Friday = Meeting day

There seems to be something universal about Fridays and the academe. Meetings inadvertently happen on Fridays. While as seen in the picture many people have negative opinions, I have a very positive relationship with Fridays, because my Friday meeting tradition started in a wonderful way at Portland State University. PSU was my first employer when I came to the US. I taught and at some points was in charge of 2nd year German. The person in charge of 1st year I had very different ideas than I did. But rather than complain about each other and get into big arguments, he suggested a civil way of conflict resolution: Friday lunches. A very wise recommendation. So, every Friday we had lunch together and came prepared with articles and data to support our opinion and convince the other person of the ultimate wrongness of their opinions. Of course we were both a little right and a little wrong and mostly just very different. Over the course of our three years together, we compromised and came out more informed. I blame Friday lunches for getting into SLA and for getting into CALL (I used to be the one opposed to technology and my colleague first pushed me over the edge and then pulled me closer). I am very grateful for all that he has done and all that he has taught me over the years. So Friday meetings still has a somewhat good flavor to me.
Today Friday meetings consists of two meetings with students, one committee meeting, and one briefing meeting. The committee I am on is charged with rethinking or revisiting our German undergraduate curriculum. I actually enjoy this kind of process. It is so hard to figure out what students should know and be able to do at the end of being a major or a minor in German or just someone who took up to 400 level courses. And what are the steps in between and how do you get there? What assignments and what structure best support the process of learning the content and developing the skills we identified as program goals? Big questions… I’ll keep you posted.

Two colleagues just walked by and one said to the other: It must be Friday. It's only 11:30 and this is my third meeting. Very fitting to the theme of this entry.

Sprache

I have been thinking a lot about language lately. I expected to speak more in German in my German grad course and I am noticing that I am not. I only took a few graduate courses taught in German, my graduate training was all in the United States, and 99% of what I read for academic purposes is in English. Hence, talking about something related to my field in German does not come natural to me. Of course, I already new that, which is why I was so excited about teaching a graduate course for just German students. For the same reason I also went on a shopping trip to the university book store in Freiburg last year. I bought several textbooks for courses that I could potentially teach. Unfortunately I have not had time to read them. But I also bought a book called "Statistik fuer Sprachwissenschaftler" this is turning out to be a good one. Because it teaches me both the English and the German terms, teaches me R, and teaches me statistics. So, I am accomplishing three goals at the price of one. And after finishing the first chapter, I am quite happy with my choice. We shall see how long I can make it. Since my TV will not make the digital revolution, I should have more time soon.
Another thing about language is my son. We raise him bilingually and I started noticing that his English is starting to be more dominant again. This makes me really scared about next year when he goes to daycare full-time. Today he was the star in Gelika's Teaching Methods course. The topic was bilingual education. The whole family served as guest speakers for Gelika and her 33 friends. Benni did awesome, I thought. The students asked a lot of interesting questions. This made me even more aware of the fact that this bilingual thing will be an uphill battle. I really would love for him to be comfortable in both languages in as many situations as possible. It would be great if he could experience school in both places and languages. I want him to be an even better bilingual than me. I know, we parents, have so many unrealistic expectations. But, hey, all I can do is try, right?

Annual Report

Every first Monday in February, we have to report what we accomplished in the previous academic year. The report includes 28 points that need to be addressed and then you have to provide evidence for all those things. The hardest thing about this report is remembering all that you did and finding all the relevant materials. After everyone has submitted this report, we have to review the people who work in a similar area. Then some other people evaluate the reports, and then some funky numbering and ranking happens and at the end you get a letter that tells you what you did right and wrong and where you rank. Based on that you get another letter that alocates the potential merit increases based on your ranking. It's all very complex and somewhat random. But I try to see the positive in it. It gives me a chance to reflect on what I did, where I need to improve, and what I want to accomplish next. My conclusion this year: I am happy with what I did last year, but I want to take it to the next level this year.

Did you publish today?

