"Reading week"

The first 6 weeks of the autumn semester are among of the busiest times of year for me, which explains why I haven't been finding many moments to update this blog lately! In response to what was becoming an unbearable workload a few years ago we introduced a "reading week" in week 7 which gives the students a chance to catch up on their reading, and gives us a chance not only to catch up on marking and other teaching-related tasks but also to keep up with some of the other activities that we can't find time for during the busy teaching periods. So, today being the first day of the reading week, here's my list!

Tasks for the week include:

Respond to requests from Bath Spa University, where I am the "External Examiner" in Physical Geography, for feedback on their recent course developments, exam papers, etc.

Respond to a request from the Quality Assurance Office at Keele for commentary on the final report of an Internal Quality Audit of the School of Economics and Management at Keele, which I chaired earlier in the year.

Respond to a request from the Geographical Association for information about any corrections that need to be made to the text of my book "Glaciers and Glacial Landscapes", as they are planning to do a new printing of the book. (I take this to be good news, as it must mean that they have sold out of the first printing but are still selling copies!)

Get on with writing a paper that the editor of "Progress in Physical Geography" has asked that I submit before the end of November. I've been held up throughout the last couple of months by teaching-related work, and I need to spend a lot of time on this paper to get it into shape.

Attend the Keele Geography exam-board meeting where we confirm all the exam questions for the January exams.

Attend the Keele Geography Courses Management Committee where we organise the running of the courses.

Receive (I hope) and start to study the "self evaluation portfolio" that is being produced by the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy as part of the Keele Internal Quality Audit that I will be chairing later this month.

Meet with assorted students about their coursework, dissertations, personal difficulties, etc.

Mark 14 1st-year tutorial essays

Mark 40 2nd-year tutorial tests

Prepare teaching materials for week 8

Reorganise and update "Subglacial etc..." research group web pages

Try to get down to finishing off an experiment that is currently running in the Low Temperature Lab.

Try actually to do some reading!