I have been thinking lots about the Victoria (#yyj) Twitter Hashtag #localbizfirst. We were in Costco the other day and I walked quickly past the books. I can certainly download books to my #Kindle or go to the library. But, I had looked at the #YaLit books and knew that I have some stuff on hold at a local, children’s bookstore, Tall Tales Books. I am trying to frequent local businesses for meals and other things. It’s really hard to do so for some things. There is nothing like going into a shop and knowing the owners and having a quick conversation about books, coffee, or politics.

But, I will give my plug for putting my money into local businesses and the local economy. This post might be too late for Christmas shopping, but think about where you will spend your Boxing Day money. Better yet, make a resolution to shop locally in 2011!

I just posted a blog post on http://www.equality101.net http://equality101.net/?p=2484#more-2484. My post is about reflecting on the term. And, I realized that there is more that I would like to say. Some of my best memories this term were during my office hours:

when students discussed or came to the decision that they wanted to major in Political Science

when students realized what the main point of a reading was or made connections to other readings

when students realized that their mark was fair

when students left my office and noted that they felt better about their academic career (the class or progress in the major)

Overall, there were countless positive moments during my office hours. I actually do look forward to the office hours. I find these precious moments allow me an opportunity to listen and mentor. I’ve previously discussed office hours and know that they continue as an important part of my “face” time with students.

Another important point to this semester was knowing when to ask for help from the Chair of the department of other offices on campus. The Chair and colleagues across campus have been supportive in different, albeit interesting situations. I do believe that during this lucky 13th year of teaching I have seen it all. I’m lucky to work at a great institution and have made friends with colleagues across departments and offices.

Honestly, what a term! Can’t wait (well, I do need the break) for the next one!

Young Adult  (YA) Literature as a genre is not new; however, its popularity has sustained the weakening publishing market. The  YA genre has kept many a publisher in the black, as the genre has a wide crossover appeal. Frankly, we have witnessed the genre balloon during the last ten years. Many have thanked J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter Series for this. I thank her for the great series and more.

I never really stopped reading YA lit. I think I dove into the genre more so once my eldest daughter became interested in the genre. Here my interest was really two-fold: my love of reading and want to discuss literature with her. Win-win. However, as an educator I have to say that I have found YA lit useful in the classroom. The genre has politics, gender, class, race, sexuality, nation, democracy and more discussed within its pages. And, the students really enjoy re-reading a book with a different theoretical lens. I have also had a chance to meet new people online and in real life (IRL) and have had great conversations about YA lit.

In my Women’s Studies and Political Science courses, I have actually offered a paper option that required students to read pre-approved YA Lit books and discuss course concepts in the books. Depending on the class, these assignments have been popular. The best part for me is the assessment of the assignment and reading how a student has reassessed a much-loved book in a different fashion and has a different feel for the book. How cool is that?

I cancelled one of my classes this week. Instead, I am offering office hour consultations during the scheduled class time. Today I had a line up of students waiting to chat about papers, other assignments, and even fielded undergraduate advising questions. In that short hour, I was again reminded how much I enjoy my job. I had long conversations about the course materials, Political Science, and gender. I cannot help but think, “I get paid to do this!”

Seriously, I know that I am in position of privilege to get paid to talk, think, read, and write. Now, it’s not lots of money, but I do eek out a living working with some really great students. Some of the students will come to the university ready and others need mentoring.

These last two weeks I have held more office hours in order to help meet student demand. Assignment due dates are coming up and there are more questions. I have a few words of advice for students coming to office hours.

1. Come with paper to write on and a pencil or pen to write with.

2. Bring your course folder or at the very least your course syllabus.

3. If you have questions about a graded assignment, please bring the assignment with you.

4. If you haven’t read the syllabus, please don’t tell me that! Review it before you enter my office.

5. Be prepared to wait. The wait might be 2 minutes for 20. I never turn away students and my office hours regularly go 10-20 minutes over the scheduled time.

6. Understand that you will have my undivided attention and that even if there is a line up–I will not rush you.

7. Remember that faculty and teaching assistants must hold office hours–we get paid to do this, so please don’t think that somehow you are inconveniencing me. I am here to help.

8. Breathe. I know that the first time you’re in my office–it might be a little intimidating.

9. Please remember that most of your profs have as many as 300 students in a term and have administrative duties. We aren’t inflexible when it comes to meeting to you–just really busy.

