will add things now and again. But for the last four semesters--Brit Lit I in the falls and Brit Lit II in the springs--the surveys have been fabulous and fun, and now it's just kind of sedate (which = dull, at times, I think). I actually have some really good, conscientious students in there--but I'm thinking that they might be the students who worry a lot about being Wrong and who therefore don't talk all that much. Anyway, it's been an okay class, but not one that I'm really excited about.

However, today I did two things--well, three--really not to win them over, but I sure did make them all happy.

First, they're all presenting scenes on Monday, and I asked them to hand in a 3-5-page reflection paper at the same time, describing how their group came to their staging decisions, how their performance (as a group and individually) derives from an interpretation of the play, etc. At the start of class, a (very strong) student asked me whether they could turn in the papers on Wednesday, so that they could reflect on their performances proper (and have a little longer to work on them). "Sure," I said. "That makes sense. I have no problem with that. Everyone" (raising my voice) "[Student] has suggested that I change the due date for the paper to Wednesday so that you can write about the performance itself. I think that that's a good idea. So let's just do that. Okay?" Sighs of relief and pleasure all around. I worried briefly that I was caving, or something, but honestly I don't particularly care (I'm getting more comp papers on Monday anyway, so it's not like it messes up my schedule) and I think that it was a totally reasonable suggestion. So eh, why cling to my power, here?

Second, I announced that I'm canceling next Friday's class because Awesome New Dean suggested that I attend a conference on collegiate Honors programs in DC. And we all know the brownie points that canceling a Friday afternoon class can garner, so I needn't mention those.

Finally, one of the groups asked me to play Helen's role in their performance of scene 12 of Doctor Faustus, since they're short one person and it's a non-speaking part. They've decided to take a comedic approach to the scene, so they want me to strut and do a little Miss America-wave as I cross the stage. (This is an all-female group, by the way.) I nodded thoughtfully and agreed--but not without commenting that they're clearly just trying to undermine ALL of my authority in the classroom, right? They laughed, and I think that they were pretty pleased with the plan.

(They also teased one of their group members mercilessly for publicly referring to me by the nickname that apparently they think I don't know, although really it's what almost all of the majors call me--so that was kind of fun--I have to say that, never really having had a nickname, it does make me feel good to have such a harmless (and genuinely not disrespectful) one now!)

So let's see whether they're most chipper next week!

(And really my classes are just fine this semester. The seminar is Teh Awesome. It probably needs its own post one of these days. Awesome New Dean showed up yesterday to observe and join in the discussion, and it was fab. Truly, this class--and the one in the same slot in the major that I taught last year, also a capstone English seminar--makes me so glad to be a professor.)

Enough of this rambling self-congratulation. Enjoy your weekends, y'all. As for me, tomorrow I plan to sleep in until eight o'clock. Dude!

Academia engages in misleading advertising, too

To date, my work has been on the less obviously sexy side of a currently sexy topic (CST). Some might even argue that my interests are even a little dry, especially compared to the blood and fireworks of CST. To give you an illustration, suppose I work on fifteenth-century er0tica, but ignore the er0tica itself and instead talk about the watermarks of the paper upon which it's printed. I'm interested in where the paper came from, who was selling it, why it ended up covered in this particular subject matter, and so forth. Interesting stuff, to be sure--but not what most people would immediately be drawn to, given sexiness and whatnot that first catches the eye.

So tonight I'm giving my first big lecture, here at Field. It is, in fact, the first time--apart from a couple of job talks--when I will receive Solo Billing at an academic event. I'm a little nervous, mostly about the Q&A. See, it's a lecture for the general public: the faculty (none of whom works on anything even close to my research), students (half a dozen might show up), and, especially, the community. People from Field Town, Ordinary City, and even Nominally Ordinary City show up in droves for these events, for some reason. (Well, small droves. Little, scattered droves of the elderly, the curious, and the strange.)

And I'm worried because, given the nature of the lecture, and what I, in a crass effort to make it sound exciting, chose to call it, the posters all look something like this:

Fifteenth-Century Er0tica!!!!!
and the paper it's printed on.

So I fully expect to get lots of questions about (to continue the analogy), turn-ons, positions, anatomical details, etc., when all I really feel qualified to say is, "But look--this is a French manuscript written on German paper!!!"

Wish me luck.

How the Cats Spent The Weekend

I didn't do much better.

*And yes, these are the only cats: Kittenfoot went to live with her lovely new owner--a cat-needing colleague of ours--on Thursday. She is missed, but not by these guys, who never even detected her presence. Lazy so-and-sos.

Postcards from Boringland

I've got pictures from the hayride to eventually post, but not at the moment. And square dancing was EVEN MORE FUN than it was in the sixth grade. Seriously. Teh hilarious.

Right now, though, I = sick (just a cold; TM's got it too) and have to give this big public lecture thing on Tuesday. And classes this week were sort of meh. Nothing traumatic, just dull. It's homecoming week here, though, so that might explain it. Also I'm teaching Twelfth Night again, which I just can't teach in a compelling way, for some reason. Perhaps it's drama in general, with which I have little experience. (And I let myself off the hook for boring comp classes.)

Um...yeah, I think that that about covers it. But lest you think the situation is too dire, I should add that today was a day off (homecoming, again), so last night, after a colleague's talk, TM and I built a fire and watched "Rome" whilst drinking calvados and then fell asleep on the floor with the cats. There are luxuries, now and again.