Thought for the day

There is an article in The New York Times parenting blog about the prevalence of cell-phone cheating in high school.

In the comments section, several faculty types make mention of the problem of having computers in class in general.

This is an issue I face regularly, because I teach in a computer lab most of the time and because I am just ADD enough that the endless clicking of mice on Facebook and ESPN and the like drives me insane.

Is this a problem for you?

How do you handle it?

I give kids who text in class one warning and then I throw them out, but the computer thing I still don't know how to deal with.

Hanging over my head - summer edition

• Make some progress on a paper


• Make cookies with Offspring


• Hunt bugs with Bun


• Feel guilty about not doing class prep


• Work with Offspring on life-enhancing skills (aka practicing cursive and the piano)


• Finish up stuff for conference

What do YOU have to do right now?

Back for a bit

We are back from Offpsring's gala 10th birthday in in-lawville, and a short trip to East Coast beach, while Offspring's parents kept both the girls.

We have this week in Nice State, and then we are back at PrettyGood for a week that I think is going to tick us both off mightily, as the students we expected to defend that one (one for each of us) appear to be crapping out on us, thus leaving us dragging both our kids back to the intemperate climate of Central State summer and paying $1000 for no good reason.

hooray.

Now that Offpsring is 10, she gets new responsibilities, which she does every year. This year is washing the dishes and no more assistance with cutting meat, etc.

Here and also there

We took Offspring to her grandparents over the weekend, and she is spending time with them and going to an activity at their church.

They think we came right back to Nice State, but we didn't - instead we took Bun to an amusement park that he went to when he was growing up and we spent the night in that city, driving back here yesterday.

It is funny - of course we spent lots of time with Offspring when she was this age. In fact, the summer when she was two, we taught in Asia and lived for 12 weeks.

But we have never had much time alone with just Bun, especially away from home.

A few observations...I miss Offspring a lot, but it was kind of nice to have a day at the amusement park without the whining and drama that comes with pre-teen territory. Bun is a pretty easy two at the moment, and it was a real pleasure to take her around.

It is already hard for us to imagine just having one child again, even though we had Offspring for 7 1/2 years before we had Bun.

Offspring helps keep Bun busy, so we are getting even less work done.

Tomorrow is Offspring's 10th birthday, so we are driving back to be with her and pick her up.

Visting the In-laws

Offspring: We're going tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : ) : ) : )
Spouse and I: we're going tomorrow : |


They are fine, but the 20 hours in a car with a toddler it will take to do this is not something to look forward to!

Eat this, not that...

I don't know why, but this kind of article just rubs me the wrong way.

I think it's somewhat the focus on a single nutrient for villification. I do try to feed my kids healthy food and to teach them to make good choices. But, as I was discussing with Offspring just yesterday, there's a lot that goes into determining if a food is good or bad for you. Meat has saturated fat, yes, but it also has easily available protein and a few vitamins that it's tough to get from plant foods. You know what I mean - you have to look at the whole picture.

Then there's the substitution suggestions. My kids eat most things (although noses were turned up at a turkey sub yesterday), so I could get away with this. But I am guessing that a lot of people who feed their kids frozen waffles would not be able to convince them that a bowl of oatmeal is just as good.

I guess they could pretend it's waffles...

Just like I could pretend that it's as quick to make old-fashioned oats as it is to pop waffles in the toaster oven...

Why I love the Internets

My first semester in grad school at Prestige U, my first week, I was assigned to get started on something called a literature review. We were told that we had to visit one of Prestige's 9 libraries and to locate information on a topic of our choice related to the field from "the literature." Desperate, I talked to the reference librarian, who kindly suggested finding a reference to a paper on the topic in one of my textbooks, finding these giant yellow books called citation indexes and looking up that paper, finding every paper that cited the one in my book, looking up those papers, etc. until the papers started citing each other more than anything else. Then I could visit the 9 (actually 3 for this topic) libraries where the referenced journals were held, find and photo copy the articles, and I'd be on my way.

