Weekly Update: 5/13 - 5/19

My first day of class this year where we flew paper airplanes… this week marked my last in person class for the term

reflection

Well, I started off the week with the best intentions, and then I caught Ellie’s cold and pretty much just managed to get things ready for my two classes. Although, as I was putting this post together I realized that I did some sort of workout every day except one this week, which is huge! So, I was able to keep momentum going with working out, despite getting sick (it was a head cold, so nothing too intense, just annoying). I taught my last in person class this week (because it’s in a condensed format, we end earlier than the actual end of the term). I’m teaching entirely online next year and it’s strange to think that I won’t be in the classroom for another year, perhaps more if I continue with the online teaching trend. In person teaching drains so much of my energy (whether it’s in a condensed format or weekly), so I’m curious to see how I’ll feel, energy-wise, next year. I also find that having to transform in-person content/activities to online spaces helps me break down concepts/ideas in a way that makes me feel like I’m being a lot clearer (and for the most part, feedback I’ve gotten matches these feelings!). During my last in person class there were a few concepts that I was struggling to verbally communicate. In the back of my mind I was thinking that I’m glad I’ll be teaching the class online next year so I can work through how to explain things in video format, when we aren’t able to communicate back and forth in real time. I guess theoretically it shouldn’t make a difference, but that shift from back/forth real time communication in the classroom to creating videos that I know students will be watching without me around to clarify points helps me break concepts down, step by step.

On the sleep front, Ellie’s night time wake-ups are continuing. Last night we resorted to bribing with fruit snacks… if she got through the night without coming in to our room, she could have fruit snacks the next day. I don’t know if the promise of fruit snacks did it, or if she was just exhausted from the day, but she slept through the night and didn’t get up until around ~7:45am. Between interruptions from Ellie and being sick/not being able to breathe, my sleep hasn’t been great (Mike’s too, although he did manage to dodge the sickness). We’ll see what this next week brings.

research

Paper 2: My goal for the week was to organize the key points I’d been pulling from the articles I finished reviewing last week into sections for the introduction. Goal met? Nope.

Paper 3: My goal for the week was to send off results from the quick analysis I did last week to a co-author. Goal met? Yes. I did this Monday before my cold hit.

Paper 5: My goal for the week was to review main points from the articles I saved last week. Goal met? Nope.

teaching

Course prep (condensed stats course): My goals for the week were to finalize class 4 slides/content, print in-class activities, finalize/print agenda, print assignment 2s, review and provide feedback for assignment 2, and send an email to the group. Goal met? Yes.

Course prep (online human dev course): My goals for the week were to post an update from office hours, update the grade book with discussion posts grades, create week 9 videos, create/finalize week 9 content, finalize week 8 content, input feedback for assignment 2 into d2l, and double check week 8 content before it goes live. Goal met? Yes.

service + admin

Planning: My goals for the week were to plan for the current week and to have my weekly list ready to go on Friday with Monday’s tasks picked out. Goal met? Yes.

Other general admin tasks: My goal for the week was to identify a few books to purchase with my remaining startup funds and get my computer squared away. Goal met? No to the books again and got my computer good to go for the most part (although it’s still having issues).

meetings, appointments, + events

✓early childhood equity lunch
✓office hours (x1)
✓drs appt
✓computer return
✓online office hours
✓online webinar
✓teach (last class for the term!)

personal

Workouts: Three lifting sessions and four 20 minute yoga sessions and a ~2 mile hike… on a roll!

Toddler on the Tenure Track: Goal: Get 2 posts up on the blog. Goal met? Yup.

Meditation: No sessions this week… however, yoga is giving me some of the same benefits (when I can do it by myself, which is rare).

Budget: ✓

Sleep: Here’s a quick update on my back to basics sleep goals that I started implementing on 5/1 (from this week).

8 hours of sleep: 1.5/7 nights [Continuing to give myself 1/2 points for nights where I was in bed but not necessarily asleep, so I got 3 half points this week. Getting a full 8 hours of sleep is proving to be really difficult… not that I thought it was going to be easy.]

No alarm: 4/7 mornings [Did fairly decent with waking up naturally, although I was still feeling pretty tired when I woke up. The other mornings my alarm went off or Ellie came in and woke us up.]

Limited screen time before bed: 7/7 [This week I shut screens off between 45 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes before my 11pm bedtime. This seemed easier than last week. My screen turn off time has started to bump up against Ellie’s bedtime, which gives me an easy marker of when to shut screens off. I know that when I come out of her room, I’m done with screens.]