Teaching Thursdays #80

One of my teaching colleagues finds it kind of amusing that I seem to be able to recall random number facts about my teaching years off the top of my head.  I’ve taught 20 sections (of 7 different courses) in 12 semesters over 4 years.  I’ve had 600 students and graded over 2,000 exams.  I’ve given about 730 lectures which means that I’ve lectured for over an entire month’s worth of hours (and boy is my voice tired – ha!).

One of the funnest number facts about my time in teaching, though, comes from the fact that I’ve supervised 14 Dice Rollathon activities in the last four years.  For the Dice Rollathon, each of my students rolls a pair of dice 50 times and records the sums, and then we combine all the class information which is generally between 1,000 and 1,500 rolls total in a class.  In 14 Dice Rollathons, my students have rolled dice over 18,000 times!  I love that number!

Anticipating School #6

Three months from today, I will be at the first of two full days of orientation that happen right before we start school for the fall semester!

I have been so immersed in my work lately that, sometimes, I almost forget that doctoral studies loom ahead.  Almost.  If I thought about it too much, I’d either be too scared or too giddy (yes, I still go back and forth between the two!) to accomplish any of my current work.  When I do think about it, I imagine being in class or in a colloquium and being in total awe of the thinking and research going on around me.  And I imagine having a moment where I realize that the thinking and research are going on inside me as well.  I’ve spent so much time on the fringes — as a staff person rubbing elbows with doctoral students — that I imagine it will take some time to realize I’m in that group now.  I imagine long hours of study, long hours of research.  I imagine the occassional lunch or evening out with fellow classmates, blowing off steam, commisserating.  One of the things I most look forward to is those classmate relationships and making friends with people who also share a deep passion for both research and education.

School seemed so far away when I got in, but now it’s just three months.  Wow!

Things that help

I was just sending an e-mail to a dear friend who is newer to this whole chronic illness world than I am, and in the words I wrote, I realized there’s a post begging to be shared.

I was mentioning that people don’t know what to do with chronic illness.  They don’t know what to say about an illness that goes on and on — “get well” surely isn’t appropriate, but what is?  While there is a sense of “rallying around” someone with a very new diagnosis sometimes, the rallying around can’t last forever.  And if someone is sort of coping okay and sort of having a regular life, what do they need and what does “being supportive” look like?  I got into a debate recently with someone who assumed that I didn’t want to talk about my medical problems while I assumed he didn’t want to hear about it!  Isn’t that a fable waiting for a good ending?!

For me, there are a few ways of offering support that I always appreciate.  One is when people ask about my health specifically, not just a passing “hey, how are ya?” but asking how I’ve been feeling lately or what’s the latest news.  My pastor and one of my teaching colleagues in particular are always reminding me that they want their prayers for me to match what’s really going on with me, so I need to keep them up to date!  I appreciate that a whole lot.  I also appreciate when people remember that I have an appointment and contact me beforehand to say they are thinking of me, or contact me afterward to ask how it went.  I especially appreciate when people contact me beforehand and order me to call them or e-mail them afterward with a report!  (Getting me on both ends of the appointment feels like a huge hug saying “I CARE!”)  I’m not one to initiate calls very often but I will call if someone orders me to, and I do appreciate being bossed around in that one area because otherwise I never know if the call is welcome.  I certainly also appreciate offers to sit with me while I wait for appointments and such, and though I rarely take people up on those offers, if things were bad, I would.  And that really is a situation where it’s the thought and the offer that mean so much.

I guess a lot of what I appreciate is just knowing that the communication doors are open when I need them, that people care about what’s going on with me and realize that my health issues are big and challenging at times.  I have bad days (weeks, months…).  I have times when absolutely nothing new is going on but I’m so sick of dealing with doctors, tests, meds.  More than once in recent years, I’ve had a huge desire to go yell from a mountaintop about how I’ve had enough.  And then, I have a lot of times when it just all feels more routine and kind of back burner, like there’s nothing to report but I’d love to tell you about everything else in my life!  But, there is never a time when I would be uncomfortable being asked about my health though.  Never.  It is always just a huge relief when someone wants to know and when they try to understand.

