Planning

Some blogs pop into my mind fully formed, this one is like a landscape after a tornado.  I have so many thoughts in my head, some left over from last semester.  I want to write something about education.  Life is like a dark maze sometimes.  I imagine it is like some big, black plastic tube with many potential paths one could take.  Some tunnels lead to dead ends.  Maybe when it's all over, I'll finally emerge into the light (above ground).

Another topic I wanted to write about is nutrition, fitness, and wellness.  Or lack thereof.  Something about New Year's resolutions, cleaning house, getting organized, and setting forth goals.  These are all the things in my mind.  You know those items on your "to do" list that you never quite get to?  I was cleaning house this morning and found some "to do" lists from this time last year and I had never crossed off the item "take used lightbulbs to Home Depot for recycling."

During final exams, I usually dump all my thoughts on the reverse side of the seating chart.  It's kind of boring sitting there for 2 hours and gives me plenty of time to think, prioritize, and speculate.  One idea I had for a blog involved the question:

Is learning supposed to be fun?

From what I've read since then, many elementary (and preschool) teachers write about making learning fun.  It's not so popular in higher education.  One argument is that "fun" experiences are not as memorable as "painful" experiences.  I wonder how much psychology and neuroscience evidence is out there to support this hypothesis.  For a long time, I thought learning could and should be fun even at the college/university level.  For some reason, I'm getting over this thought.

I feel like I might be ready to be hated.  I feel like I might be ready to completely abandon the idea of being the pretty, young, nice professor.  I might try being the evil dragon-lady.  I always ask other teachers and coaches what they do to motivate their students.  If "fun" isn't a strong enough motivator for coming to class, and there's only so many ways to deduct points, how can we get students to stay engaged?  I tried a dialogue-with-extra-credit model and the attendance still dropped off in the last few weeks of the semester.

Maybe I'm feeling out-of-sorts because I never finished writing my end-of-course memos.  These are a summary for myself of what I tried, what worked, and what didn't work, in terms of student engagement and learning.  I haven't got my teaching evaluations back yet, which sometimes inform the content of these memos.  Last semester ran by quickly, and I got some thoughts down as the semester was ending, but I could definitely go back and revisit those.

I've had a couple teaching-related dreams lately.  There's the one where I show up to give an exam over material that we haven't covered yet.  There's another where I am trying to give an exam but I don't have enough copies.  So far, I have my syllabi nearly finished and the online content is almost ready to go, so I hope these teaching nightmares end soon.

Will I find balance this semester?

I have to admit that I put on weight over the past couple semesters.  In fact, I'm back at the weight that qualifies as "obese."  Last time I weighed this much, I put myself on an exercise regimen that led to a more healthy weight for me.  It took about a year of intense cycling.  My plan so far involves joining a gym near my house so that I can take yoga and zumba classes.  I also plan to bike to work every day (CAR FREE).  In addition, I want to bring and prepare food at school instead of eating food from the on-campus dining options.

In 2014, I applied for a full-time tenure-track teaching position in February and for a full-time tenure-track chemistry education teaching & research position in October.  Job applications on top of a teaching load got me pretty stressed out.  I wonder if another position will be open this year and whether or not the search for a full-time job will pan out for me.  I know I can be impatient when it comes to major life events and sometimes when I force things to go when I want them, it might not be the best thing for me or for my family.  All good things come to those who wait, right?

I waited for our finances to be in better shape before making some major technology purchases. First, we got new computers!

ASUS T100TAM-H2-GM

Second, we got a Go Pro camera!

GoPro HERO4 SILVER

I plan to use these in the classroom. I had to buy a HDMI Female to Micro HDMI Male in order to connect the new PC to the projector. We bought a "Handlebar / Seatpost / Pole Mount" for the camera in order to take it with us on bike rides.  I've played with the camera a bit so far, so I am somewhat confident that I can use it to collect video and photos of classroom activities.

Above is our commute including bike and train.  It's one of the first videos we have posted, with more to come I'm sure.  I know that 2015 will bring all kinds of adventures, some of which I can plan and many of which I'm not aware of yet.  If you haven't seen it, please check out our page at bikecar101.com and enter your information to show that you support having a dedicated bicycle car on every Metrolink train.  Besides being a better teacher, I see 2015 as a year full of opportunities to make commuting in Southern California more enjoyable for more people.