September 2011
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
1 tag
2 tags
Passing out tissues
When I arrived for my office hours, I didn’t recognize the young man who was waiting for me. He introduced himself as the roommate of one of my students who’d gone AWOL and hadn’t been to class in two weeks. And he looked pretty distraught.
“So, I’m here to tell you about Vic,” he said. ”He tried to commit suicide last night. I took him to emergency,...
1 tag
1 tag
We learn wisdom from failure
much more than from success
We often discover what will do
by finding out what will not do
And probably he who never made a mistake
never made a discovery.
- Samuel Smiles
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
3 tags
Second (and third) chances
Familiar faces can be a mixed blessing.
In my early days as a graduate assistant, I only taught the freshman introductory course. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to teach other classes, at the 200, 300, and 400 levels. This means having some of the same students in my classroom for the second, or even the third, time, which can be nice. And not so nice.
It starts when the class roster...
6 tags
1 tag
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
2 tags
The martyr thing
I never cancel my classes. I can be gutter-crawling, toilet-hugging sick, but by God, I teach my classes, sharing my germs with everyone else along the way, and prolonging my illness in the bargain. But never let it be said that I shirk my duties. I’m the same way when it comes to vacations, time off, having fun: “I’d love to,” I whine, “but I can’t. I have...
1 tag
All is well
“All is well, and you will never get it done. Life is supposed to be fun. No one is taking score of any kind, and if you will stop taking score so much, you will feel a whole lot better - and as you feel a whole lot better, more of the things that you want right now will flow to you. You will never be in a place where all of the things that you are wanting will be satisfied right now, or...
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
4 tags
I'm an A student
I had just passed back their graded exams. As the students were filing out of the room, one stayed behind, clutching her paper and looking sheepish.
“Yes, Ashley, what is it?” I asked.
“Well,” she said, “I’m used to getting a better grade. I’m an A student.” She tipped her paper toward me so that I could see the grade: a C.
“Is there a...
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
2 tags
The now and the not yet
There are two forces fighting for my attention, like that old image of the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. In this case, they’re both benevolent beings, but they’re very demanding. They both want 100% of my time and effort.
On the one side, we have a little cutie who stamps her foot and screams, “Me first! Look at these hundreds of pages of reading you have...
1 tag
Take a big chance
“Don’t listen to those who say, ‘You’re taking too big a chance.’ Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don’t listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says. ‘They’re all smarter than you out there. They’re more talented, they’re taller,...
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
2 tags
It takes courage
As I grow older, I realize that sometimes, it’s an act of courage to enter the world each day.
When I was little, I felt pretty safe, because I thought there were grownups running the world who knew what they were doing. Surely people like teachers and doctors and presidents knew everything, right? And mommy and daddy, well … they were the authority figures in my life. They were...
1 tag
Your calling
“I’ve been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism. I believed in my dreams because they were my only option. The people who make it to the top - whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corportate honchos - are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift God has given you. The people who get the call are the ones who’d be...
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
3 tags
I'm no expert
“He’s so out of touch - he’s probably been using the same lecture notes for 30 years. We never do anything interesting in his class.”
I knew exactly who the students were talking about. I like him as a person, and I’ve never had him as a professor, but I had others like him as an undergrad. He was one of a generation that reluctantly made the transition from...
1 tag
The turning point
“I found that every single successful person I’ve ever spoken to had a turning point and the turning point was where they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50 and most never make it at all.”
- Brian Tracy
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
3 tags
Sharing the wealth
I’m really lucky, and I don’t take it for granted. I work in a collegial department, where most faculty and grad students are very generous about sharing their ideas and time.
I’ve heard it isn’t like this everywhere. I’ve been told about schools where grad students see their daily lives as a competition, and will sabotage each other in large and small ways....
1 tag
For its own sake
“Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. The thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part. It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony.”
- Anne Lamott in her book “Bird By Bird”
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
1 tag
Stress Management 101
Repeat as necessary.
3 tags
An encouraging word
Are academics, well, mean? I was struck by this article in the Chronicle, with its tales of rudeness and personal attacks among scholars:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/being-mean-in-academe/30326
I’ve seen grad students get skewered at conferences; it’s never happened to me, but never say never. And it’s terrible. Sometimes we joke among ourselves that grad school...
1 tag
Otherwise, it's great!
1 tag
Go with the flow
“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your...
1 tag
Some days are like this ...
1 tag