Holiday weekend with a good book

It is wonderful to have a three day weekend.  For me, it is an opportunity to catch my breath after a pretty hectic May so far.  I’m looking forward to resting with a good book or movie, but I also plan to get most of my teaching stuff put away and to sort through papers and to go for a long walk or two.

I had eight things on request at the library this month, and my turn came up on three of them within the last couple of days.  Great timing!  Two of the requests are movies (“Once” and “Juno”), and one was the book “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.  I read most of the book in one sitting.  It is the story of Randy Pausch, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and who was invited to give a Last Lecture at his grad school alma mater and former workplace last year.  He chose to speak about living out your childhood dreams, which he had mostly done long before his life was changed by one medical diagnosis.  The book, based on the lecture but with a lot of additional content, is absolutely wonderful.  I relate so much to Randy Pausch as a person — he is a professor, a huge Disney fan, and a person who lives very deliberately and always has.  He tells stories of writing to Disney repeatedly to ask if he could be a Disney Imagineer — they rejected him many times but he eventually got to do it.  He tells of wanting to write for the World Book Encyclopedia and finally getting to do so once he became an expert on virtual reality.  I have a bit of that spirit in me, of pursuit of dreams and making them reality, but he’s got that dialed up to 10!  It was inspiring and validating to read about his journey.

 

Teaching Thursdays #79

With this being my last semester of teaching for awhile, I decided to focus on Best Practices this semester.  “Best Practices” is a concept that is used a lot in the field of health care but I’m not sure it’s used as widely elsewhere.  The focus for Best Practices is on putting in place the tools and attitudes that produce the best outcomes.  So, for me as a teacher, I thought about what things I do that help me feel like I’m doing a good job and putting forth my best effort as a professional educator.  With my students all being future teachers, this was especially important to me this semester.

Some of my Best Practices are very focused on the math content and on lecturing.  I am polishing up lectures that have gotten a little stale (or maybe never worked in the first place) and putting a little extra effort on preparation.  I have one really, really bad habit in lecture, which is how I react if a couple of students look bored — my tendency has always been to cut my lecture or my examples short, as though a few bored students should dictate how I run class!  And then the students who were just starting to understand what I was saying never get the full benefit of one more example or one extra sentence of explanation.  So, I’m working on not letting the Few have a big impact on how I teach the Many (which is harder than you’d ever imagine if you haven’t taught before).

Some of my Best Practices are focused on logistical things.  I am starting class on time every day (or nearly so…starting class late is another bad habit that I get into sometimes), making sure that I have created the key for that day’s worksheet, and making sure that I have all the materials we need so I don’t ever have to leave class to grab something like a chalkboard compass or dice.  I’m also making sure that I wear dress shoes each day — no sneakers, ever.

Of course, on the day I decide to write about this, I started class late and ended up leaving class for a few minutes to get something that one of my students needed.  I had also forgotten to make a key for today’s worksheet so ended up taking a few minutes to do that while my students started the worksheet.  I did have the right shoes on though!  So, it’s not a perfect system!!!  But, I do know what my Best Practices are, and (except for today), I feel like I’m doing the best job I’ve ever done with a class.  And they are a super class.

GINA is law

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act is now law across the U.S.  A lot of states already had laws prohibiting employers from using genetic information against an employee for hiring/firing and for health insurance, but it’s now the law of the land.  Science has come so far, so fast in its ability to detect genetic markers of disease and these kinds of laws are trying to catch up with science.  GINA offers some reassurance to people who are at risk and choose to be tested for genetic diseases; they won’t lose their jobs or health insurance because of that choice.  That’s a good thing.  The law does not, however, apply to life and disability insurers, who can still deny coverage and set high premiums based on genetic factors.

