Category Archives: teaching
Three Down, One to Go
I’ve submitted marks for three of my classes, now only the last group remains. It’s all down to how quickly I can plow through about seventy final exams. I don’t want to waste time counting them up: the total would … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
Grading Jail
It’s gotten to be that there’s so much end of term marking every December that I can no longer summon the energy to panic. I just mark as best I can, call it a day sometime around eleven at night … Continue reading
You Can’t Alway Teach What You Want
It’s that time of year when we start nailing down next year’s course offerings. As our department has lost a boatload of faculty over the past few years (we’re down five full-time people and not down that many students), it’s … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
Droolworthy Digital Resources
Sharon Howard, at Early Modern Notes has alerted us to a new project in which she’s involved: Manuscripts Online: Written Culture from 1000 to 1500. Colour me excited! She describes it as a kind of Connected Histories for medievalists. That’s … Continue reading
Talking ‘Bout My Institution
Over at Historiann’s corral, there’s a great discussion underway, inspired by Tony Grafton’s review of a raft of books on the crisis in higher education. Historiann’s charged her regular commenters, including yours truly, to describe our institutions and what the … Continue reading
Grading Peeves
I’ve often thought about handing out my students a list of expressions and mistakes to particularly avoid in their essays. You know, those bits that jump out and inspire a pained wince as well as a swift circling with the … Continue reading
Filed under teaching, writing/editing
Maintenance
Tomorrow the nice fellow from the heating contractors comes to sell us a new furnace. Necessary maintenance moved up in our scheme of things when this year’s routine service required two further follow-ups with no resolution of the underlying problem. … Continue reading
Filed under personal, teaching, writing/editing
Don’t Cite So Much From Me
(Post title with apologies to The Police.) Yes, this week the first essay, a short research essay analyzing a primary source document, is due. I’m fielding lots of questions, including a surprising number about how they can cite me. Me, … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
Five Days a Week?
For the full-time academics out there, how many days a week do you teach? I know there are two schools of thought with the popular one hereabouts being to pile up all your teaching on two, three, maybe four days … Continue reading
Small Class Bliss
My senior seminar on early medieval chronicles has a total enrolment of sixteen. In twenty years of full-time teaching, I’ve never had a senior seminar with so few students. Two years ago I had nineteen and thought that I was … Continue reading
Filed under teaching
