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Leading vs. Cheerleading in Higher Education:  The Pandemic Version

5/19/2020

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Where's The Support?  Where's The Leadership?

​On April 1, President Trump told the nation, “I’m a cheerleader for the country.”  As the COVID-19 pandemic approached its peak in many parts of the US, President Trump expressed that he sought to provide hope to the people.  Universities, too, have sought to cheerlead students through this crisis.  With due respect to cheerleaders (it’s a physically demanding sport, to be sure), universities need a full team of diverse players.  While some leadership analysts have called for quarterbacks, I suggest that universities ought to let our best players become our coaches in this unprecedented time.
 
All faculty are leaders.  Faculty members are naturals at leading students.  We manage both large and small classes, and guide students through undergraduate and graduate programs. And now more than ever, we are providing emotional support and mentoring.   COVID-19 has cast its shadow upon students.  It has robbed them of a live graduation, hindered their ability to complete the semester, and wrecked their chances to obtain jobs this summer and after graduation.
 
Polls show that Americans trust the CDC and governors more than the President.  It is likely that the perception of expertise impacts trust.  Similarly, we ought to trust and seek guidance from our peers who have expertise in developing online or blended learning.  We ought to trust: faculty who have previously adapted courses online; teaching and learning centres, and; students when they tell us what they need and how they have been helped or hindered.  This is true leadership.  It is collaborative and recognizes those who are doing creative and fun work in course design.  It’s inspirational, not boastful.
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Academic leadership during this pandemic pandemonium ought to be…academic.  Scholars are used to knowing many things, and if we don’t know answers, we know how to get them.  In this situation, we don’t know a lot.  Yet we can take inspiration from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Consider the facts.  Gather statistics.  Show us the data.  Make decisions based on the data and explain to whomever you lead – students, faculty, or staff – what decisions are made and why.  Demonstrate how each of these decisions infer care for everyone at or in the university.  How can you care for students?  How can you honour their struggles and challenges while getting them through “emergency remote learning”?
 
Some universities have expressed beaming pride that within just one day, they “pivoted” to taking their education remote and online.  Yet other universities pressed pause and allocated a week for faculty to rethink their courses, read up on online best practices (okay, binge and panic reading, but still), and seek assistance from the creative and empowering staff at teaching and learning centres on campus. This pause also allowed students to leave campus, get settled, and start the complicated grieving process of losing important parts of the face-to-face undergraduate experience (read: friends, independence, campus jobs, and a seemingly endless list of ways in which college and university lifestyle has been lost).  A quick pivot is not necessarily a good one.
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Universities have shared feel-good stories of how students have adapted to online life, and social media leaders in higher education have shared sound advice on how to support students and create an environment of trust in this abrupt shift to living and learning online.  But really, student safety and wellness is of prime importance not only now but always.  And especially, now is not the time to engage in noxious promotion of your university.  Promotion and braggadoccio at this difficult time smacks of propaganda.  Rather, it is time to reflect, examine best practices, and share via social media, university news/webpages, or announcements to students if appropriate, so that we can all get through this together.
 
Leading in a tragedy is a special kind of leadership.  In a press conference on 20 April, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked how this crisis has affected his leadership.  He responded that Canadians want to trust the government and come together to get through this uncertain time.  Similarly, students want to trust their professors.  They want to know that their transcripts will not suffer (their short term job prospects are suffering enough).  It’s no time to boast about how fast you or your university “pivoted” or use faculty’s hard work as a promotional poster. 
 
Trudeau also remarked that even if we have a better story than some other countries, let’s not kid ourselves: this is a tragedy.  Reframing this tragedy as a positive success story is premature, and we ought to conduct ourselves accordingly.  We are all grieving, and grief is not the time for arrogance.  Boasting about the “pivot” is like putting lipstick on a pig, and promoting one’s own decisions, whether good or bad, is both untimely and misplaced.
 
