What a day...

Wow! It's been a rough day. I met a student at school to create and print off the poster for an upcoming conference. I needed to get this done before moving. The computer that was hooked up to the poster printer at school was ancient and had not been turned on in awhile. I could barely even use any of the programs because the computer was searching for updates in the background and couldn't handle so many apps at a time. It was so frustrating. The worst part came when I finished the poster in publisher but the printer wouldn't work. I was quite perturbed because I didn't want to have to pay for printing the poster. So I went to Kinko's and found out it would cost around $100 to print the poster at standard conference poster size. Ugh! My boyfriend suggested trying to print it off at school one more time and this time it worked. After the computer had finally downloaded all the updates, it was free to print the poster. I didn't have to pay $100 but I checked my email later that day and heard back from my co-author. He found a mistake in which the number in the text didn't match the number in the figure. Sigh...I'm not going to correct it and print it off again now that I know how much it costs to print a poster that size.

In other news, I found out on facebook that one of my summer program students from last summer had a loss in her family. Her cousin died in a rollover crash. It was so tragic, and I feel so badly for her.

Moving

I'm moving this weekend, and I've been packing frantically in order to be ready to load up the truck this Friday. The house is in disarray; every room still has something in it. But, I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of setting up the new rental house just the way I want it. The owners didn't want to move the ginormous master bedroom furniture down the narrow and twisting stairway; they asked me if I wanted to purchase the whole set, including a bed, armoir, dresser, nightstands, and a chair. I'm glad to buy the furniture at the fair price; although I'm planning to move the full bed into the guest bedroom so that I can still use my beautiful queen-sized bed. Thus, I'm upgrading both my master and guest bedroom furniture, which makes me happy. The guest bedroom is painted in blue; I'm going to purchase blue and brown bedding, and decorate the room accordingly. I love decorating. I'm excited about arranging furniture and deciding where to place decorative pieces. I guess there is an upside to packing and moving heavy boxes. I'm especially excited about how gorgeous the house is. Because it was a model home, it is outfitted with stainless steel appliances, a dual-oven, granite counter tops, a stained glass window, various paint jobs, and a decked-out bathroom suite off the large master bedroom. Sigh...I'll be in heaven...

Amazing New Developments

I'm quite pleased to announce that I graduated with my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, and just last week I secured my first job as visiting assistant professor. Ahh! It is very exciting. Luckily, I don't have to move very far, and I can still see my boyfriend on the weekends. The new position seems to be a perfect fit for me! I will be teaching four sections of general psychology with only 20 students per section. And they would like me to perform service with the first year experience program they just started up, which was actually the topic of my dissertation. This position is predominantly for teaching with very little research, but they encouraged me that I would still be able to do some research. I may have some time to devote to research, but it is not critical to get moving with a research project since I'm currently in the writing phase to produce some articles. Altogether, I'm very pleased to have landed a position right out of grad school and mid-year even! It's almost unheard of; thus, I'm very happy about it.

Teaching Realization

Now I understand why teachers call on students. I have always been reluctant to call on students because I deeply feared that a teacher would call on me when I was an undergrad. It didn't matter whether I knew the answer or not, I wasn't about to speak in class. But, I inadvertently called on a student last time we met in class. Her head was bobbing so vigorously in agreement to something I had said that I asked her to share her point of view. At first she thought I was talking to the person in front of her who has the same name as her. But, she finally responded and made a very good point.

Today in class I asked various questions and she readily offered her ideas. I was surprised to see her raise her hand because she had never talked in previous classes. So my realization is this: calling on students and providing them positive feedback about their response frees them to participate in class on their own.

I wish I had realized this sooner. Now I plan to call on students more frequently, but perhaps I should try to make sure it looks like they have something to say before calling on them.

