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The Teaching Front
We’re midway through the French-Indian War in my American History 120s, having blasted through Early Colonialism as rapidly as possible. There are important components which I will pick up later, namely triangular trade, mercantilism and the like when we approach the American Revolution. I didn’t waste any time on the Salem Witch Trials (I never do). On the other hand, I spent a significant amount of time laying down the foundation of slavery in America.
At our present pace, we should arrive at the first exam dates by the end of week five, start of week six. This is later than my peers, probably because I spend a lecture day or two talking about the nature of history in general. On the other hand, I’m further along on the timeline than many of them.
Not that it is a competition. Each teaches there own way. Fortunately for me, the majority of my peers recognize and respect this concept.
In American History 121 I’ve got a split between my two evening classes. One of them is about to fight the Spanish-American War after we spent time on the concept of Imperialism. Prior to that we used Andrew Carnegie as our focal point for the Second Industrial Revolution. And of course, we covered Reconstruction. In the other class we are just about to emerge from Reconstruction. Hopefully we’ll pick up speed over the next two weeks.
I’m building new exams for all classes this semester, generating new essay questions as we move along. I’ve been using the same essays for a couple of years now and it seems to be long past time to switch things up.
Once we clear the first exams I’ll proceed forward to the Pre-Revolutionary Era and Theodore Roosevelt respectively. I think I’ve got at least two to three good classes with the potential for a fourth if I can weed out the dead weight or get them to see the light. The first exam almost always serves as a wake up call for many of them. They’ll make a decision to double down or bail out based upon what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this period is that I provide ample warning for what is coming down the pike. It isn’t an ambush by any means, instead it is perhaps more akin to a carefully scripted training exercise. They are given metrics by which I will grade the exam in the form of commonly made mistakes. In many ways, it is another history lecture for the students, a history of their predecessors and how they tend to react to the first exams in my classes.
Sadly, they frequently ignore these warnings and advance to contact expecting to get through without too much trouble.
They are often sorely mistaken.
Lastly, I had a guest visit my classroom to see how I did business. She was there on the day we killed General Edward Braddock, a bastard in need of frequent killing if you ask me. Later when I talked with my guest, she said if she had more history instructors like me, she might have chosen a different discipline. She gave me high marks for getting my students to class on time, keeping their attention and moving forward at a brisk pace.
I’ve got to say, I always appreciate positive feedback concerning my teaching. Thanks!
The Writing Front
I was able to get fiction writing done on three separate instances this week. Next week, the plan is to increase that to four days a week, Monday through Friday, probably around the two pm time frame. That isn’t my strongest time creatively but it is open and the campus is relatively quiet.
I also transcribed some of the longhand material, tweaking and refining as I went. I’m pretty happy with the results so far.
The goal is to have a finished product ready by semester’s end. Perhaps I might sign up for the National Novel Writing Month competition. This is slated to become a novella sized project and I think the subject matter I’ll address warrants that much coverage.
It feels good to be back in the saddle again. This wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Woman I Love, Trinity, who got her vehicle back to operational status, freeing me from transport duties.
Thank you very much.
The Fitness Front
The transportation freedom mentioned above has given me the flexibility to focus on my efforts in the swimming pool. This week the goal was to complete 4000 yards by today. I fell short by a 1000 yards since I didn’t go today.
On the other hand, my weight is now down to 190.5 pounds, more than twenty pounds less than my January 2012 high of 212 pounds.
My energy levels are good on a relatively consistent basis. On the rare instance when I am late to class and I have to drop for push ups (I believe in paying for breaking my own syllabus rules, believe it or not) I can easily pump out more push ups than are actually required. In fact, I got applause in one class for pumping out twenty without too much effort.
Not bad, given that I had swam a thousand yards with a 25 push up warm up a mere thirty minutes earlier.
The only downside of the renewed fitness condition is that I often underestimate how much projection power I have.
I’ve become known as “The Loud One.”
Other Fronts
The new glasses came in to replace the pair I busted last week. Now all we need to do is just count the days down to the next two pay days on the 22nd and the 1st respectively. Those resources should, finally, after ten months of economic misery, lost sleep and bubbling anger, allow us to patch the last of the major holes in the budget. Barring anymore disasters, we can move forward with getting our fiscal house in order.
I continue to read Dario Cirello’s Aegean Dream, a memoir of the time Dario and his wife spent in Greece. It is strange to be reading this while I am taking Spanish. The commentary on language troubles matches my own efforts at trying to speak Spanish intelligently.