I was an advanced student, apparently, because I also figured out that they had some databases on these stacks of CDs and you could do something called a keyword search (like basketweaving + Namibia) on them and also find related articles.

After only a week, I had 30 articles that pretty much summarized the current thinking in my topic area.

Fast forward 15 years and I am here in Nice State doing some preliminary literature work for a paper I want to do (one of those that I think is interesting, rather than extremely likely to get me tenure...). I log in to PrettyGiood's electronic resources, which includes databases that are shared among the colleges in the state, and do a few keyword searches. I supplement this with a visit to Googlescholar, which quickly helps me find the seminal paper as well as everyone who has cited it. I get .pdfs of all the articles e-mailed to me. I find one book I could really use. PrettyGood doesn't have it in its library, so I check the catalog at University to Whose Students We Rent our Apartment During the Academic Year (UWSWEADAY). They don't have it either, but do have a link to an electronic copy for their registered borrowers. I'm not registered with them, but I click on it anyway, and it opens for be because some library in Central State also subscribes to that database.

20 minutes later, I have 30 articles that pretty much summarize the current thinking in my topic area.

I think for someone who still gets more excited about the reference list than the paper most of the time, this is like my great grandmother getting her first electric stove or my Dad seeing TV for the first time.

Pretend

So Bun has just reached the age where she has learned how to pretend. And for the moment, pretending something is as good as the real thing. Can't have lemonade (lemma-aid to her)? Pretend lemma-aid is just as good!

Dropped a toy in the car behind my seat where I can't pick it up? Pretend I gave it back to you. It's just as good!

I wonder if this would work with my students...

Having trouble finishing that paper on time? Pretend I gave you an extension and you are meeting THAT deadline. It's just as good!

Disappointed with your grade? Pretend you worked harder up front and now you are happier. It's just as good!

Reason to go off into the woods

Vexing problems with irritating students work themselves out while you are gone.

Train them early

I am starting to get e-mails from incoming graduate students asking questions about things that are covered on either our web site or the grad school's web site.

I realize that they are coming to a new place and it is normal to be confused. But don't you think that by the time you GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE you ought to be sufficiently independent as to try to figure out stuff yourself?

*Sigh* At least I'm not having their mothers email me...

Pissy, pissy day

Today was the kind of day where we were all off a bit. Offspring was crabby and got extremely emotional over things like having to quit playing a compute game to go do something else.

Bun was in a "test the limits" mood.

Spouse was normal, which was good since one of us needs to be.

I woke up with a sore throat - a sign that I am getting the cold everyone else is getting over and the feeling that I am not getting anything done. Stoopid academic guilt!

I think the lack of structure in the summer is getting us all down.

Another Manic Monday

So today was Monday, when I figured I would start getting work done. No such luck, however. We went camping last night, got back around noon today. I had to entertain the troops while Spouse took a nap. Then I had to take a nap, since Bun had lots of trouble sleeping in the tent. By the time we put stuff away from camping, made dinner and took the kids on a promised trip to the playground, it was evening and I was too lazy to get anything serious done.

I answered some aggravating e-mails from people who don't want to take responsibility for doing things that have to be their responsibility, but otherwise, nada.

Perhaps tomorrow.

But camping was great - we saw 6 deer in an hour.

Things to like about Nice State

After the initial shock of the cross country trip with a recently potty trained toddler and moving in again, we got to enjoy some of the benefits of life here in nice state. Today this included weather with a cloudless, blue sky and a high of 81 (compared with about 95 this time of year at home).

Also letting the kids play in grass without worrying about assorted biting insects. Also going down to see the cows that graze near our apartment.

Also going to the amazing thrift store they have here, which was having $4/bag day and getting Bun a big bag of dress up clothes to have fun with AND one of those popcorn popper push toy thingies for $.25.