Leadership looks forward.  It is understandable that protecting universities from falling enrolment and curbing the general griping about the “pivot” online is part of academic leadership.  As we look to faculty as leaders, we have the opportunity to consider what we can learn and how much better we can make our university and student experiences.  So we can recast questions to: how can I make a better way of communicating with students?  How can I make better use of technology?  How can I ensure more social equity, and ways to get students to know one another?  How can I adapt ways of seeing students as humans?  Stop focusing on cheating and boasting; focus more on trust.
 
You don’t earn trust by telling people how well you did.  You earn trust by doing the hard stuff.
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The Shitty First Draft Of "Now Online" Teaching

3/13/2020

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Or, Tend To What Matters Because Nothing Bad Will Happen If Your "Now Online" Class Is Not Perfect

By now, most of us have opted, decided, or been voluntold to teach online for the remainder of term. 

​Cool.

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The 99 Problems Of Online Teaching

Everyone's got 99 problems and 98 of them feel like finding "best practices" for online teaching.  There's Zoom and Hangouts and Drive and Screencastify and a zillion other apps, sites, programs, and all the sorcery associated with online teaching.

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And The Winner Is?!

This is not a contest, my friends.  Your former f2f class that is "now online" is not gonna win an Emmy or an Oscar or some golden whatever (we are saving all of those for Catherine O'Hara).

Our students are people.  Some might be hacked off that they gotta go back to Mom and Pops when they'd rather share a single bed with their hot partner.  Others have kids at home for three weeks while schools are shut.  Still more do not have reliable internet and have to go to the library.

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Stay The Course (Literally)

The exam in this course means nothing in the long run.  So don't sweat these lockdown browsers or if students are going to cheat (which implies lack of trust, another issue that will become a blog post).   What does matter?  Staying healthy.  Maintaining friendships and connections with classmates.  Not being a hermit and keeping students together as a group in a different space.

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Movin' On(Line)

So you gotta shift stuff.  Fine.  Think minimalism.  We are talking the capsule wardrobe of online teaching.  Give yourself permission to have a capsule course.  Because, let's face it, you will be doing this in your pajamas anyway so rock on with the capsule gig.

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We Are Not The Jetsons

Prime importance ought to be given to maintaining a sense of community in class. You are suddenly not a robot. Students are suddenly not robots.  We are all humans having an online/remote/distance/headphones-on-in-the-basement academic experience.  How can you create freedom and connection if you're worried about policing tools such as TurnItIn and Lockdown stuff?

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The Prize Is "I Fucking Did It"

These are unique times.  Building online courses takes months -- the videos, the visuals, arranging modules and stuff.  I have done it myself (and it's fun, when time and resources are available).  In this case, you're doing it in a week or even overnight.  No one is looking for the Best Panicked Online Course Delivery Award.  There is no such thing.  Go for the self-dedicated, "I fucking did it" prize.

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It's Still Good!

We all have to do this, so let's figure out how to make it "good."  I don't mean award-winning.  I mean tolerable.  For you.  For students.  How?

Make fun of yourself.  Admit to students that you've not done this before, you're breaking your own "rules" of perfection, you are learning, they are learning, and you're in it together.  Do things like extend deadlines.  Adjust expectations.

How else?

Make assignments easy to submit.  Do you usually use the LMS?  Then keep doing that.  I use GoogleSuite with my students.  We will keep doing this.

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But So Many Ideas!

Yup, you are likely to get overwhelmed with ideas and potential plans.  This app or that app or "if I had more time I would do it a different way" stuff.  Make a page in your Everything Notebook and save it for later.  Like, when you actually voluntarily do an online course.  After you survive this one!

The keys here and now are modelling flexibility, understanding, and chillness.

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Now Online

Do a shitty first draft of your "now online" course.  Your students will remember you for being flexible and positive in tough times.  Make it simple.  You have a chance to be a leader in a time of crisis.  Lead by being positive, minimal, fun, and healthy.  

