Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Not much to say today

(Okay, I just know Prof. Me is going to expect this to drag on for six paragraphs... but we'll see.)

Actually, I don't feel like I have much to say here today. I've been working. It's going to be a short week for me, since the au pair is going with friends out of town early Thursday, which means I'm Dr. Dad at home all day on Thursday and Friday, rather than Dr. Me, Visiting Scholar.

I haven't yet submitted my application for Tough Commute U. but I expect to. Full consideration by date is May 15, so there's no rush. The hold up is simply my writing a new syllabus (rather than submitting old ones I've used in the past). One issue I'm dealing with is the edition of the text. I had chosen a particular text (six years ago, when I taught at the community college) and apparently that's the same text they currently use there. However, they're onto the next edition. Does it look bad for me to write up a syllabus with an "out-of-date" edition? I don't really feel like purchasing a copy of the new edition at the moment, since by rights I should get a free teacher's copy, but... Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Otherwise, I've just been working away. My current project is moving along. I want to get through the initial data analysis first, before working on the detailed analyses and comparisons. I'm halfway through the fifth data set right now. I've gotten a pretty good pace on this right now, which feels good. I think there's onlyl one more data set to analyze after this. Then I'll need some input from others regarding the data, to back up my own intuitions; then I can get to the comparative work. Finally, I've got a bit of reading to do in [Field 2], so I can have something intelligent to say about the linkages this data reveals between [Field 1] & [Field 2].

I'm going to work this into conference presentations and an article. If things look really good, I'll work up a grant proposal for a larger project along these lines. I'll also use this work in my host department colloquium talk in about 6 weeks.

So, here's what I have to do:
  • Finish analysis for this project
  • Write up new syllabus, and submit application to Tough Commute U.
  • Work up conference talk from this work
  • Work up article from this work
  • Work on colloquium talk
  • Decide on some project for grant apps, and get moving. NEH deadline: May 1
  • NIH grant proposal, NSF grant proposal? What are the deadlines? (I told you I was interdisciplinary!)

2 comments:

Ahistoricality said...

If they notice it, they'll probably assume that it's an old syllabus. If you want it too really be a new syllabus with the new edition, maybe you could just get the chapter lists from the publisher to see if anything you do has changed?

ArticulateDad said...

Problem is, in my primary field, the way they come up with new editions is mostly by changing the examples used. The topics are essentially the same, but the specific means of presenting them are what changes. Maybe I'll just suck it up and purchase the new edition from the campus bookstore. But it sells for $101.30!

Hmmm. I'll mull over it a little more. Maybe they have a reserve copy in the library. I could xerox the list of examples or something. Hell, I've taught the course enough times, I don't need to read the text... I just need to know what examples they use. Sheesh.