Random Thoughts Anew

[ab_grp]

There's a video on YouTube of the last day of my junior year of high school (thankfully, I'm not in it).  It's neat to see everyone so young again and know what they've grown up to be.   It's a little strange to see comments on the video from people who clearly didn't go to my high school and are not nearly in our age range.  Not sure why they'd want to watch that footage, but maybe the hair styles and fashion of the time are of interest or are entertaining.

[downer]

This school has instituted automated online course evaluations. They email the students telling them to do course evaluations, with a link to a site.

Of course, the students hardly bother to open their emails, and I have one smallish class where none of the students have done an evaluation yet.

The school is also emailing faculty asking them to encourage students to do course evaluations.

But what would my incentive? I can't imagine the students are particularly enthusiastic about my course. Most of them are getting Cs and Ds. I have certainly have no reason to encourage statistically significant feedback on my course.

[FishProf]

My school is the same. 

No only do I NOT have incentive to encourage this, I have incentive to DISCOURAGE it.  Our contract stipulates that response rates below a particular threshold can't be used in personnel evaluations.

[AmLitHist]

Right there with you on the online evals.  Ours this time are indicative of the general admin clusterf*ck the past year has been:

Late October:  urgent email to all faculty from Admin:  you must DROP what you're doing, RIGHT NOW, to tell your dean which section/s you want to get student evals for.  No, you can't wait until you're done teaching today--do it NOW, because we just now realized we should have started this in August. (Everyone must have at least one eval per semester, validated by union contract.)  All evals must be completed by Thanksgiving.

Later that same day, around 4 p.m., specific to me and about 85% of all faculty, by name:  You haven't answered yet.  You MUST tell us which class/es, NOW.

Next morning at 8, to me, and that same 85% by name:  Do this NOW, or risk a letter of insubordination in your personnel file!  [Being the sh*t disturber I am, I contacted my union president to let her know that I'd be digging in my heels and answering Admin if and when I got damned good and ready--as many other had also already told her.)

Nothing for a few days, then a pleading email from chair; apparently no one in our dept. had scheduled.  We all did schedule a class, by about 10 days after the initial email.

A few days before Thanksgiving, from Admin:  the surveys had not been launched, even after faculty had posted the 3-page instructions to our students asking them to participate.  The "problem has been corrected" (i.e., somebody forgot and we're trying to hide it behind tech difficulties) and surveys will open on November 30.

Email from Admin yesterday:  some students report problems taking the eval.  It only works with Chrome (never mind that one and all are always told to use only Firefox with the LMS, because Chrome usually either crashes the LMS for the user and/or fails to display all content (i.e., shows only page one of multiple page documents).  "Please advise students to use Chrome to do the eval."

Um, NO. I picked my best online class, who is filled with nice people who like me, and I still don't care.  Admin screwed up, and evals for this semester are going to be garbage, regardless.  My good students will have figured it out and give me good scores; the others probably wouldn't have done it regardless. 

TL; dr:  I agree with others about evals this fall.

BTW:  we learned--only because our union leadership told us--that the Chancellor has gotten a 3-year extension to his contract, with a hefty but undisclosed raise, while faculty are likely facing even more cuts.  (Thus the TL nature of my random thought--pissed off all around.)

[apl68]

One of our front desk staff members hinted the other day that they could use more candy at work to help them cope with the stresses of the pandemic.  Today I saw an opportunity to do something about that.  Another staff member who spends most of her time in her office is out today.  I let the staff on the front desk know that her office candy basket is unguarded today.

[mahagonny]

I'd call Mike Tyson 'doctor' if he asked me to.

[apl68]

We have a bunch of Christmas-themed art by local children on display at the library.  One of them is supposed to be a Christmas night scene.  Somehow it looks more like Halloween.

[aside]

My light switches have "on" and "off" marked on them.  Curious.  If the lights are on, one knows it.  If they are not, it's likely too dark to read the switch.

[apl68]

There's nothing like putting out correspondence on your institution's letterhead to make you feel like you're doing something important.

[ab_grp]

My light switches have "on" and "off" marked on them.  Curious.  If the lights are on, one knows it.  If they are not, it's likely too dark to read the switch.

But what if there are some circuits (?) controlled by more than one switch? Then one might be in the off position while the lights are on.  I have thought about labeling the switches in this house, because I cannot remember for the life of me what controls what sometimes. 

[marshwiggle]

My light switches have "on" and "off" marked on them.  Curious.  If the lights are on, one knows it.  If they are not, it's likely too dark to read the switch.

The one time that would be useful is if the power was off, or the bulb was burnt out (in order to leave things in the desired state for when it's working again). So the function labels are only useful when the lights aren't able to function. (mind blown!)

[apl68]

Currently reading Ross King's The Judgement of Paris,, about the French art scene in the 1860s and 1870s.  It includes a reproduction of Delacroix' "Liberty Leading the People."  I've lost track of the number of times I've seen that picture in a history book.  To one side of the allegorical figure of Liberty stands a guy with a musket.  That's said to be a self-portrait of Delacroix, to show his support ("wokeness," if you will) for the revolution.

To the other side is a youth who's shouting and waving a brace of pistols in a very reckless manner.  Ever time I see the picture I look at that youth and think "That kid's going to hurt somebody.  And it probably WON'T be the enemy...."

[nonsensical]

I thought I understood a little bit about how vaccines work, but the more I read the more I think I don't understand anything. My impression from reading about the COVID vaccines, to the small extent that I've done so, is that they teach your immune system how to fight COVID. So if I take this vaccine and then am exposed to COVID, my immune system still has to exert itself to fight the virus, right? Would I feel that in some kind of way, like feeling a little sick but not as sick as full-blown COVID? If i wouldn't feel it, why not? How is it that my body is fighting an illness and I would just go about my day as usual and not feel anything different?

Also, if that's how the vaccine works, I don't think I understand why people currently have such different responses to COVID, with cases ranging from mild to severe. Is it the case that knowledge of how to fight COVID is a continuum? So, like, some people's immune systems are currently failing that class and some people's immune systems are C students, and the vaccine makes your immune system an A student?

I am not actually expecting anyone on this thread to take the time to educate me about this (though, if anyone felt like typing out some thoughts in response to this, I'd appreciate whatever education I get!). I am just having a lot of thoughts, that I suppose are random, about how medicine and biology and bodies work. I also feel kind of silly that I don't understand these things, but I comfort myself with the thought that I know a lot about some things, and this happens to not be one of them yet.

[waterboy]

The vaccine will allow your body to recognize it very early, destroy it, and therefore prevent it from taking over, and thereby keeping you (95%) safe.

[apl68]

In my job you have to do some weird things sometimes.  I just cut a check for over $500 to an alarm monitoring company--to pay for having them wake me up in the middle of the night several times a year.  Thanks, guys!