I think the above 9 points sum up the things I was thinking of during the last two weeks.

Prof. A

Yesterday I attended my third or fourth graduation ceremony at my workplace. I was part of the faculty procession. My motivation for attending the event is really about the students. I enjoy supporting them on this day of closure and celebration. It is also really great to shake hands, give hugs, and meet parents. While I sit on the stage with the other faculty and distinguished guests, I think about each student who walks by. I do have memories of each.

Some of the memories vary from: quite student, studious student, great sense of humor, slacker, to this is just the first of many graduations for this student. This year for whatever reason there were lots of faculty in the procession. There have been previous years when the Dean has had to send out one of those emails reminding us to participate.

I was also privileged to be in the audience when special degrees were awarded to Dr. Lorna Marsden. Where to begin. She is definitely a feminist advocate to women’s rights in Canada. Her list of accomplishments and awards are many. She is an academic, feminist, former Member of Parliament, and all around jill-of-all-trades. I cannot think of another American woman who is similar, but nonetheless, I am hopeful that Marsden’s attendance at the event will spur similar activism and ambition in our new graduates. I did hear one mother tell her daughter, you might be the next Marsden!

I look forward to the June graduation ceremonies.

I am not sure what it is about October, but I have had more women in my office asking me about how I achieve work life balance. These conversations often turn into a discussion about how they want to go to graduate school, but are really perplexed about being able to “do it all.” I wish I had an easy answer.

I have lots of complaints, er comments, about this. I wish that safe, affordable child care was available for all who needed it. I also wish that better maternity and parental leave existed in the United States and elsewhere. But, it appears that these ideas are too burdensome on neoliberal economic policies and are somehow read as being anti-business. Well, this sort of attitude is anti-family.

To my students, I am able to attempt to balance my life and work thanks to a team of people that includes both of my kids, my partner, our sitter, and my in-laws. I am not embarrassed to share that we have an excel spreadsheet for each term and the columns are each of us in this team and the rows are the days of the week. Seriously, in order to get everyone to work, school, and after work/school activities—this is what it takes in my household.

I do not want to turn into the Bitch in the House, but it is a great book! And, the follow-up Bastard in the Couch is also worth reading. Be ready to negotiate and insist that your partner and you share in the joy and work of being a family.

I am one of those instructors who is more formal. I do expect and hope to get coherent email communications from students. And, I do expect that email communication is treated with the same respect as a face to face visit during my office hours. Thus, I am always a little surprised (maybe frustrated), when I get incoherent emails from students that are written like a text between friends or emails that begin with my first name and are very casual.

No where on my course syllabus do I list my first name. I sign all of my emails and Moodle messages with my title of choice: Prof. A. I even explain during the first lecture that students can refer to me as Prof. A, Dr. A or use my entire last name. There are not invitations to mispronouncing my name! I don’t even go there. This post is part rant and reminder–until an instructor says you can call me by first name–always use the professional title.

It is not surprise that voters in Arizona passed Proposition 107, which bans Affirmative Action programs in state governments, which includes public colleges and universities. For more information about the ban, please see Inside Higher Ed’s great article: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/03/arizona

My home state banned Affirmative Action years ago and the major consequence was that less minority students enrolled in the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems. The standard reasonings for banning affirmative action vary from: we are all equal now, it is unfair to qualified students, it is racist, and that it is unnecessary. These and other reasons really offer a narrow point of view. If we were to offer an Intersectional analysis to the topic, we could see how it is too easy to dismiss the importance of access and not think about the ways in which gender, race, class, immigration status, parents’ education levels all play into the educational success rates for students. Continue reading →

I am involved in a co-taught course. I lecture 4-5 times and the others professors give guest lectures during the term. I sit in the back and listen to the lectures. Occasionally, I walk around the class and it’s quite breathtaking to see the number of students on Facebook, downloading music/games/movies, and playing video games. Most of the students using laptops are taking notes or have a notes screen up and their email.

Now that I have graded more material in the term and know more students, I see a correlation between multi-tasking, er paying attention, and grades. Granted this is anecdotal and not a scientific commentary that I am offering here. The course syllabus states collegiality and this includes keeping computing to note taking. Perhaps I am a scratched CD here, but there is something to be said about being in the moment in a class and paying attention. Maybe I’m still thinking about Seth’s comment and my post on Oct 29th?! Maybe.