The chill approach to this will permit you to go shopping for seniors who live nearby, shovel someone's driveway (I live in Canada, let me have this jab at March), communicate with students who are confused about these updated instructions because they're thinking about something else (like, will this affect my grad school application -- not a simple worry).  

Stay well, academic family.  My DMs are open if you need talked down, advice about approaches, opportunities, ideas, etc.  
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Ungrading:  Why (plus how via my syllabus)

3/1/2020

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One of what will be many blog posts on ungrading

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GPA as the measure of all things

When I was a fourth-year undergraduate, I was doing the annual trek through the bookstore for my stack of required textbooks (which I haven't made my students do for at least 5 years, though that's another blog post).  I saw this image on a greeting card (on offer in the campus bookstore, wtf) and became motionless, speechless, and basically my whole life and purpose for the last 15 years became meaningless.  Are you F-ing kidding me?  No one cares?  The nights I stayed in to study, the Sundays I spent in the library -- no one cares?
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Ya, but...

Okay so some people care what my GPA was.  The admissions folk at the grad schools that I went to, presumably.  My parents, because it gave them something to brag about.  And sadly I did, because it was the most tangible measure of my academic success.  Was I having fun as an undergrad?  Can't be measured.  Was I part of campus life?  Can't be measured.  Was I eating properly, sleeping, making friends, doing stupid stuff that undergrads should do?  Can't be measured.  So, because of this inability to measure such essential things in university life, I felt like they didn't matter.  Because of course the traditional idea of academic "success" can be measured -- by GPA.  So I sacrificed much of that "life" stuff for the "gpa" stuff because it was all that could be measured, supported, or quantified. 
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Why ungrading?

Last semester I taught a course that was offered to all students in our Faculty (not just the Communication and Digital Media Studies students in the program in which I am housed).  What I noticed is that I spent TONS of time giving feedback, together with a grade based on a carefully constructed and clearly communicated rubric.  And I realized that students cared less about the feedback and more about the grade.  It started to feel like I could give students an A+ and tell them that this was the worst piece of academic drivel ever to be submitted on earth and they'd be cool with that, because no one sees the feedback -- all anyone (besides them) ever sees is the grade.  And so that's what mattered.
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The language of grades

It occurred to me that grades are fear-based.  Students submit an assignment, and hope that they get a reward of a "good" grade.  They fear failure, getting it wrong, or the instructor not understanding what they wanted to do.  A grade can often be punitive -- points off for not doing this or that.  And that is not at all the climate that I wanted in my classes.  
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What about progress?

In one class that I teach, students submit weekly comments/thoughts/reflections on the course readings.  Many students struggle with writing,  and with the extensive feedback that I give (without a TA and without the course being officially "writing intensive" -- another blog post, obv), they improve.  Often significantly.  As in, gigantic progress.  But consider this.  That massively improved student got Ds and Cs at the start of term, and with my coaching, ends up with consistent As and Bs by the end of the term.  The average would be somewhere in the C+/B- range by end of term once the math is done.  So that student is essentially punished for their lack of knowledge at the start of term, and the final grade doesn't reflect how much the student learned and grew throughout the semester.
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What about the transcript?

My classes are not at all lectures and all about activities (I know, I know, another blog post on that coming soon).  This term, in one of my fourth-year courses, the entire course is ungraded.  (I've put the syllabus below.)  But at the end of semester, I have to give students a grade because alas my university is not bucking the trend of not giving grades at all (now wouldn't that be a great bandwagon to jump on, and I'm driving it at this place!).

In this course, at the end of term, students will grade themselves, and more on that later.  But here's the deal at the moment:  All semester, students have received extensive feedback, lots of coaching, invitations to chat, and no grades.  Wanna know who has complained?

NO ONE.  

Not one person.  Not one student.  Not one TA.  Not one professor.  Not even anyone's dog.  We are halfway through term and so far I will call it a raging success.

