we might dress before we showered, or have our breakfast before brushing our teeth ...

-KenR (October 22, 2006, 11:29 AM)

wait... aren't you supposed to brush your teeth after you eat?

When I started lecturing the real me was wetting myself somewhere far, far removed from the classroom while "instructor-me" crashed and burned in a pyrotechnical display of chin into chest mumbling and abstracted shuffling of lecture notes that I could not read because I had tried to cram so much onto a piece of paper that the text was minute...

-Darwin (October 07, 2006, 04:38 PM)

Oh wow. It's going to take me a while to forget that image. ;D I have totally been there. It's a very uncomfortable place to be. :-[

I had two epiphanies: the first during my first year of lecturing when I started using powerpoints - what a crutch - and the second when I weaned myself off powerpoints during my third year. Just a random thought, and possibly one completely irrelevant to you, but in addition to the above, my use of powerpoints was more as a crutch than an aide and the more I tried to use them effectively (i.e. as something to augment what I was saying rather than letting the slides say it for me) the more of a crutch it became. Throwing down the crutch and staggering on by myself, so to speak, really gave me confidence and even when I'm lecturing on material that is way out of my area of specialisation, I don't really feel very stressed about it anymore.

-Darwin (October 07, 2006, 04:38 PM)

I have realized that the third week of classes. The powerpoints were getting very boring. I was bored, the students were bored, and I was just not having fun since I was trying so hard to get through the material. I have let that go now, and only use the PP to have maps or actual pictures they can relate to. This has also freed me from the linear approach to the topics. I am more likely to jump around my notes rather than force myself and my students to do the linear thinking.

I am still rather frustrated at the whole thing. Last week we watched a very powerful and intense film. The discussion definitely did not go according to plan, and students left feeling rather frustrated at how it ended. In order for me to do damage control, I might have to cancel one of the readings for next week, which I really don't want to do.

This teaching thing is going to take some getting used to, that's for sure. And, I'm spending so much time getting ready for class that I'm not devoting as much attention as I need to my studies, which is not a good thing.

Better time control! Better time control! Better time control! Grrr.. When will I learn that??

how did everyone else do?

did anyone not manage anything at all?

-nudone (October 01, 2006, 03:43 AM)

Worked on it the first two days after the challenge, and then kept doing the "I'll do it later", and "yeah, I'll get to it tonight, I have more pressing things to do". Before I knew, it was Sunday, and the huge pile is still there  >:(

I did, however, realize that part of my problem is that when I have a lot to do, I go on auto-pilot, and in a way I "check out". That makes what I'm doing completely mindless, and I disconnect from what I'm experiencing, and what works better for me. That goes for procrastination as well as work. I think mindfulness, being aware of the task at hand, is very significant, and might be key in actually making decisions about what to do at the moment.

Not sure what to do next.... I have a list of tasks as big as my head from last week that I didn't get to. I am having a very difficult time managing all the schoolwork I have to do. I like app's idea above about locking myself in a room until I work on X for Y hours. But, like jgpaiva above, most of my work is on the computer.

Ah well.... I'll keep trying different things, until something sticks. That's what this experiment is all about, no?