The University of Windsor is working on a project supporting Graduate and Teaching Assistants. They are collecting information about what is happening elsewhere. Here’s the intro from their site: … a team working with Graduate Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. We’re building […]
Read More »Why do sessional teaching? You need the experience
An excellent reason to do sessional teaching…
You need the experience
If you are going to make a career as a scholar in higher education, you are going to need to demonstrate that you can teach courses in your field.
It matters what course you have the opportunity to teach, though. This is also where the difference between being a TA on a course and actually teaching a course makes a difference.
Read More »Why do sessional teaching? You need the money
This post is the first in a series. Part 2 considers sessional teaching to gain experience. Part 3 looks at what to do if you decide it’s not worth it. Part 4 helps you approach sessional teaching strategically so you get the skills you need. The introduction is the same so you can start anywhere. As term […]
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Refinement vs Perfectionism
Shortly after I wrote about dealing with your Inner Perfectionist, I read this piece, “Refinement vs Perfectionism” by Cairene MacDonald at Third Hand Works, addressing the same issue. Cairene generously allowed me to share her thoughts here. (The original is no longer available online.) Refinement serves the work. Refinement is that process of adding only what’s […]
Read More »Why are you a professor? (or want to be one)
The other day Alex Sévigny, a professor at McMaster University, posted a wonderful answer to this question on his blog. I encourage you to read it. Here are some excerpts to tempt you, though I fear they lose some of their power separated from the whole. Universities should strive to build in students a yearning […]
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Is your inner perfectionist making things take longer?
Do you have an Inner Perfectionist? Your Inner Perfectionist can be really helpful and probably has been at various points in your career. They make sure you do your best work. Help you through the end game of writing in which all the big ideas are there and you need to make it really shine. […]
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Making difficult decisions
Recently I had to make some difficult decisions about my capacity to review grant proposals in advance of a fall 2010 deadline. It was a hard decision to make and a hard decision to communicate to clients. I have gifts to share with my clients. I genuinely enjoy helping people. And from 2005 to now, […]
Read More »Ever considered being a program officer for SSHRC?
They are advertising. Some of their program officers have been around for a long time but all of them start on short term contracts. You could focus on the short-term part, and the lack of security, or you could see it as a good opportunity to try out a job that is related to your […]
Read More »Are you really motivated by external rewards?
As I see it, there are three ways to look at tenure, promotion, salary, etc. compensation for doing unpleasant or undesirable work motivation to do stuff your employer wants you to do recognition of the value you contribute to the employing organization When you say you are doing something a particular way “to get tenure” […]
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Conference presentations: speed dating for academics
Scholarly conferences are a regular part of the academic life. Whether big annual conferences run by scholarly associations, or smaller more focused conferences and workshops hosted in various institutions, academics attend conferences regularly. Or as often as possible given the travel funds available. Unless you are invited to give a plenary presentation, chances are you […]
Read More »Who do you want to reach? An example
As I’ve argued in previous posts, publishing is all about reaching the people who can benefit from your ideas. For most academics, some of the people you want to reach are other academics. And the primary way you are going to reach them is through publishing in refereed journals. For too many of us, publishing […]
Read More »It’s fine to only want to reach other academics
I know Knowledge Mobilization, Relevance, Knowledge Transfer and all that are hot topics right now. And if you are doing work that has immediate relevance to particular non-academic audiences, you really need to work out the best way to reach those audiences. Which is one reason that I wrote that earlier post. But that doesn’t […]
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