One of my "ungraded" syllabi is below -- click to download.  I'd also suggest following Jesse Stommel via @jessifer and Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh via @RissaChem for inspiring info on ungrading.

​More to come soon on ungrading, why, and lots more on how.
nvc_syllabus_winter_2020.pdf
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Fierce Writing: Installment #1, Writing Is Not Talking

11/26/2018

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This semester, I'm teaching a third-year Communication Ethics course in which students complete written responses to questions relative to a specific case study each week.  My faculty/department doesn't have writing-intensive courses, which makes me wild with rage.  My friends, this is a hill that I'm willing to die on.  Therefore, each week I post a discussion question for students with the self-imposed requirement that it is both fun and academic.  I grade them all and provide detailed feedback within a few days (note: I don't have a TA).  I've found a series of common issues this term, so here begins a Dr. ABG blog series on Fierce Writing.
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It's important for students to realize that writing is not talking.  I'm all about making writing accessible, simple, and easy to read.  However, writing takes on a different tone than speaking.  For example, a few students this week wrote, "Majority of the time, reality television does not reflect reality."  The word "majority" needs "the" before it, hence this sentence should read, "The majority of the time..."  I always tell students that writing and speaking are different.  While it might feel awkward to say, "The majority of the time", it ought to be written that way.
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I'm the course instructor.  I grade all of the assignments.  I give consistently detailed feedback to students.  Therefore, the last thing I want to read about is myself.  That is, students often write, "When you consider Kant's argument in context of..."  In this case, "you" is actually me, Dr. ABG, the reader of this important piece of academic work.  "You" is something that English speakers might say in casual conversation, such as, "When you go outside without a coat on in Canada, you freeze your butt off."  That "you" doesn't have a place in academic writing.  To be a fierce writer, recast to, "If Kant's argument is considered in context of..." or better yet, "I considered Kant's argument in context of..."  To take our lovely Canadian example and make it into something writing-approved, recast to, "I went outside without a coat on here in Canada, and I  froze my butt off."  
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When we talk, we just let our sentences roll into each other, and we keep carrying on, with sometimes our inflection not really ending a sentence, they all just run on into each other, we keep talking, sometimes until someone interrupts us.  Like that.  I tell students that writing is not a monologue.  Let sentences end.  Let the reader take a break, pause, and move on to the next sentence.  Be aware of run-on sentences (such as the first sentence here).  These run-ons are actually multiple sentences connected with commas.  Proofread like a writer, not a speaker.
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My next Fierce Writing blog post will be about how writing is often how people make a first impression.  Watch my Twitter account via @AcademicBatgirl for links.
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Submit To Getting It Done

9/25/2018

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I’m Gonna Get ALL My Manuscripts Written This Summer!