Finally, the new Kindle arrived to replaced the dead one. I’ll pick it up from the landlord’s office tomorrow before I head off to training with the Lifeguard Company I work for.
So it goes. Things are getting better by the day, barring an exception or two. May the upward climb continue.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
When I was a kid, I always thought the early decades of the 21st Century would feature the usual exotic gear of science fiction. Perhaps we’d have HAL 9000s without homicidal tendencies, teleport systems and the like.
Instead, when I walk into a classroom, here is what I have in the year 2011.
1. I have a computer console, perhaps as old as three years maybe more. The computer contained therein is at best, a slow, fickle device which runs about as reliably as my radio teletype rig did when I was in the Army.
2. I have a projection system which, unfortunately, is only as good as the computer it is hooked up to. It projects images either onto a “Smart Board,” or a screen.
3. In some classrooms, I have the aforementioned “Smart Board.” This device is designed to incorporate multimedia on a traditional wall type surface.
4. I have PowerPoint, which is one of the programs in the computer.
No holograms. No time machines. No smart boards which really are smart. No voice activated computer system which will instantaneously respond to my commands CORRECTLY the first time and every time after that.
5. Oh, I have the Internet.
As a published science fiction writer, you’d think I’d be the first to use all of this technology to maximum effect. I am the second youngest history adjunct we have, which means by virtue of my age, my presence on the net, and a dozen other factors, that I am most likely to embrace the tools in my classroom.
Do I?
No. In a word, I hate them.
Why?
1. The computer is slow, unresponsive and does not respond to intuitive moments when you have to improvise in a lecture in order to make a point. It also vectors you straight into an inflexible presentation mode.
2. The projector is only as good as the computer you have. If the computer is having a good day, then it works fine. If the computer is not having a good day or someone prior to you did something to it, you’ll have trouble. This chews up valuable class time which would be spent doing other things.
3. The smartboard isn’t that smart, is not responsive enough for my tastes and like the projector, is only as good as the computer it is attached to. After a semester of experimentation with the smartboard, I stopped using it.
4. PowerPoint.
My frustrations with PPT are nearly endless. When forced to sit through a PPT presentation, I find myself looking at the clock, wondering if the Presenter or Lecturer is simply going to read from the script. If they do so, I shut them out. Further, in my experience, students will compulsively and more to the point, mindlessly write down EVERY THING THEY SEE BECAUSE IF IT IS ON THE PPT IT MUST BE IMPORTANT!
This slows the class down even further while you wait for the slow writers to catch up.
5. The Internet?
We have campus wide wifi. Guess what the students do with it?
Surf facebook, look at porn and generally do nothing productive.
In other words, I have a room full of what are supposed to be shiny toys designed to help me teach my students. Instead, they are very much like the plagued M-16 which American soldiers and many others have suffered with for decades. Fickle, prone to failure and not terribly effective.
What I’d like is a classroom filled with intuitive technology which could respond instantaneously to my commands, something which is fluid and not limited to a mere linear sequential process. Here is my wish list.
1. A smart board that is essentially an oversided iPad. I could swipe the screen, write on it with a device, tap commands to activate videos, utilize a Skype style function to contact historians for impromptu conversations, link classrooms for learning across disciplines and the like.
Yes, our “smart board” is supposed to be capable of all of that. It is slow, fickle and too unresponsive for my taste.
2. A hologram of some type, something which could conjure three dimensional images of historical figures, give them a voice and allow them to move about the classroom. Even better yet would be a hologram which can interact with the students in scenario based education.
3. A gaming system which allows students to actually enter a historical world. Those who play video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and a host of others know what I am talking about. A virtual world where students can be given assignments where they go in search of various, programmable research assignments. Part of the game would be to successfully interact with the inhabitants of a given time period, conduct interviews and gain further knowledge in that fashion.
This would give them exposure to material culture, technological culture and most important for many, social history in general. It would augment the standard traditional political historical narrative.
4. A computer system which is simple, robust and responsive.
What do I use since I don’t have any of the items on my wish list?
Oral tradition, also known as lecture. I use my dry erase board to draw concepts, stick figures and the like in order to illustrate concepts. I use my storytelling ability to try and conjure that hologram out of thin air, using the student’s own imagination to the best of our collective abilities.
In other words, I use what is essentially ancient, reliable technology to teach in a 21st Century classroom because the other gear is unreliable and interferes with my teaching style.
So it goes. Discuss.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
It has been a busy week for yours truly. So busy that my fitness program, which had been running pretty consistent since the start of the new year, got a bit derailed as I dealt with one issue or another.