Also, going to a safety day sponsored by the medical school at the university in this town which included chances to get inside police cars, fire trucks and ambulances and a jaws of life demonstration wherein the local firefighting squad practiced using said jaws by taking a car apart in front of us. And free lunch.

This was the first day.

Wishin you were here

The Prof family finally achieved escape velocity from Central State and is nearly at our place in Nice State for the summer. I love the drive up here because once you get through The State That Shall Not Be Named, it literally gets more beautiful by the hour.

Today was 11 hours in the car, which, with a 9 year old and a toddler, was not the most fun thing in the world, particularly when said toddler is relatively recently potty trained and thus wants to go very frequently. At least we didn't have to resort to the potty chair on the side of the road, although we did bring it "just in case."

The trip was overshadowed by the news I got on Tuesday as I was driving back from my second visit to Capital City in two days trying to fix my debt to society. My Dad called and got bad results on a recent stress test, which necessitated an angiogram today which could have led to immediate bypass surgery.

My Mom is not, shall we say, the most laid back person in the world, the procedure was to be at the closest cardiac care hospital, which is quite a distance away. My Mom does not drive on the interstate (at any speed : ) ).

We were packing to leave the next day and trying to decide if I should go up there (they live in New England and Central State is quite far away) to be with my Mom. We ended up deciding not to try to send me, mostly because it would have been so difficult to get me all the way there that it was unlikely that I would arrive in time.

He had the procedure and what was supposed to take 1 hour took 3, which made my Mother a wreck. They found two blockages, but are treating them with angioplasty and stents, which is great since it makes the recovery so much easier.

They could only do one stent today, though, and he will have to go do it all again in two weeks to put the other one in. Since Nice State is substantially closer to my folks, I think I will go up for that one and at least do the interstate driving.

Exciting traffic ticket update

After $30 worth of gas, about $200 in other expenses and 20 hours of time, I've got the ticket thing under control. I got to take a number and sit 4 times, in 3 different offices all over capitol city today. Good times.
As I told Spouse, I'm the miscreant, so I have no right to be upset. But as a taxpayer, HE should be outraged that his government works so inefficiently...

Things from defensive driving

Not new to me:
Alcohol impairs your ability to drive
Trucks can't see you when you are close to them
Heavier things have a harder time going up hills and stopping
Tall things are more likely to roll

New to me:
It's illegal to merge with a funeral procession or turn across it, even when the procession is broken by a traffic light
You can pass a stopped school bus with its lights on if the driver waves and tells you to go around


Later: My choice between begging to be fined for something I didn't do or committing perjury. Also known as "Why Mommyprof may have to fly back to Central State to go to traffic court after all.

War. What is it good for?

So my most favorite-est student ever came back to visit last week after about 8 years. I have been teaching long enough now to find surprise in the physical changes of my students as well as in my own, and John was not exception...he's lost a lot of hair and gained a few pounds since I saw him last.

Although it is pretty much as far away from my field as you could imagine, John's parents got divorced his junior year and, as his source of college funding moved out and halfway across the country, he paid for the rest of school by joining the military, where he works as an in-flight air traffic controller. I had always figured that he would do his minimum service to pay the tuition and then get out and work in the field. He ended up finding the military to be a pretty good career. He hasn't lived in the U.S. pretty much since he graduated, instead being stationed in Japan and now Germany. He is good at his job (he's the kind who would be good at a lot of things) and is now hoping to stay until his official retirement age, which is just one more contract away.

In case you don't know, you officially retire from the military after 20 years of service, with retirement and military benefits like health care for life. If you get in when you are 20, you are set pretty well for a second career in whatever you like, since you don't have as many financial constraints.

But, even with the current military situation, getting one's contract renewed to go up to the retirement is far from a sure thing, so John, hoping to improve his chances, has volunteered for a year in Afghanistan.

From my reading, it is the war front most likely to lead to long-term peace dividends for the U.S., so it is an enlistment that has an obvious point. But I was more than a little distressed over the news.