Before my blood was sent off to Mayo earlier this month, I had to sign a consent form stating that I understand that genetic testing will be done and that I may need genetic counseling if I choose to get the results.  The forms acknowledged that deciding to get results may cause problems with insurers and may be a psychological burden for the patient.  In my case, because I already have symptoms of a polycystic kidney condition, finding out that I have the gene for PKD would be hard but would not be a shock.  (I’ve already begun to sort out the “what ifs”.)   But for many people, who get tested for things like breast cancer or Huntington’s disease long before they are symptomatic, the results can be especially challenging and heartbreaking.  Where is the hope if you know you’re going to get one of these diseases and there isn’t much you or medical science can do to stop it?  Would you want to know?  Is there benefit to knowing years ahead of time?  At least now, one of the obstacles to finding out (fear of discrimination) has been taken off the table, but the decisions and questions are still very personal and raise a lot of challenging issues that we are only beginning to answer.

Things that bug me

A few recent pet peeves and annoyances:

… Movie trailers that use music from a different movie in their trailers.  The soundtracks from “Little Women” and “Rudy” get used a lot.  Both are fabulous soundtracks!  I love them!  But, hey, if you made a new movie and you don’t like your own music for it, then maybe you should re-do the sound.  Ya think?

… Commercials for windows, carpeting, and cheap furniture.

… The fact that it still takes 10 minutes to open a new CD because they still celophane wrap the thing so tight and they still have the nearly impossible sticky tape over one end.  Surely there is a better way!

Anything bugging you these days?

Dancing, Day 6

We learned our last new dance tonight.  It was the Canadian Stomp.  It wasn’t one of my favorites but it goes with a LOT of different songs, so that was kind of fun.  I think it would go perfect with the “We Will, We Will Rock You” song too with all the stomping.

So, next time we meet is our last time in this class.  *sobs*  We’ll dance all the dances we learned at our final class, sort of like a recital but mostly just for ourselves.  I am planning to take another dance class over the summer (yay!), but I will miss this big class and our quirky instructor in her cowgirl boots and all the interesting personalities of my classmates.  (One of the few guys in the class had the funniest T-shirt on today — it said, “I’m a bomb technician.  If you see me running, try to keep up!”  That totally cracked me up!)

One of my favorite things about taking this class where we’re all dancing in lines, is that it feels like we’re preparing to dance on Broadway!  Like we’ll eventually get good enough to be a Chorus Line!  It’s fun when we all get the dance and you can see this whole group of people moving in unison, looking happy, and having fun.  I love it!

Aging, The Final Frontier

I remembered another recent event that highlighted my aging self.  My cousin’s little boy (who is nearly 3 years old now) figured out the other day that I am…an adult.  *insert scary music here*

I asked if he could drive a car, and he said (quite seriously), “No, I’m too little.”  I said that I can drive a car because I’m big, and he said to me, “You’re big?!”

Up until then, I honestly believe he thought I was a weirdly tall child.  When he was 17 months old, he was going to be very shy on Thanksgiving until I started running around in circles with his vacuum popper toy — and then he had this look of recognition, as if to say, “Oh, you’re the one who is tall but is like a kid!”  I have Mickey Mouse on my kitchen wall, and all sorts of wind up toys on my dining table.  I do silly things like throw entire decks of cards in the air (remind me to apologize to his Mom for teaching him that one!).  I dance crazy and make funny noises and play on the floor.  I rarely engage in Grown Up Talk when he’s around as I’d much rather play.  So, yup, it’s no wonder he thought I was a kid.

Up until recently, I suppose that I thought I was a kid too.

Aging

I’ll be 35 in October.  I actually say that when people ask how old I am.  Never 34.  It’s always I’ll be 35.  And I’m getting the feeling that I’m getting old.  My clues:

1.  My hematologist gave me a lecture about how my risk factors with certain meds go up at age 35.

2.  The songs on the Oldies stations are songs I remember being the new hits on the radio when I was young.

3.  I find myself saying, “Gosh, that was 20 years ago!” way too often.  In a few years, things that happened 20 years ago will have been things that happened in my adulthood.

4.  Some of the Olympic athletes this year were born after I was out of high school.  When I saw their birthdates, I automatically assumed they were a typo.  Surely someone born in 1992 can’t be in the Olympics?  They are still babies!

5.  And finally, my youngest cousins are graduating from high school this spring!  How did they grow up so fast??!