Did you publish today? is the title of a first person piece written by Rachel Toor for the Chronicle of Higher Education. When I first read it, it immediately resonated with me. In short, the article discussed that as academics, we have little to show for at the end of a day. It is hard to know when an academic is working and when he/she is not. Even harder to explain to a non-academic the process of tenure (i.e., being on probation for seven years). My husband, a tree guy, can show me what he did each day. There was a tree, and now it is gone. I can’t do the same (there was no line on the paper, now there is one!?!?!). But what I can say for the day today: I submitted a paper; I made 4 worksheets, 2 grading criteria sheets; put away the articles I needed for the paper I wrote; organized my stuff for class; made all copies for class; wasted some time looking for images; read some discussion forum postings; started working on my annual report… So, did I publish today? No, but I got a tiny bit closer.

When it rains ...

It seems like that when the work comes, it just comes. I was happily working along on my research leave. Now I am getting all these requests for revisions on publications I submitted, while still finishing a first submit. It seems like I have a deadline every week. Somehow I also ended up (I may have volunteered) on a few new committees. I was going to say "no" more in the new year, but it sounded interesting.... My calendar is already all black and blue again. I sometimes just flip forward to September where the page is still empty. Then there is the issue of setting up the new studies, getting grants for them, and finishing the ones to be presented at AAAL and CALICO. At the same time, I am tying to stay on top of my teaching. I have really great students this semester (and I am not just writing this because they might be reading this). Several have already come to my office to discuss their projects. The discussions and blogs are fascinating to read. So, I want to give it my all. I just finished preparing class, but still have the goal of getting the week after prepared, too. It will have to wait until Sunday though. And when I read the articles, some of them I have read at least 20 times, I always find something new. And I always get lost in them. I should just quickly reread them, instead I stop and ponder. Since I am still fairly new to teaching graduate students, I always struggle how to make it practical, theoretical, and empirical enough and not too much. And then of course there are the varied backgrounds of the students. It should make for an interesting semester.
Now I have 25 minutes to finish the article and create one more worksheet before I have to pick up my son from day-care.

Frau und Beruf

Dies ist ein interessanter Artikel ueber ein neues Geschaeftsmodell fuer Frauen mit Kindern. Ich frage mich, ob so ein Modell auch in diesem Land erlaubt waere, oder ob es die Antidiskriminierungsgesetze brechen wuerde:
http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/jobundberuf/0,1518,600388,00.html

Deemed lawful

After 3 years of deliberating, the Department of Homeland Security has decided that I am deemed a lawful permanent resident of this country. I am excited, because now I don’t have to worry about my status for a while. And I don’t have to deal with the Department of Homeland Security anymore. They seemed so much nicer when they were still the Immigration and Naturalization Services. “Services” that sounds like they want to help you. Homeland Security makes you feel like you are the threat to the homeland of these people who you live around (I am even married to one and gave birth to one). This is not my homeland, so I know my security is not protected, but rather I am one that this country needs protecting from. And when you go down to the Detroit field office, you feel it. You know, that you are threat to this country (I am not of course, but I feel like it during the 30 minutes I sit in that office). So, I am glad, I only have to go down to the field office one more time this year. And then, I should be at peace for ten years.
Now, I can simply go abroad and don’t have to worry about whether the officer will acknowledge the not-so-official-looking stamp from the field office. I am no longer at the mercy of the mood of the officer. That is liberating.
My husband asked me if I now wanted to start the naturalization process. I am not sure. First of all, I would most likely have to give up my German citizenship. But how can you give up on your homeland? Even if I don’t live there anymore and do not plan to move back, it is still where I am from and what defines me. How can I deny that? This decision is very interesting, especially in relation to the readings for my Culture course. What is the relationship between this piece of paper (the passport) and who you are? Would I really be a different person if I traded in the red passport for a blue one? I already traded in a green passport for a red passport when we switched to EU passports and I was fine. Except that I still am always shocked when I see a person with a red passport who does not speak German. I have to remind myself that red passport is for the EU, which is more than Germany. My husband thought that I would be excited to become a citizen because then I could vote. I confessed to him that I only voted in Germany once. Since then I have lived in the US, and felt like I should not vote on decisions that won’t affect me, because I no longer live in Germany. But I also do not feel like I should vote here, because I am not from here. So what does that mean? Is a person who does not vote in the elections of its country still a member of that cultural society? We often simplify the definition of belonging to a culture/nation by fixating on passport, right to vote, and the language. I tried the citizenship tests in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung for the US and for Germany and I did okay on both, so does that mean that I should be a citizen of both countries? I also speak both languages. And does citizenship really translate to cultural belonging? Meaning, if I changed my citizenship would I suddenly feel American? Would others in this country suddenly treat me as an American or would I still be the alien to them?

