2nd October

5 hours of lectures and tutorials today, so don't expect much detail here...

1st October 2007

Up at 6.45. Quick breakfast. Check the horse. At work by 7.30.

7.30: Dealt with a few early e-mails:

"hi, This is (.....) from your phys.geography year 1 class. I am very unsure about the dates of the practicals. I know i have phys.geography on thursday and geology on a tuesday but am i required to attend the monday and the friday sessions aswell. Basically what am i asking is are we supposed to have 2 practicals in geography and 2 practicals of geology in a week or just one in each? thank you"

"Hello, My name is (.....), and I'm from Portugal.
I would like to ask you if we could use your picture of Gustav Mahler in a brochure for a concert of kindness, where all the profits revert to an association of social solidarity, "Via Nova". It will be played the fourth symphony of Gustav Mahler. That's why we would like to use it. In case of an affirmative answer, we would like to know also how we mention the authorship of the picture. Thank you very much...

7.45... Setting up this semester's tutorial sessions, making register, planning today's session, etc. Organising materials. Setting up activities for this week on WebCT.

8.30... Going to a lecture room in another building to check everything is working for my later-today lecture. Yep, everything works, but the lighting system is as confusing as ever so I will have to try and avoid the need to dim or raise the lights at any point!

9.00 - my first class of the day: a 1st-year tutorial...

10.00 - ...which is followed IMMEDIATELY by a 1st-year lecture at 10.

11.00... finished those two classes and dealt with a batch of student queries. Saw a student in my office about her essay. There's another student due in a minute... Then dealt with the case of a student who needs reallocating to a new staff member for dissertation supervision.

12-ish, went via the library for a quick walk around campus for some fresh air. Afterwards dealt with a few student callers, had a discussion with a colleague about a number of teaching issues, and then worked on my 2nd-year tutorial for tomorrow, deciding what to do, organising a handout, etc.

2-4pm: teaching a 1st-year practical class.

4pm... dealt with e-mails that arrived while I was out, then continued to work on my 2nd-year tutorials: checking the rubric for the module of which they are a part and ensuring I am giving the students the right work to do!!

4.45 off to walk the dog then home for tea and an hour off!!

7.00-9.15pm: working on my esc-10022 lecture for Friday, and my esc-30018 lecture (also for Friday), and putting resources on-line for the students. Also dealt with a variety of new e-mails, such as:
"Dear Peter, I'm having a bit of problem with my dissertation at the moment. I need a map to certain scale (ie. the same scale as the map I got from the power station) and I'm having a lot of trouble finding one! I have emailed the guy at (.....) who gave me the sulphur map twice now and still haven't had a reply. I have tried creating a map on digimap but it keeps coming up with an error page saying that the "carto section" is unavailable... Thanks".

There's always something new to worry about in my job: if not my own problems then somebody else's!