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I say it every year, and it never happens.  Soon enough, September brings its chilly mornings and I think, dang it, I shoulda sat on my porch and written at 5pm every day instead of sitting in the same blissful location having a mojito with my neighbours.  And then I think, no way, those are some good times.  So...
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All the manuscripts did not get submitted in August.  However, I do have a series of papers in a variety of stages, because I kept moving forward over the summer.  Some are almost done, some are kinda sorta done (but not really), and others are shiny ideas that lure me away, just like my friend @LawProfBlawg described last week.
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Now that we are about a month into school, momentum has arrived.  So, too, have the colleagues who are loudmouthing that they have "a bunch of papers coming down the pike" (and I loathe that expression because I'm from Massachusetts, where everybody knows that the Pike is full of traffic and is expensive, so if my papers ever end up on the Pike, I'm totally screwed).  Plus, its just an intimidation tactic, usually from people who really don't have anything "coming down the Pike" so I don't even listen to that nonsense. 
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When I first started my tenure stream position, I had a casual conversation with a very senior colleague (everyone was very senior to me at the time) about my plans for manuscript submissions.  I can't remember if it was about grand plans for summer writing (all the things!) or still cranking through the submission process in fall.  Either way, I was expecting that I'd hear that I needed to keep a writing log (a la Silvia, which definitely works for some people), create some fancyass spreadsheet to keep track of what I've written (or not), or go on some writing retreat that I couldn't afford.
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Instead - and this quite literally changed my academic life - he said, "Finish what's closest to being finished."  It was SO SIMPLE, yet so profound.  I had maybe five papers that were in different stages of completion.  The furthest from completion (that is, the newest!) had been my greatest interest, and I was desperate to work on it, because I wasn't bored with it (yet).  However, I had one manuscript that was actually quite close to being done, and once I sat down to finish, didn't take nearly as long as I had expected.
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The manuscript that was closest to being finished got submitted, and got published rather quickly (as academic publication goes).  The deal is, these manuscripts that we feel bored writing were once our "shiny new manuscript".  Further, they have merit.  We have thought about them, gathered the data, analyzed it, did the lit review, and then feel "done".  Except we're not.  
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The practice of finishing what is closest to being finished has never failed me.  It's the simplest and most effective advice I've received in my career.  Even post-tenure, I still follow this advice.  When a revise and resubmit comes back, I drop everything I'm writing (obv I can't bail on teaching or service) to work on it, and when it's done, I get back to the paper that is closest to the submission door.  Then I can get myself out my actual door for a hike in the Ontario Provincial Parks (my favourite is here) or that blissful mojito on the porch.
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It Was Fun Being Terrible

8/15/2018

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Or, What I Learned Being A Hockey Player All Summer

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Hockey Life

Disclaimer:  I grew up in Massachusetts, and until I was about 16 I actually believed my dad when he said that the only way he could remember when I was born is because the Bruins won the Stanley Cup that year.  Dad got me out on frozen ponds early on and this skating ability came in handy when I moved to Canada, where skating is pretty much a requirement for citizenship.  When I moved here, I joined a women's hockey league and played right wing till I was four months into expecting my eldest (spoiler:  that was 15 years ago, so it's clear where my on-ice prowess is these days).  
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Back To Life

This eldest daughter now plays competitive hockey, which means year-round ice time (together with me freezing my Yankee ass off in rinks all over the northern hemisphere, while also having gigantic respect for the student-athletes in my classes).  This summer said child enrolled in an advanced skating class and dropped an epic bomb when she said, "You know, Mom, you should just take the class with me.  It's better than sitting in the stands."  There was no way I was doing that.  Until I was.  After a colossal trip to buy new equipment (shoutout to the dudes at Hockey Life!), I stepped on the ice again after 15 years.
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Aaaaaaaand, I Sucked (At Least Comparatively)

This advanced skating class consists of children aged 6-16... and me.  The coaches are all former OHL or NHL players, and most are involved in coaching the men's and women's hockey teams on campus.  On the first day, I was feeling okay after a few strides, then the coach blew the whistle and everyone (including my own kid) left me in the dust.  As in, suddenly, I felt my age (which I generally refuse to do).
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Showing Up

One of the young girls in the class wore a practice jersey which read, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  (The Office joke aside, this is a classic Canadian quote.)  At least I was there, at least I was trying, at least I was taking my shot.  The same can be said for university students.  At my university, we have many first-generation students, many of whom don't have the parental guidance or experience to get and keep them in the classroom.  They're showing up, and taking their shot.  Some students transfer from college into a university program.  They're taking their shot.  Some students show up wondering how they will work full time to make ends meet and still be a full time student.  They're taking their shot.  And taking a shot is not easy.
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Scaffolding As A Best Practice

Many of us include scaffolding as a pedagogical practice -- start out with small exercises or assignments, and build up to a larger project.  The same happens on the ice.  We practiced c-cuts, added crossovers, then double crossovers, and stops.  Being a student this summer in a totally different arena (literally), reminded me how important scaffolding is in an overall program (such as a university course or a hockey class).  
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Encourage, Encourage, Encourage