Let’s get to it.
The Teaching Front
We’re advancing to our first exam, which is far later than normal due to the snow days we’ve had. I’m behind in all of my classes as well, which is yet another struggle. Further, due to the disruptions, it has been difficult to build up momentum and bond with the students. As a result, things are not working quite as smoothly as I’d like. Fortunately, I have no real disciplinary issues on the table.
On the other hand, I see a lot of my students using their textbook and their study guide during the lecture to hunt down terms. On the surface this might seem like a good thing, right? At least they are paying attention to something.
Well, actually, it is a bad thing. It is a sign of a time crunched student, or worse, a bored student, who is attempting to work through the study guide while I lecture. More often than not students believe that the lecture material is not important for the test. I often get students who ask how much of what I lecture on is in the textbook.
Less than you’d think. The lectures are often specifically designed to go deeper into the topics at hand or they are designed to operate hand in glove with the textbook.
So an example would be the lecture on the Pre-Revolutionary Era of American History. The traditional way of teaching this is to start with the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the This Act and the That Act and rest assured that is exactly how it sounds to the student. They are merely memorizing bits of info for regurgitation and that is the last thing you want them to do. Memorization is just an early step towards true understanding.
Rather than lecture on those acts, I make the student responsible for reading the textbook’s coverage of those acts. What I do instead is lay out the case for why the Colonials believed that their only recourse was to declare independence from Great Britain. I lay down the grievances and I fill in the background for the Colonial’s historical understanding and perception of events.
How does that work out? Well, I’m two semesters into using that method and if you are a student who does what I told you to do, take notes on the lecture, tie it to your reading and form a synthesis of the two, then they do fine.
Test results aren’t much different between one strategy of coverage or the other, I might add.
In any event, they are doing their homework while I lecture. I think I’m going to put that on the Why Did I Fail The Test? section of my syllabus for next semester.
The Student Front
I’ve not had a chance to update either the Pondering Tree or Playing with Genesis.
We’ve moved into the actual writing of the novel. The group I am in wrote a combined first chapter this last week.
We’re in a computer lab and to be honest, I am growing to believe that this was not the best choice for the class. It is hard to get into an effective group in order to get any work done. The computers serve as a frequent distraction. Given that I was using my laptop on Tuesday, even I am guilty of this, though I had a reason (which is not the same as an excuse) for having that computer out. If nothing else, the clickety-click-click-click of the keys on my laptop are relatively quiet.
In fact, in terms of technology in the classroom, I think it ought to be banned. No videos, no slides, no powerpoints, none of it. Just a board to write on and comfortable chairs for the students to sit in with a large desk to spread out their things. On C-Span this morning (and what a wonderful discovery that is, a place where people discuss without drama or shouting or Jerry Springer like behavior) an education pundit was talking about a high tech public school on the East Coast which cost a pretty penny to equip with the latest and greatest in technology.
The performance at that school? In the toilet. Students surf the net, IM each other or spend their time trying to get the tech to work in the first place.
Banish to the Computer Science Department and leave it there.
I’ll provide a proper update to Playing with Genesis that covers the actual course material and progress later this weekend.
Research Project Number – 05
The Client was on deadline this week, which was something of a surprise to me. I wasn’t aware of the deadline. No matter. I sat down with the backlog I could most effectively contribute to and worked over the material. By deadline time, I had most of the storyline components covered. There are a few lingering errors in the manuscript but I will catch them later.
It is going to be a pretty big novel, folks. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trilogy ends.
The Writing Front
In the Early Morning Rain by Berry Henderson and myself is currently out to market. We haven’t heard anything back yet so we’re hopeful. It is a new market open to e-subs so I’ll be looking over my inventory to see what can be polished up and put into the wind. Many of the valuable things I have learned in World Building will be helpful in that respect.
On the novel front I was able to drag out the manuscript for the first time in a couple of weeks to give it a going over. What I have right now are a bunch of cobbled together, pasted together scenes which are loosely linked together. In looking over the manuscript I think some major work is needed to better define the roles of the various characters.
There is also one glaring problem, the same one I noticed with my previous novel effort, Convergence Point.
When I have the space to spread out and more specifically, work on a military topic, I tend to let the action and strategy dominate the narrative. It is a natural strength of mine as a storyteller and an historian. Unfortunately, without significant character depth and development, no one is going to care about that action. It will be nothing more than a series of cardboard targets getting cut down on the battlefield.
