I’m bad at saying no. If someone asks me to do something, I will almost always say yes, no matter how full my plate is. That is why I end up on so many committees, with so many paid (and unpaid) gigs, subbing when I can, helping people with homework, studying with others, and doing… Continue reading Saying No
My walk to school is approximately 1.1 miles according to my GPS. Today, I walked to campus around 1:00, past the high schoolers who were just getting back from lunch. The sun was shining and it was looking like a great day. I got all of the way to campus before someone pointed out that… Continue reading Biggest Fail Ever
It was my first day of the semester today and, like any good first day, it was a bit full of fails. I taught today, I didn’t have a class as a student, but teaching is much more scary than going to class. It’s weird not teaching at 8:00 AM. I must have checked the… Continue reading Making it Through the First Day
I love academia and I love what I study more than anything in the world. I love talking about my research with other scholars and academics who get me. What I don’t love is when people who don’t know how this process works or what I study ask and/or give me advice. Here are a… Continue reading What Not To Ask A Grad Student
I just finished my syllabus and calendar for this coming semester and I am super excited. Although I liked the readings I taught last semester, I realized that I was a lot more excited about my assignments and I wanted to balance that out. I found some readings that I love. Teaching First-Year Composition, I have steered… Continue reading The Syllabus
I have a professor that always tells us that when we are tired of school in April, we can’t quit. If we are still tired after we have had sleep and showered and it’s July and we still want to quit, then it’s OK. It’s this month, however, that has reinforced my love of school.… Continue reading Nobody Quits in April, but People Quit in July
So, summer has been a bit off. I thrive during the school year and summer just seems kind of…well…boring. Which is why I outlined some things I hoped to accomplish this summer. I’ve started a handful of them, but the one that I have really started to accomplish is getting in better shape. I’ve been… Continue reading Summer Check-In
Today, my students, who are incoming freshman, had to spend some time thinking about the impact that they will have on our campus and the impact that the campus will have on them and turn it into a letter. I realized that this was something I hadn’t nearly spent enough time thinking about and I… Continue reading To My Beloved University
I have the goal to get in shape this summer, but I think it may have led me to live one of my worst nightmares today. Like most people, I’m not an attractive person when I work out and will therefore workout with only close friends. Today, during my workout, the bridge program that I… Continue reading When Workout and Teaching Nightmares Combine to Form One Super Nightmare
Summer has been a bit lazy for me, but now I am back in the educational game. After taking a bit of a break, being back on campus and working with students has been a blast. The great thing about summer is that it gives you time to get rganized and catch up on everything… Continue reading How To Summer Student Style
After last semester ended and I began to write statements of purposes for PhD applications, I needed a break from anything related to school. It got really overwhelming and I stepped away for a few moments to not be a student. This meant I avoided campus, avoided email (okay, I still checked it and responded… Continue reading Regaining Balance
Reading prompts for different statements of purpose makes me feel like I have forgotten how to write. They are just to that degree where they are just a bit too complicated to complete. It’s so daunting to even think about beginning. All of them are just slightly different from the next and range from 300… Continue reading Statements of Purpose
Academic Fails 