Welcome - Willkommen

Welcome to my blog on my life as a professor at a research 1 institution. In spring 2009 I am teaching two graduate courses and am asking my students to keep a research/teaching/service blog. It is only fair that I keep one also.

I have worked a variety of jobs, but always came back to academe. What I like best about my profession is that it demands and offers flexibility. My tasks are always changing, there is always more to learn, at the same time, most of my work-related tasks can be completed anywhere at anytime. And I have the flexibility to decide how to divide my 40-40-20 responsibilities. One week I might really be involved in the research aspect of my job, but then the next week I will do more on teaching. That keeps the job interesting. It also poses some challenges in terms of finding the right balance - as a junior faculty member, I still struggle with that.

What I like best about my particular position is that it is joint. This allows me to be two different people at the same time, be part of two very different teams, and see both the theory and the practice of language teaching and learning. I truly appreciate my team-mates on both teams and have a lot to learn from all of my colleagues and students.

While I decided early on in my life that I wanted to be a professor, the specifics of the dream have changed. Originally I wanted to be a math professor at Berkeley. Obviously there were some detours along the way, since neither the field nor the place materialized. But I am very happy with the way things turned out.

As the snow piles up outside, my research leave comes to an end. Starting on January 1, I am back to a 40-40-20 contract and with my students I will reflect on the successes, challenges, solutions, joys, and frustrations of my job. Intertwined with these successes and challenges are all the other hats I wear everyday. Some of the themes that might show up in this blog are: balancing family life and work, being a non-native speaker, life as a citizen of one country permanently residing in another country, bilingual education in practice, tenure-track, ….

I hope you enjoy this blog and that my reflections will help you with your challenges. I am looking forward to reading all of your blogs on research, teaching, and service.