I'm no Hayley Wickenheiser, though it's great to feel awesome every so often.  During one exercise, I was carrying the puck down the ice (probably very badly) and the coach said, "Go!  Go score!"  That very simple encouragement made me smile and let me play the part even for a short while.  And I did score (on an empty net, still, it felt good).  I can take that into the classroom by encouraging students to go the extra mile, providing clear feedback, and being a positive academic coach.
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Acknowledge The Challenge

Coach was introducing a drill and  said, "Okay, so this one is really easy."  It's a good thing I had my helmet on because my eyes rolled so far back into my head I nearly fell over.  NOTHING about that class is easy.  And I had a reckoning in that moment.  For me, writing is easy.  For many students, it's not.  My goal has always been to help students to develop their writing and I provide loads of personalized feedback.  However, it occurred to me in that moment on the ice that some students - for any variety of reasons - will do the proverbial eye roll even when I say, "Don't worry, it's just a paragraph."  There are high standards in both hockey and in writing, yet acknowledging where students are coming from, what their barriers are, and that they are trying, is helpful and right.
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It's Time

As I head back into the classroom in a few weeks, I will have the fresh experience of being a student of something that I found very challenging.  As an instructor, I will bring in the humility of showing up, trying, and taking a shot.  If I can encourage all of my students to take their shot, empower them to score, and acknowledge their academic training, then we're going to have a winning team this semester.
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On Writing, Non-Solitude, and Productivity

6/8/2018

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Or, Write For Your Life

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Write Here

I took this photo yesterday, after I made a gigantic breakfast before sending five kids (two of my own and three who are at the house all the time) off to school. That's my laptop, mid-manuscript, on the left. I've been asked how I manage to write in such circumstances, so here goes.
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But First

Our literary hero Stephen King says that writing should be a private experience, and ought to be conducted behind a closed door. I wanted to try this. So I did. And it absolutely sucked. I am WAY too social to be shut away, and being a single mama of busy (and also social) kids, a whole lot of solitude for writing wasn't going to happen.
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"Can Be" Solitary

I realize that I am giving the British two-finger salute to most advice that we should (must?) write in solitude. This might be an unpopular opinion, though I suggest that it really doesn't have to be that way. I taught myself to focus in the company of others, think in the midst of peripheral conversations, and write in the context of chaos. That means writing at home when the kids are around, being part of a campus writing group, and (my nerdy fav!) Skypeing with a friend and writing with them via video on the side (glorified babysitting). 
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Kids And Company Create Simplicity

William Zinsser suggests that we streamline our writing. He also demands a realness from writing that lets others connect with us. For me, this sincerity is created by having my family, pets, and the general madness of life around. The practice of focus, mindfulness, or meditation in motion helps me to stay true to my argument, research question, theory, or conclusions.  My yoga and mindfulness practice help with this, I'm sure.
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Two Solutions:  Early Writing and Consistency

I get up early to write. Pretty much no matter what. I stay up late, too bad for me, I get up and write anyway. I've got to a point where not writing causes me more anxiety than doing the writing. If I don't write, grade, revise, and give feedback to students, my teaching and scholarship suffer. So as Maya Angelou said, nothing works unless I do. For my family, that means that even though I write in the morning, I can still write or work when everyone and their friends are all home. I have never once asked my kids to leave the house, vacate the premises, or leave me the F alone while I get stuff done. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re all awesome or because I have developed tunnel vision. Either way, I’m living proof that it’s possible.
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Excellence

It would be very easy to say look, I have kids, I'm a single parent, I can't manage to publish more than two academic papers a year (for the last five years, I have published 7 or more refereed articles annually). Instead, I have learned to focus and be present even in the throes of a storm around me. It didn’t happen overnight, though it was a conscious decision and active practice on my part. I decided to learn to write while in the literal and physical fray of daily life, and it has worked well for me.