So that part of it needs significant work. It is the sort of thing I can probably hammer out in a week of concentrated effort.
As for the World Building in the novel, I think some refinement of various structures and institutions are necessary. I definitely want to redefine the family structure of this society based upon what I have learned in Melissa Eaton’s Cultural Anthropology side of the course.
If things go according to plan, I’ll use my time during Spring Break in tandem with Trinity’s Spring Break (which is at the end of the month) to get the project ready for submission to market.
Other Fronts
Over the next few days the Great Summer Job Hunt will commence. Now that I am lifeguard qualified I should be able to, hopefully, get a decent job at around 25 to 30 hours a week maximum. Even more ideally, it will be a posting to an outdoor pool.
Trinity is making plans to travel to California to see her eldest son and wife for a week during her Spring Break. I should be able to polish up the novel while she is out there. I’ve got to say that I am glad to see that fences have been mended with that particular component of her family.
Lastly, March 10th is my father’s birthday. He’ll be sixty-nine years old if my math is correct. No one thought he’d get this far given that he has prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, stage three lung cancer and a heart muscle that more closely resembles a chunk of hamburger than a heart.
I chalk it up to sheer cussed stubborness myself.
Trinity and I are going to see about getting some barbecue for tomorrow night so we can celebrate a bit early. Both of us will be tied up during the week with our respective college obligations.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
I’ve got the day off, probably the last true day off I will have for at least a week given that I will soon have nearly 160 exams to grade. The reason I have the day off is due to in service for the full timers. Every account that I have heard of this event gives me cause to believe that for once, I am getting the better end of the deal.
Since I have the time, best make use of it.
The Writing Front
I finished the first draft of A Knitter’s Day this morning. She has a word count of roughly 4,440 or so. It is very rough and in need of polishing. Still, it feels good to have an actual, finished, first draft. The bones of the story are there. Now it just needs revision and polishing.
Here is the irony. I used to hate this part of the process. I still get frustrated with it but over the last decade I have grown to see the value of it. That would give a time traveling Murphy from 2001 absolute fits to hear. Of course, I’d probably point out to him that the reason he left grad school with a B average (notwithstanding the C) is due to the fact that he felt that a first draft was a finished draft.
Yeah, he wouldn’t like that either.
The final word count goal is 5,000 words. I’ve got a target market in mind and my hope is to have this one downrange by the end of May.
In the meantime, I’ve got a volunteer reading over it in return for a crit from yours truly (which I need to get to right now). Terri’s Creative Writing class will get a look at it pretty soon as well. Technical issues continue to plague efforts to post files in that class.
On the other hand, I’m two pages away from my total page count requirement for her class. I plan on going well over the minimum 30 pages of raw copy. Maybe I should go for 60 or 90? Who knows?
And since I’m on that topic, the other part of the class is giving crits out to the other students. So far all we’ve got up is a bit of poetry. I will get to that soon but I was kind of hoping for some meaty prose to crit.
The next project up will probably be Reborn for Glory. I’m still thinking on that one. As for A Bicycle for Kyle, I need to read over it again before I finish it. There are still narrative gaps which need to be filled. In addition to the gaps, I need to do some research. I have a feeling that A Bicycle for Kyle will not be a quick project.
The Teaching Front
Exams start tomorrow. I gave pop quizes which are actually harder than the test (yes, I’m sick like that). However, it did prompt students to say, over and over again, “I’d better go study.”
Why don’t you do that?
Maybe I’ll see some positive results this time around.
Other Fronts
I’ll get my undergrad transcripts sent to UMKC this week. I can’t stand to go to Park’s home campus if I can help it so I’ll do it online. In the meantime I need to apply for a Masters Program. I think a Masters in Political Science would work for my purposes. I’ve been meaning to get a second masters anyway.
The financial aid form is filled out and submitted for the next academic year. Given the summer gap I think I’ll try and get a late form in for the summer (which falls under the 2009-2010 academic year). If I can pull that off, I may simply go to grad school in the summer.
My goals are pretty simple on the academic front.
1. Get my GPA up to 3.5 plus.
2. Get 12 to 18 hours of American History at the Graduate Level in order to seal up a potential hole in my academic flanks.
3. Begin taking Political Science at the Graduate Level in prep for a potential Interdisciplinary PhD program.
4. See about journal publications.
To be honest, I’d prefer to go to KU or MU for a PhD but I just don’t see that in the cards. The only way I might be able to pull something like that off is if I got a novel contract similar to the one Al Reynolds pulled down this last year. That said, if I had a contract like that, then that begs the question.
