20 years at Keele, starting no. 21!

I just went through the first week of a teaching term at Keele for the 21st time! I started here in September 1987, so I've completed 2o years and am embarking on number 21! Most of this year's students weren't even thought of when I started teaching here. Scary.

Scarier still is the fact that even after all these years I find it so difficult to get everything done efficiently in the time available. The way my teaching works out gives me a particularly busy first few weeks: I am course director and I lead a lot of modules, so I end up giving the first few lectures in a lot of courses. Next week, for example, I have 16 hours of actual timetabled classes, each of which requires loads of preparation, web-page back-up, handbooks, etc, so there's probably over 200 hours of work gone into that one week's teaching. So, when the teaching is only one little part of my job, you can see why I've not had a lot of time to keep this blog up-to-date hour-by-hour as I'd intended! In a typical day at this time of year there are simply no gaps, no "moments" in which to do things like that.

Last week all the new students arrived, so I was involved in registration, meeting all of them, giving the induction talk, seeing my "personal tutees" for a preliminary meeting, etc. I also had to spend half a day at the University Appeals meeting, trying to see if anything could be done for a number of students who were appealing against University decisions, and was involved in all sorts of annoying time-consuming stuff (don't get me started on the "CSP Fair" that I was supposed to be at) as well as more useful tasks such as seeing a lot of dissertation students. I enjoyed giving the first lecture in (the 21st run of) my "Glaciers" module. I don't know whether the students enjoyed it as much as I did! It has changed a lot over the years. Even the technology of teaching has changed a lot. When I started, I didn't even have a computer. Now I start the first lecture with a "Google Earth" sequence before using a PowerPoint presentation supported by a Virtual Learning Environment. Also, I know a bit more about glaciers than I did in 1987. In fact, a lot more IS KNOWN about glaciers, so what I say is a bit different now than it was then. For a start, in 1987 I couldn't refer students to a textbook that I'd written myself!

I'm a bit stressed out about the fact that my present teaching and admin load is preventing me doing any research or writing. I have some deadlines coming up, so I will HAVE to do something about that over the next few weeks and MAKE some time...

Need a new plan

Well, my plan of keeping a running note of what I am doing has failed miserably because I am too busy doing what I do to keep keeping a note of it. I got a nice e-mail from a former student yesterday, though, saying how much of a positive impact I'd had on so many students, which makes me feel that perhaps it's all worth it!

Too much to report!

It's been one of those days, of which there are many, when I have been so busy and done so many different things without a gap between, that there hasn't been an opportunity to record each thing and now I've forgotten how I started the day all those hours ago!!

11th Sept 2007

Updated some information about myself on the University's new web-based Personal Tutoring system. Updated my CV publications list to include a couple of recent publications that were not included. Wrote reports for publishers on two inspection-copy textbooks that I have received and will use for teaching. Sorted out my office: doing a bit of filing and organising, and moving some newly delivered equipment down to the low-temperature lab where I will be using it. Received and read the external examiner's annual commentary on the Physical Geography course. I need to write my annual response at some point. Spoke to the course administrator about some ongoing bits of business and clarified what we are both doing about them. Wrote a report for Academic Affairs about a student who is appealing against the University's decision to suspend him, sent it off and filed a copy in the School Office. That all brings us to 9.20am. A good thing about starting early is that I can clear off a lot of these little jobs before getting on with the bigger tasks. Lined up for this morning I have: help a colleague get started with WebCT; go through the Dissertation arrangements for the new year and re-arrange supervisions for students consequent upon recent staff changes; prepare for this afternoon's course management meeting, making sure I know all the questions that I need answers to, and have answers to all the questions that people might ask me! I also helped a PhD student who needed advice about where to source information, and advised a colleague about accessing University administrative web pages. In the afternoon I had the Course Management meeting, made changes to the Dissertation handbook, and discussed with a colleague some problems concerning a specific student. Put the finished 1st-year and Physical Geography course handbooks into the School Office for printing. Made up the students-and-advisors spreadsheet for 2007-8 Dissertations, and put a copy onto the notice board. Revised the powerpoint file master for our Physical Geography "business cards" that we issue to students with our contact details, and sent it to the drawing office for printing.

5th Sept - busy busy

A busy and quite productive day getting teaching stuff organised: everything from setting up new WebCT spaces to re-doing the noticeboards and revising module handbooks, etc. Still several more days of this to be done before I'm ready for term, but got through a lot today. I think I get a particularly heavey load of this because I seem to be module-leader of more modules than any of teh other Geography staff, which is a bit odd, as well as being course director for Phys Geog.

Tuesday 4th Sept 2007

Replied to a student's e-mailed Dissertation query.
Set up new web space for a "new students" page.
Dropped the updated module documents into the spaces ready for them in the 1st-year handbook, only to see a virtual explosion of formatting and styles erupt on the screen and destroy half a day's work. These handbooks have been gradually developed and modified over about a decade by different members of staff with different operating systems and versions of word, and finally the document is crying enough! Took about half a day to get the Physical Geography version of the 1st-year handbook even close to acceptable. This is work for a colleague who is off sick: it's not a document I usually work on. Hence my surprise at its formatting and structure!
Eventually spent the WHOLE DAY working to get these handbooks and related materials into some usable shape.

Am getting towards the end of "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat", and am thinking about scale-dependency and bi-fractal phenomena, and how they might all relate in some conception relevant to geographical analysis (quantum geography).

Back to work and a backlog

Feeling ill, but needing to get some work done:

• Dealt with new e-mails that had arrived since last night, either acting on them, deleting them, or leaving them in the inbox for later attention. This is a constant process throughout every day.
• Wrote my Mentor's Report for a colleague going through the "Teaching and Learning in Higher Education" program.
• Declined an invitation to review a paper for "Geomorphology", but recommended an alternative reviewer.
• Wrote a reference for a former student.
• Made web space for the module documentation for esc-10025 and transferred/updated material from the old WebCT site. Informed colleagues of new site details.
• Imported new essay titles from other staff into esc-10022 and esc-10023 handbooks, added my own new titles and sent a reminder to colleagues who have not yet supplied the questions I am waiting for.
• Worked on the induction/welcome letters for new students and returning 2nd-year students.
• Updated and corrected the "new students" web pages and book-buying links