Its Madness

I like having a busy house, loads of kids around, and a general sense of wild hearts in Our House (in the middle of our street). It is true that my laptop has a quasi-permanent place on the table. However, it doesn’t mean that I work 24 hours a day.  Jake Tapper advises that if you want to write (or accomplish anything professional, really) and have kids, when you have 15 minutes, you gotta take it.  This focused practice helps to do just that.  Working 24 hours a day -- that's real Madness and isn't for me.
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I'm A Snapchatting Researcher

2/23/2018

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I Don't Research ABOUT Snapchat.  I USE Snapchat.

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My kids use Snapchat.  My students use Snapchat.  I'm not playing the "forever young" game, and I'm not on a quest to prove my eternal youth.  I just find this channel helpful in my research. 

​Here's why:
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Visuals To Illustrate What Needs To Be Done

My coauthors and I are in the process of wrapping up a manuscript.  As I went through it, I noticed a line gap in a table.  I could have sent a longish email with an attempt to describe where the line gap was, and what needed fixed, with a whole bunch of details to describe where and what was going on.  Instead, I sent a quick Snap of my screen, used the pen to circle the issue, typed out what we needed done, and within 15 minutes the table was fixed.  (I blacked out and blurred content -- sorry, manuscripts in progress aren't open-access.)
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Visuals For Formatting

A coauthor and I were in a friendly spar about what third level APA formatting should look like (this is sort of like the Oxford comma discussion, because there IS a right answer to both -- use it).  She went in and changed the formatting, then I skulked into the manuscript, changed it back, and sent a Snap of what the formatting should look like.  Bam!  
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General Venting

I had an horrendous revise and resubmit due this month.  It seemed as if it took FOREVER.  Anyone who is on my Snapchat distribution list knew about it and was extra nice to me for a month or so!  And now, we are currently in the throes of Canadian university "Reading Week", which is really a gigantic euphemism for Spring Break. I've spent it writing, grading, and preparing to sell my house (yeah, in the middle of the semester -- that was a great decision).
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Progress

I have found that using Snapchat as a form of accountability for writing progress really works.  It's kind of like an asynchronous Shut Up And Write, which is great because writing is a lonely job.  I have a habit of early morning writing, so at the end of my daily stint, I take a Snap of my word count, evidence of what I did, or some sort of "proof" that I showed up for my writing job, and send it to my Aca-Snappers.  One of my students and I commiserate about writing via Snapchat, and she told me that if she doesn't have a snap from me by the time she wakes up, she worries if I'm ok!  Friends who write in the evening or throughout the day send Snaps when they're done with their daily writing goals.  I find that Snapchat is great for a daily check-in.
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Bonus:  It's Fun

If you've not barfed a rainbow before, Snapchat is your place.  Just send a Snap of your writing progress to me: AcademicBatgirl! 
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On Collegiality

8/8/2017

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Or, Be That Person

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Have One, Be One

So much for punching today in the face (really, I had the best intentions).  After sitting in a series of meetings all day,  one (yup, one) of my colleagues asked how I was doing, how is my summer, what's going on.  With that, I told him the truth.  It hasn't been an easy one (I keep telling myself that there's still time to resurrect my favourite time of year).  
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A few weeks ago, I received two revise and resubmit notifications. By the grace of all that is good in the world, I finished them both inside of ten days. However, I must be clear. That's not why I've been so uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter. Lordy knows I would have a great deal to say about the frustrations of the requisite joy and pain of revise and resubmits. Also, the weather here in Ontario has been more rotten than not, so I haven't been sitting on the beach and swimming in lakes like we thought we'd be. It's because some personal stuff has blown up in my face.
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My Colleague Was There.