Why get a PhD? And sometimes I wonder about that anyway. Why get a PhD? Sometimes it ranks right up there with “Why get a Hummer?” or “Why get a private jet?”
So it goes.
Time for lunch.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Project: Trying on Steampunk
I threw the book out this morning, found a quiet spot on campus where I would not be bothered and actually managed to get three pages written for a Steampunk short story. I try to keep the ball rolling daily.
Right now I’m writing what I’d want to read which means I threw out all of the crap I had to put into my first two story sales to make them work. It is working a lot better that way.
We’ll see how it goes.
The Fitness Front
I’ve been eating too much crap. I can’t keep eating endless gobs of fried food, fatty crap and mountains of meat. Days pass without a decent salad and I sometimes wonder what it will take to get the venerable salad back into my diet. I’ve got from 195 to 200 and a waistline of 37 inches (probably closer to 38 inches).
I’ve got to get this under control.
The good news is that we started our workouts in Body Building today (yes, I signed up for a class). The first thing I learned is that one probably needs twelve exercises for their program. They need to work their legs first, then upper body, then arms. One is probably looking at three sets per exercise but I am thinking five for dropsets is what I am going to do. I didn’t get through the entire workout (I had to go pick Trinity up from UMKC as we still have only one car) but I got through enough of it to see that it will probably work for me.
The plan, starting tomorrow, is to get in an hour on the strength training and body building. Then I’ll follow it up with an hour of cardio. I have to work out an hour for each of my classes (the other is Physical Fitness) until I reach 30 hours (which is an A). If that doesn’t start to strip the fat off of my body, then I don’t know what I’ll do.
The Teaching Front
I’ve got the last of the Quakers for American History tomorrow. I think I may chat with them about primary and secondary sources first. They’ll hate that. In Western Civ I’m moving into the Egyptians. We’ll have the same chat about primary and secondary sources. Some might actually like that discussion.
On Wednesday I am going to have to hack out some time to work on Thursday notes. I’ve not written a single word for my notes since Thursday. And I’m behind on study guides. They should have gone out already.
Trinity’s Big Day
Trinity started pre-law today, working toward her BA in Sociology. She was nervous about it and I tried to reassure her that she’d do fine. She did as much for me back in August 2007 when, terrified out of my mind, I started my first day of teaching.
Problem is, Trinity doesn’t always listen to me. In fact, a lot of people do not listen to me even though I am bound to be right. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life, so much so that I think my nickname should be Cassandra.
In any event, she had a great first day. And she has homework.
Now I’ve got to try and get some work done.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: The First Day
When I first started back in Fall 2007, I was all about the soft, easy going start. I was trying to emulate a Western Civ instructor I knew who could enforce his will and yet still be a very likeable person. I was fortunate in that my first two classes were fairly responsible and it seemed to work. With a few exceptions but I figured that was just part of the mix.
Then I got what I call hard case classes, students out of high school or somewhere else who didn’t want to be there. They were going to disrupt and derail the process at will. After a very rough class during my second semester, I changed my classroom management style.
I execute a hard start now, much akin to basic training (light). I enter the classroom, lay down the law in no uncertain terms in much the same manner I used to deal with clowns on 10th and Main. The rules are strict and for the first few weeks there is very little room for deviation. It is during those first few weeks that many of the students feel that I’m being a bad nasty man who has nothing better to do but torture them.
It goes against a lot of the educational nonsense I’ve been hearing for twenty years now. Coddle their self esteem, be nice to them, try to be their friend, etc. I’ve given up on all of that. I’m there to run a class, to teach history and to make the best use of the time. Their job, whether anyone realizes it or not, is to learn the material. If they can’t do the job, then they need to go find someone else.
Here is the odd thing. I do not pander to my students. I do not make any effort to be popular or easy. In fact, I am trying very hard to earn a reputation as an instructor not to be crossed or triffled with.
What feedback do I get? Well, from those that stick it out, the feedback has mostly been positive. I get excellent evals from my full time peers and from the students I teach. I’m one of the go to instructors, which makes me a little nervous as I do not like the idea that students are picking me over someone else. That can lead to trouble.
In other words, I’m popular.
How the fuck that happened, I’ll never know.
Knowing all of this, yesterday when I entered the classroom I had one thought on my mind. Not how I was going to whip the students into shape or what new trick I was going to try. No, this thought was for me.
Pride goes before a fall.
I’ve got to remember not to get too big for my own britches.
