Weekly Update: 12/16 - 12/22

View of my work space at home, complete with a “fancy” new chair - Winter 2019

reflection

Back with another quick update.

Grades were turned in this week which means that fall quarter is officially over. Of course, I wasn't teaching this term so there was no end of term chaos for me (thank goodness)... just general life chaos. The end of fall means that winter quarter is right around the corner, which means I'll be teaching again. During last year’s online winter research methods course I had students write a short reflection about their learning that went along with their final assignment. One of the prompts that they could respond to was, "what advice would you give to future students in this course?" As a gift to this year's class, I'm compiling and organizing last year's responses and posting them to our course page. This past week I spent time re-reading their responses and couldn't help but smile at their words of wisdom. That reflective component of their final assignment is my favorite part of the course. To me, it's a reminder of how powerful reflecting on your own learning can be... and yet it's something that we often overlook at the end of the course because we just want to get through it. Work has been hard, but this was an activity that felt a bit more meaningful than most, making it easier to tackle.

What was going on for me this week? I had an all day grant writing workshop one day, three doctors appointments (it’s a never ending saga), and a check-in with a collaborator. In between running around I worked on finalizing everything for my online course so that it’s ready to open in early January, a research project, and more paperwork related to my dad's estate. I also snuck in a trip to OMSI (our local science museum) with Ellie and Mike. My first visit since we moved here.

I'm taking the next 2 weeks fully off (minus a two days where I’ve got meetings or time sensitive stuff to finish up). I'm also going to push pause on weekly updates while I try and figure out a new rhythm to writing for the blog. It's felt really forced lately, which usually means that I need to step back for a second and reassess. Until next time.