Kiki's New Teaching Philosophy

I'm in the process of applying for jobs, which entails writing individualized cover letters, shifting around the order in which I present teaching and research information in my cover letter to suit the college for which I'm applying, and compiling all sorts of other documents. I had no idea it would be this time-consuming, and I've only officially applied for one job so far! In the process, I had to revisit my teaching philosophy. The first teaching philosophy I wrote can be seen here. Of course, my philosophy has changed since I've had more teaching experience. I haven't the stomach to read my old teaching philosophy; I feel I've changed so much it was written. But, I've included my new philosophy here, and if you are so inclined, you can compare the two yourself. Keep in mind that my new philosophy was written for a job teaching at a community college. Community colleges are very focused on developing excellence in teaching, and I tried to tailor my philosophy to the unique missions of community colleges. Please feel free to comment on my teaching philosophy; I'm always seeking to improve.

Much of my teaching philosophy is grounded in my research on college student retention. I find that faculty can make impressions on students that affect students’ departure decisions. If faculty can have such a profound affect on something as important as a student’s choice to continue pursuing education, then it is my duty as an educator to ensure that the impact I have on students is positive. Not only do I hope to encourage students to continue in college but I also wish to ignite in them a passion for learning and to equip them with the tools necessary to be life-long learners.

In addition, particular aspects about teaching that influence students’ departure decisions include students’ perceptions that faculty are passionate about the material they teach, care about the students they teach, and are physically and psychologically accessible to students (Lundquist, Spalding, & Landrum, 2003). Physical accessibility can easily be achieved by spending extra time in my office on campus and by responding to students’ emails and phone calls in a timely manner. Psychological accessibility can be achieved through an expression of willingness to talk with students about their needs. I endeavor to emanate an attitude of openness towards students and an eagerness to value their intellectual contributions to class. Furthermore, I highly value interacting with students inside and out of the classroom. Student-faculty interactions outside of the classroom have enormous benefits on students, including increased retention, academic achievement, satisfaction with college, intellectual and personal development, and career and educational aspirations (Lamport, 1993).

I believe I have succeeded when all my students can demonstrate learning and improvement. For example, I endeavor to foster critical thinking in students. Students do not need to be cajoled into engaging in critical thinking. They will do so if I model critical thinking as I teach, if I present material in an engaging manner, and if I foster openness towards students’ expression of their ideas. Subsequently, I find that students frequently ask me questions in class or offer critical evaluations of material we discuss in class. In order to allow students to demonstrate their critical thinking and knowledge in writing, classroom assignments include research papers and forms of evaluations include essay questions requiring application of theories and concepts.

Finally, I endeavor to engage students with the material I teach by occasionally infusing humor and real life examples into lecture content, and by including applicable demonstrations, assignments, and activities. I taught neuroscience to high school students participating in the Frontiers of Science Institute, a summer program for students interested in pursuing careers in math and science. After a unit on neuron communication and neurotransmitters, I had students take their chairs outside and line the chairs up to represent the synaptic cleft. Students took on the role of neurotransmitters and re-enacted the various neurotransmitters actions that occur during neuronal communication. My students reported that they understood the concepts more thoroughly after participating in the activity.

Building rapport with the students, interacting with students outside of class, and making a lasting educational impact on students are facets of teaching that I highly value. I welcome the opportunity to teach, advise, and mentor the students of your institution.

Graduation Ceremony

I decided to wait until spring semester to participate in the commencement ceremony. That will give me more time to order announcements and send them out to people. And I can be sure that I will have a cap, gown, and hood reserved for me. I think some of my grad student friends are graduating next semester, too. It would be more fun to graduate with others in my cohort. So I guess it all works out in the end.

Regalia

I was concentrating so hard on the dissertation that I neglected to order regalia for graduation. Now it's past the deadline to order regalia and I'm going to have to hope they have extras for me when they disperse the orders the week of graduation! I'm so horrified! What if they don't have the right size, and what if they don't have a hood in the right color? I can't believe I might not be able to participate in graduation, and I would be so embarrassed if I was wearing the wrong colored hood. This was the only graduation that was finally going to be worthwhile, and I might not get to participate. I feel so deflated.