Classes went well over all (except for a few very late students who provided the examples I needed for classroom policy enforcement). We got through the How to Study History lecture aka: Lecture Zero and are well on track towards Lecture One in both courses. The plan is to drop the first exams by mid-September.
It was a good day and it was great to be back in the saddle again. I’ve got to get a tenure position no matter what because I think this stuff is in my blood now.
Other Fronts
Nothing major to report. Student front work started yesterday in Terri’s class. I’ll be popping over to the virtual classroom to check on that here in a bit. Trinity is off at physical therapy, leaving me with time to write this entry, do the homework and perhaps review some material for tomorrow’s lecture.
Otherwise, that is pretty much it.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front
Fall classes are confirmed. I got one each on the American History front and I finally got a Western Civ One course. My student rosters are already showing on my campus account so I’m set for action.
So here in a bit I’ll head back to the Pod to work on the lecture for Ancient Egypt. I’ve got some additional materials I want to review and I want to spend some time looking over the textbook. My classes are all on Tuesday-Thursdays with a 0800 hour start. This means I have an hour and fifteen minutes to cover in each class, no problem for the American History course but a potential problem for the Western Civ. I find I need about 10 to 15 pages of lecture material for sessions that long.
If the 50 minute session seems too short, the 75 minute session seems to long to me. Just a notch too long. Pacing is a bit difficult and my stride tends to be closer to 60 minutes. Still, I’ll have to do my best.
I’m excited about the Western Civ, looking forward to finally teaching what I trained for.
The Student Front
I’ve got Fencing, Karate and Body Building for half of my courses. That should keep me in the gym and maybe get this carcass of mine into decent shape. All of my class meetings are on non-teaching days so that makes life easier.
For online courses I have Terri’s Creative Writing. Maybe I can get a new story written this time around.
The big problem is finding a place where I can get some writing done. Some place where I will be left alone. Today I was interrupted yet again by staff on campus while I was working on lecture notes. Paperwork spread all over the console, headphones on, all of the signs and cues that say, “Leave me the fuck alone, I’m working,” were there and yet I was interrupted anyway.
It is getting to be a serious problem. I never realized when the Uniguard Era ended that perhaps the greatest thing I gave up was the six hours or so of quiet, structured time to write, read and get work done. That time is gone now and it is a superbitch to replace or replicate it.
Trinity’s Birthday
Trinity’s got a pretty big birthday party upcoming. The RSVPs are starting to roll in so we should have a respectable crowd. We’ll be holding the event at Sunset Acres Bed and Breakfast out in Odessa, Missouri. Pictures to follow of the event.
Given the last ten to eleven months and her success at getting into UMKC, I think she deserves to celebrate with people who have had her back over the rough spots.
In the meantime, I have to come up with a surprise of sorts. I’ve got one planned but that may not come off as I’d like. So I need another one. If I had money of my own (no pay till September 30th, which really sucks ass) the solution would be simple.
I’ll have to ponder the matter some more.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: Working on a Story Bible
I started work on a story bible for The Limb Knitter universe today. I suspect this is not the first time I’ve started on one but maybe this rearranging of the deck chairs will help on the writing front. Right now I am writing out the definitions and info for terms such as, what do you know, the Limb Knitter. As such, there are things in the story bible that have not hit the public and so I can’t share it.
Sort of like writing a story.
There is this one character who keeps coming back to me, a bitter sort of Christ figure (hmm, I sense a theme) and I suspect I probably need to tell his story first.
Maybe.
The Teaching Front
We’re still waiting to learn exactly what we’ll get for the Fall. That is fair since the cut session is floating around out there as well as late enrollments. I could get three to four courses if luck holds out, probably American History again. Preferably they’d all be American History II as, to be honest, I really do not enjoy American History I all that much. Oh, I can teach it and the lectures do need work, but I’d rather cover the second half.
If I could get the Civil War included in AH-II, I’d be a happy man but it wouldn’t work out. You have to lay the groundwork for the war which can take weeks.
I did mention to The Boss that I’d very much like to teach Western Civilization I. A senior adjunct peer has most of the availables sewn up (this is partly because I fucked up back in 2007 and passed an opportunity when it was available). Still, I’d like to spend a semester working my way from the dawn of Western Civilization through the Greeks and the Romans. I suspect I would not spend as much time on Egypt as some people would like (that would not make Trinity happy) but I’d enjoy myself.
Hell, it is what I trained for in the first place. And I’d like to get the experience.
Anyway, we should know in a few weeks.
