Saturday, January 21, 2012

The light at the end of the tenure track...

I was reading a book this past week about faculty, tenure, and academic freedom (makes sense, since this is the type of job I'm trying to get). This cartoon was used with permission in the book, and it was a perfect illustration. The firing squad are the other academics...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Back in Business

The new semester started this week, and as usual, I am excited to get this show on the road. Currently, I've got two classroom sections of "Human Growth and Development" and one online section of "Adolescent Psychology".

I had an Honors Intro to Psych class scheduled for this semester, with an emphasis on brain research - I was going to have guest speakers from the local community who were involved in different kinds of psychology/neuroscience research - but it didn't make (only 4 of 15 possible slots). To be fair, I was up against two other Honors Psych classes for this semester. I will definitely try again for the Fall. I love the idea of getting to work with smaller class sizes and focus a little more on the research aspect of psychology.

Yesterday, I got my course evaluations back from the Fall semester and was rewarded for my effort with an average rating of "Excellent". I understand why the delayed feedback, but this was perfect timing to give me the extra boost for my new classes.

So, here we go again!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Syllabus Time!

I just got done editing and revising the syllabi and online content for my two online courses (Adolescent Psychology, and Human Growth and Development). I'm still getting used to the Moodle setup (we use Blackboard everywhere I've ever been), but so far, it's reasonably easy to use.

It feels good to get the ball rolling for the Spring semester. 6 more days until school starts! Are YOUR syllabi ready to go?