Monthly Archives: January 2015

So far so good

Mostly on track to the to-do list in previous post.

Since it’s raining like crazy today I did not go on the promised run though.  I am instead constructing the Fun Board and I am musing on how to make one part of it work: the tracker

Chip goal: Ability to track effective use of weeks

Chip design: Colors represent quality of use of week (multiple activities) [I really like this because of the appeal of adding different color chips to pools, get some dopamine circuits going, though it’s a little harder to make it work than if the chips represent weeks and are sorted into pools…)

THOUGHT: there should be some recognition that some of the activities are necessarily more challenging and/or energetically expensive than others

Chip mechanics: To best tap into dopamine circuits, there are blue chips which are earned for a well-spent week, and red chips which mark a poorly spent week.  Blue chips are needed to buy off red chips, and an accumulation of red chips results in required punishments.  Blue chips may also be spent on rare luxuries.

Blue chip earnings:

  • Activities from at least 4 categories
  • At least 10 activities in a week
  • At least 15 activities in 2 weeks
  • For every 2 high-commitment activities completed in the last week
  • For not having any activities in 5+ weeks category

Blue chip spendings:

  • 2 chip: Restaurant cheat day (if not, home cookin’!)
  • 3 chips: Remove Red Chip
  • Need at least one more
  • What else even motivates me besides food?….. hmm

The chip exchange rates should be modified as time goes on, especially altered if not teaching summer school

Ahhh Texas!

Well I got a new job, quit my previous jobs, moved halfway across the country, and have taught so far one week of biology classes at Victoria College!  Woo!

Tenure track is awesome.  My own office, tons of classes that are less work than what I was doing before, all is great.

And yet it’s already piling up a bit!  I was really sick the week before classes and still a tad sick the first week (still not 100%), so maybe that’s some of it, but I’m also struggling to get organized.  There’s a to-do list on my whiteboard in my office and another on my phone but it’s not coming together.  I was supposed to get a ton of stuff done Monday which was a holiday but I only really got the essentials done and didn’t really get ahead per se.

I’ll try again.  I think I need to just run through the next few days to get things going.

Wednesday:

  • Get to campus by 10, warm up etc
  • 2404 Lecture (prepped)
  • 2401 Lab is OFF due to the holiday, so get these things done in no particular order:
  • Eat lunch at Subway because I’m too tired (and also out of ziploc bags) to make lunch right now CHECK
  • Create gradebook for lecture (on computer)
  • Create gradebook for labs (printed)
  • EVC grade printouts CHECK
  • Teach evening 2404 lab
  • Come home tired, eat tilapia (oops I think I neglected to move them to the fridge), crash

Thursday:

  • Morning run if possible
  • Eat lunch at home
  • Buy ziploc bags and hit post office to mail EVC grades (oops)
  • Get to campus by 1
  • Teach afternoon 2404 lab
  • BJJ (assuming I’m feeling up for it)

Friday:

  • Get to campus by 10
  • Teach Friday lecture
  • Science club meeting (?) and AMS meeting catchup (?)
  • Grade and enter lecture quizzes while in office hours
  • ADDED: Hit post office, HEB and Petco
  • Go home, if everything is caught up play Xbox or something
  • Make next week’s lesson plans (at least Mondays)

Saturday:

  • BJJ if skipped in the morning, else run
  • Make at least one lesson plan
  • Once lesson plans are done, make quiz based on lessons
  • Head to San Antonio for EXALTED!  Huzzah

Sunday:

  • Rest of the lesson plans including labs
  • More goofing off after! Hopefully.
  • Don’t forget to make BURRITOS!
  • BONUS INCENTIVE: If I have finished all my lesson plans BEFORE Sunday I get to play Civilization II and/or ZAngband.  WOO!

Doesn’t look bad at all!  I think the hangup is in my hesitation with regards to how to approach the lecture grading versus attendance.  Perhaps I can enumerate the questions:

  • Do I maintain the attendance separate from the grade sheet? The answer is yes, even though it means double-entering everything it reduces confusion
  • Do I print out the attendance? Don’t think so but check with Bill
  • Do I print out the grades? Uh, no.  Duh
  • Do I put the in-lecture quizzes on blackboard? Do I hand back the quizzes? This is tricky because I need to do at least one of these, but I really don’t want to clog up blackboard with lecture quizzes and I don’t want to hand back quizzes in a huge mess. Maybe I can just tell students to pick up their quizzes at my office.  It’s either that or make a grade box which I should probably do anyway to give them back their lecture exams

Well I feel a lot more organized now!  Time for bed!