Fitness Front
I’ve been to the gym three times in the last four days. My weight has dropped down to 195 pounds, which is a good thing if you ask me. I need to get back to the cardio (always with the cardio) but I never do it. How am I going to get a ripped body if I won’t do the cardio?
I’m getting older and the body is changing again so I suspect I need to do some research on workouts for forty year old men. Since I am signed up for body building this Fall, I should be able to try some of those new workout tips on for size and see what kind of luck I have.
I’d like to look better at forty than I did at twenty, which shouldn’t take too much effort given what I looked like at that age.
Student Front
Speaking of Fall classes, I have signed up for three hours of PT classes, Body Building, Fencing and Karate. Why not get credit for time I spend in the gym anyway?
The Fencing might run over a possible teaching opportunity so I may have to replace it with something. We’ll see how that goes.
Finally, I’m signed up for Terri’s Online Creative Writing course. This will be a first and all of these courses should free me from being present in a classroom. Terri’s class, hopefully, will spur me to get some writing done.
Other Fronts
Not much else to report. Made blueberry pancakes for the Woman I Love this morning. She dragged me out of bed at Oh My God Thirty to do it (somedays, God help me, she is a morning person and I, my friends, am NEVER a morning person).
So it goes.
Political
Oh, by the way. What’s this shit about making it mandatory for everyone to buy health insurance? I thought that (numerous expletives considered and deleted out of fear of losing the teaching job) of ours said he wasn’t in favor of that during the primaries but now his party is going to cornhole me with another fucking bill I can’t afford to pay.
To the folks on the Blue Team, quit trying to help me out. You want to help? Throw $65K at my student loans. Get the VA fixed so it isn’t a festering cesspool full of morons. But chucking another god damned fucking bill onto my plate IS NOT HELP!
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front
Well, I issued the last final, graded it and punched in all of the grades. With the exception of one late student, it is all over except for the screaming. Nothing is likely for the summer aside from substitute work (which is actually a blessing in disguise of sorts) so I’ll be on break until Fall.
The BIG FEAR
One problem with playing in adjunct land is the reality that adjuncts are extremely expendable. I have always known this, it is part of the game. We are cheaper than our full time peers, often more flexible in some cases, and if we do not perform up to par, we can be eliminated without any headaches.
The upside is that once you’ve got a teaching slot for a semester, chances are good that you’ll hold that slot until semester’s end. Another upside is that if you have demonstrated reliability and flexibility, you’ll be called back semester after semester. If you show a willingness to take on taskings that no one else wants, or would rather avoid, that helps as well.
The big downside is that once the semester ends, the next great wait begins. It wasn’t so bad the first time around in the Summer of 2007 because I have to admit, I never really believed that I’d get a job. I figured some cruel quirk of fate would deprive me of the opportunity at the last minute.
However, with each successive break, the Big Fear grows. It is an irrational fear in many respects, as I believe I am well regarded by The Boss and I do believe The Boss intends to bring me back. Hell, I have textbooks for the Fall Semester already, not something you dole out to someone who isn’t coming back.
Which doesn’t do anything to wash away the Big Fear. There are so many other factors, from enrollment to the course offerings for full and part time instructors, which could change my situation.
What I need to do is come up with a coping strategy to deal with the Big Fear. If I don’t, this is going to rattle my fillings loose.
Contingency Plan-Fall 2009
In the event of a worst case scenario regarding the teaching front, I can always fall back to security work. I’d really rather not do this but if it means paying the rent, I’ll do what I have to do. Personally, I’d like a better contingency plan such as “return to grad school,” but I can’t see spending the money on more courses given the nature of the history instructor job market.
The Student Front
Terri’s paper needs doing. I’m going to print out my Frankenstein monster of a first draft and read over it before pitching into it again. I also have a take home test to deal with.
Once those are cleared, I am free for the semester.
Other Fronts
After the big move is complete, RPN-04 will dominate my time until the end of May. It will be nice to have something fictional to focus on, perhaps restart my own creative drive and allow my headspace to settle a bit.
I think I’ll just take my time after the 15th. Or as Trinity says, “We’ll just take our time after the 15th.”
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
The Limb Knitter-Part One now available at the Beam Me Up Podcast, hosted by Paul Cole.
The Teaching Front
One final cleared, one more to go. Student performance was pretty much nominal to what I have experienced in the past. The take home final was far easier to grade in many ways. Personally, I’m inclined to give that some thought for the future. We’ll see.
My last final is tomorrow. They should do well enough.
