Weekly Update: 9/23 - 9/29

This kid cracks me up… and at the same time kind of creeps me out!

reflection

This week we welcomed the newest cohort of students to our program, part of which involves all faculty and staff getting on stage and introducing ourselves in front of a very large room full of people. Which is probably the most nerve wrecking time of year for me… and now I don’t have to do it again for another year, whew! I get it into my head that I need to have something clever or inspiring to say and then when I get the mic it’s a wonder I remember my own name. I don’t see my career as a motivational speaker taking off, ha! Perhaps I just need to take some of the pressure off myself.

I opened my email on Monday morning to a request from my dean about applying for a fellowship. The “application” was just a paragraph about my research interests, so it wasn’t a heavy lift; however, any time something unexpectedly comes up (and needs to be done that day!) I (internally) feel a little frazzled. For a quick second I tried to write from a blank page and was really struggling. I realized I’d been working on my 4th year review materials and could just pull most of what I needed from them. I ended up pulling pieces from my review, making it flow, and sending it in, in about 30 minutes (after my initial freak out about not being able to get it in on time!). Always need to keep in mind not to reinvent the wheel when possible.

In other news, I got to volunteer in Ellie’s classroom this week, which was a lot of fun (not so great for my back though…). We’re really enjoying the co-op vibe and getting to see Ellie in action. Also… Ellie’s digging the Halloween costumes on display at the grocery store (as evidenced by the above pic).

On to my goals for the past week…

research

Poster presentation: Goal(s): Edit poster and send to collaborator. Goal(s) met? Yes.

Systematic review: Goal(s): Go through article titles for inclusion in the review with collaborator. Didn’t set a specific # goal, but just that we’d make some progress on this. Goal(s) met? Yes.

New project 1: Goal(s): Create document with categories for our review and send to collaborator, create plan for reviewing articles, start reviewing articles based on plan. Goal(s) met? Yup. After I created the plan I realized I’d be able to get through a first round review of all my articles this week, which was a nice surprise.

Fellowship application: This was an unexpected goal that I added to the mix when I checked my email on Monday morning and saw that I had a message from my dean encouraging me and a few others to apply for a fellowship sponsored by our university. I was able to shift a few things around to make space in my schedule to do this (it was a short paragraph on my research interests so nothing too strenuous). Goal(s): Write and submit a paragraph on my current research interests. Goal(s) met? Yes.

teaching

Online research methods course prep: Goal(s): Update point distribution based on changes I made to some of the assignments, figure out specific dates for winter term assignments, create generic assignments so the docs can be easily updated for future sessions of this course, remove admin info that was specific to last year from the online course shell, check in about errors with captioning. Goal(s) met? Yes.

Lead instructor: Goal(s): Put books on reserve at the library and let instructors know when this is done. Goal(s) met? Yes.

Tenure

4th year review: Goal(s): Edit my personal narrative for the 4th year review and get it down to 2 pages, update a paper on my CV that went from submitted to R+R over the summer, review and make necessary edits to my scholarly agenda. Goal(s) met? Yes.

service + admin

Planning: Goal(s): Finalize my plan for fall quarter, plan for the upcoming week. Goal(s) met? Yes.

meetings, appointments, + events

✓new student welcoming
✓drs appt x2
✓volunteering at Ellie’s preschool
✓head shot
✓check in with last year’s instructor about an online course I’m teaching this year
✓collaborator article review meeting and check in

personal

Toddler on the Tenure Track: Goal(s): Weekly update post, finalize first monthly newsletter (!!!). Goal(s) met? Yes

plan(it)*: Goal(s): Compare hosting options for December’s retreat. Goal(s) met? Yes.

Meditation: Goal(s): 10 minutes of meditation every day. Goal(s) met? Yes!

Budget: Goal(s): Update budget for the week, get October’s budget all set up which included revamping a lot of our line items to reflect changes in our bills (particularly from student loan payment increases). Goal(s) met? Yup.