Saturday, February 17, 2007

In which I play Real Professor (TM)

The last week or so has had me feeling like I'm a real professor, which I guess I am now. I'm just not used to thinking of myself that way.

I'm serving on the library committee for our department, and got to recommend books for the library to get. After encouragement from the department, I even requested some books that might be helpful for my own research interests. (This seems odd to me, since it's pretty much just an undergraduate institution, and as such, I may be the only person to ever look at one or two of these.)

Then I gave a talk for the department. Granted, it was just a rehash of my dissertation defense, but it was a talk. (Which meant I had to go remember what all that stuff in my dissertation meant. More or less. Thank goodness no one had any questions about asymptotic values.)

And finally on Friday, I met for the first time with a newly formed presidential commission on LGBT issues at the university. Me, on a commission. We should have a bat-signal style spotlight to summon us for emergency meetings.

All this is on top of all the usual stuff going on. I'm just now grading papers from students who think that paying off a loan early could save them over $100,000 off of the $982 finance charge. (They have a test coming up, too.) Earlier in the week I was trying to teach my elementary education students how to work in bases other than 10. (It's no wonder this tends to be known as a disaster for students; the elementary teachers may not understand it.) And my topics class is working on a take-home test which has generated plenty of consternation.

But hey, I feel like a professional sometimes now.

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