Nothing is likely for the summer aside from substitute work. This is actually a blessing in disguise as I am only eligible for 24 course hours per academic year. The summer class would count against me. Substitute work would not.
As for Fall, all I know is that the intent is to bring me back this Fall. The schedule is always subject to change in any case and the ongoing economic downturn isn’t helping things. I’ve got feelers out at one of our sister campuses where I taught last fall. I suspect, if the class makes, that I stand a fairly good chance of picking that one up.
I need six hours to remain economically viable. Nine is optimal while twelve would be cake.
We’ll see. I also need to get to one of our other sister campuses where a Western Civ opportunity may be available for 2010.
The Student Front
I scraped out of Computers in Design One with a C for the semester. Now here is irony for you. I have taken the class before and earned a B. Given what I know of grading policy, the stronger grade will remain on the transcript. Thing is, I learned more in the class I took this semester (given that I only devoted a sliver of my time and attention to it) than I did back in 2005. I also have a stronger portfolio as a result. All of my assignments, when turned in on time, earned an A.
That said, I think what I need, if I am going to get anywhere on the graphic design front, is a dedicated Mac computer and the Adobe Programs for the course. Getting stuck in the lab isn’t helping me one bit.
On Terri’s front for American Lit II, the plan is to write four pages today and another four tomorrow. I’ll proof them, polish a bit and turn in the paper. Frankly, it is appalling that I have let this go as long as I did.
Fencing final is tonight as well, which for advanced students means we just show up and go out for a bite to eat. I missed the last three Tuesdays due to teaching and other issues.
I’m looking forward to a summer away from the student front. For Fall I have signed up for Terri’s Online Creative Writing Class (I need to keep myself in the writing saddle) and three phys ed classes designed to make sure I stay in the gym.
We’ll see how that goes.
Research Project Number – 04
I have four chapters in the hopper requiring my attention.
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 22
I’ve read over Chapters 21 and 22 (21 is slated for someone else to work on). For 22 I’ve got some ideas. In fact, since 16, 17, and 22 are all related chapters in the same story thread, it actually works out better this way.
I also have some research to do on a certain class of technology and prep a hardcopy for a second review. I will be looking at timeline issues and overall story structure.
So it goes.
Trinity Front
Trinity is still dealing with physical therapy, she has an appointment today to work on the left gun. The good news is that she still has health care. Apparently there was some sort of paperwork error and she was dropped by accident. That doesn’t condone some of the other behavior her family exhibits towards her but it goes some ways towards easing my temper.
Her new job will start next week on campus. I think she’ll be happy enough with the new position, which will keep her in good order until classes start for the pre-law program this Fall. She’ll be going to my old alma mater at UMKC so I’ll be sure to introduce her to The Gender Studies Professor (aka The Captain) and some other folks.
Knowing how Trinity is, she’ll make her own friends. Just ask Birmo about that.
In fact, here is one thing I like about Trinity. When we were in NYC with Birmo, Trinity would talk to Birmo about all sorts of things not related to the novels. At the end of the day, as I sat listening to those conversations with my good ear (as my sinuses were exploding within my skull) I felt like I had a better experience.
These days I find I let Trinity take the lead when it comes to conversation while I sit back and listen. As a writer, listening is what I should be doing anyway.
We also took care of a late fee issue which was holding up the works at UMKC. She already has her financial aid so she is in the pipeline.
The Pod Update
By Pod, I mean “The Pleasure Pod” aka the new home. I got a landline and power set up for the move in date.
We will be emptying the storage locker first using a U-Haul. That will probably take most of Friday. Sometime during the following week, I’ll move most of the heavy gear out of Maternal Support Command, to include the reserve computer, my books, her chest of drawers, two desks and so on and so forth. Clothing, blankets and additional gear will follow.
Then I’ll need to make a run to campus to clear out my cubicle. Chances are probable that I will be back but many of the things which are in my cubicle are there because A: I needed them to teach and B: because there was no place at MSC to put them. Once we’re in the Pod, B will go away.
We should be fully moved in by the middle of next week at the latest.
Other Fronts
Well, at some point I should get back into the fiction writing saddle. Trinity tells me that The Limb Knitter needs novel length treatment. Frankly, both TLK and TDT need novel length treatment. Still, I’m not sure which direction I’ll head. I’ll think on it once the semester is well and truly over.
Actually, what I may do is just spend a few days doing nothing but reading.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
The Limb Knitter-Part One is now available at the Beam Me Up Podcast with host Paul Cole.
Those that done said stuff