So, this lovely colleague asked how things were going, and how awesome is it that none of the news or struggles about the revise and resubmits even came up. He assured me that I'm not as horrible as this drama has made me feel, and that I didn't need to consider myself an idiot for being totally vulnerable when he asked - with sincerity - how I was doing. I have lots of friends, though most are not academics, and somehow there was something beautiful about this colleague asking after me (and not running away when I didn't say, "I'm great!").
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Silence and Fear

I wasn't anticipating sharing much of my personal struggle with my colleague, probably because I wasn't sure how I could without melting down.  Nor was I really planning on saying anything here about how I'm having a hard time figuring out the joy and pain of my personal life (revise and resubmits are way easier). And yet.  Audre Lorde (1977) wisely tells us that breaking silence takes courage, and comes with a sense of danger. This danger looks like fear of criticism, of judgement, of being challenged or injured or hurt.  I broke the silence with my colleague.  And what do you know, there was no judgment, no criticism, no injury.  
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Be That Person

Let's face it, academia is an interesting place. We have the opportunity to stay in our offices, our silos, our own academic niches. Today, a difference for me was one colleague asking what was up. And breaking the silence made all of the difference. In the virtual #AcademicTwitter community, take the lead from my friend Ellie Mackin and spread academic kindness. So many academics work to create, find, and share beauty in this crazy place -- here are a few: Raul Pacheco-Vega, Rissa Sorensen-Unruh, Aaron Langille. All I need to say here is that we all can be a difference to a colleague. And if someone in your hallway or on your messaging app tells you their story, just give them a hug (even virtually), tell them they're courageous, and know that academia is full of real people having real lives outside of this so-called Ivory Tower.

This job is odd.  Keep it real.
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Why I'm Doing #AcWriMo Anyway

10/31/2016

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Or, November is a hard month, but whatever.

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#AcWriMo starts on November 1.

Academic Writing Month, or for us Twitter folk, #AcWriMo, is a movement started by PhD2Published which helps academics to stay motivated and accountable to their writing.  Obviously, we should be writing, like, all the time.  All.  The.  Time.  But, teaching happens, sleep happens, and so do necessary things like walking the dog and eating pizza.  We academics need each other - yes, even (and sometimes especially) online presence helps productivity.
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Why I'm doing it.

While #AcWriMo is pitched by PhD2Published, it's for all academics at all stages -- from undergraduate to "the most distinguished of professors."  While I still think of myself as an undergraduate at times (imposter syndrome and an occasional loathing of adulting will do that), I'm a senior faculty member.  I have a full teaching load (because I'm not ridiculous enough to be an @AssDean).  I've got grants, book chapters, conference presentations, and full-on manuscripts to write.  However...
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I have empathy for my students.

My undergraduate students are awesome.  And they deserve the best of my academic life.  I'm at a research university, so not everyone shares this sentiment.  I believe that my research informs my teaching.  So I see writing as an investment in my teaching for many reasons.  One of the most important is that I sit and write just like my students do (or, just like they should).  It's simply a challenge to write, no matter what one's academic rank.
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Stuff is going on.

So, #AcWriMo starts on November 1 and I hereby commit myself to writing a book chapter.  This includes lit review, rationale, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, references, formatting, and all the requisite APA stuff.  Now, this coming weekend, I will be at my eldest kid's hockey tournament, which is a nice way of saying that I will be (happily, mind you) freezing my Yankee ass off in a variety of ice arenas here in the Great White North.  The following weekend I will be at an academic conference.  However, I'm going to be writing every day.  If that means it's early in the morning, for 30 min at a coffee shop, or on a piece of paper, well, it's getting done.  Now I'm changing topics before I change my mind about this whole thing.
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Being a flexible writer.

Writing every day isn't easy.  I mean, there's always pizza to be eaten, dogs to walk, and ice arenas in which to freeze.  I find that it's easier to write every day because I save everything to Google Drive or Dropbox.  In this case, I can revise documents on my phone or iPad if I don't have access to my computer.  I realize that this sounds like it's taken from a page in the Universal Guide to Nerdhood, though it does maintain my ability to be flexible and to adhere to the discipline of writing every day. 
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Trying vs. doing

As the great sage Yoda says, "There is no try..."  In other words, you're either doing it or you're not.  That's some slap-in-the-face accountability.  I'm doing it.  
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