Balancing Motherhood and Work

On Monday there will be no classes because of MLK day, but it is not a university holiday. Yet, my son's day-care decided to close anyways. I was fine with that, until I got an email this morning at 9:03am. Because there are no classes, my two bosses thought it would be a great time for meetings because all people would be available. In theory that was a great argument, in practice it means that all of us who have kids, will have to find a solution. I am sure I will, but it just always reminds me that working is a lot more complicated when you have a child. Yet, I would not want to miss either (motherhood or my job), because each gives me balance and strength for the other.
On the one hand, situations like this make me wish that my family would live close. On the other hand, these situations are always a testament to the great friends and neighbors I have here. There is always someone who pulls through for me. I am very grateful.
My colleagues and my bosses have also been really supportive and creative and helping me be able to balance motherhood and work. So far both my sections have always assigned me to courses that worked with my day-care schedule at that time. I have really appreciated that. It's only once in a while that something gets scheduled at a time that I was planning on being home with Benni. Luckily I always have ample warning to make something work somehow.

Kulturguttests

Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung hat ein paar interessante Tests im Internet zum Thema Kulturgut (oder Allgemeinwissen der Bevoelkerung). Hier ist der link: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/jobkarriere/special/180/179628/

Grad School Humor

One of graduate school friends just sent me this about graduate school (while I don't agree with all statements, it did make me laugh):

You just might be a graduate student if...

• you can analyze the significance of appliances you cannot operate
• your office is better decorated than your apartment
• you have ever, as a folklore project, attempted to track the progress of your own joke across the Internet
• you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read
• you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar
• you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop
• everything reminds you of something in your discipline
• you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event
• you have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying whileresearching a single paper
• there is a microfilm reader in the library that you consider"yours."
• you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche
• you can tell the time of day by looking at the traffic flow at the library
• you look forward to summers because you're more productive without the distraction of classes
• you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin
• you consider all papers to be works in progress
• professors don't really care when you turn in work anymore
• you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text
• you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area
• you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation
• you reflexively start analyzing those Greek letters before you realize that it's a sorority sweatshirt, not an equation
• you find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20thgrade"
• you start referring to stories like "Snow White et al."
• you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy
• you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry
• you have more photocopy cards than credit cards
• you wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as"personal communication"

Gearing up!

Classes start tomorrow and I walked through the beautiful snow to my office. Sundays are great days to work in the office. Few people are around and those that are, are super focused. This allows me to spread out and work on ten projects at the same time. During the week, I try a little more to appear as if I had things under control. I make nice piles that appear to have a purpose. But today, I am trying to end all my research leave projects and to get ready for teaching two graduate courses this semester. No major tasks, but lots of little loose ends to tie (finish the lit review, proof-read a paper, book a conference flight, write discussion questions for the first readings,….).
Both classes are completely prepared, including all photo copies. But one is on technology, so there is always the danger of the failing technology. Might sound strange coming from a CALL person, but it's true. The other course is on teaching culture and most of the students in the course are German Studies students. So, we shall see if we can talk about a similar thing when we talk about culture.
Now, I am working on getting the second teaching day prepared and to finish a paper I have been working on for a while. I have to write the literature review: to me the most challenging part of a paper. And so I usually save it until the end. Questionable, whether that is a good strategy.
But I am excited to be back in the classroom. Teaching from 11:30 until 5:50 with only a short break during which I have to hike across campus, now seems like a silly idea. I am not even sure how this teaching schedule came about, but it is always challenging to coordinate both the German and the LLT schedule with me teaching a course in each. The good thing is that two crazy students decided to stick to this crazy schedule with me. Mondays will be rough for the three of us. But Tuesdays I stay home with my son, so that is a nice recovery day for a hectic Monday.