Red or Green? Yes

Mmmm...now this is a breakfast burrito - the egg and potato burrito, with red and green chile, from Perea's Authentic New Mexican Restaurant in Albuquerque:

Green Chile

Drove across the Southwest with Carl today. We're now in Albuquerque to be judges at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. What does one do after traversing the Southwest? You go here and order the Frontier Burrito: beef, beans, green chile inside, w/green chile stew on top & flour tortillas

Mmmm.....

Moving Along

Last Friday not only marked the end of the semester, but it marked the end of my time at my community college. I've accepted a similar position at a community college in San Diego, and we'll be moving at the end of July. This move will bring us closer to family and friends. Honestly, we never anticipated being in Arizona as long as we have. My love of my work is what kept us here. Leaving my current college is difficult; it's a great school with wonderful colleagues and tremendous students. I think I've built a strong program there and hope it will continue to thrive. My students have reacted to my departure with hugs and tears and generally just making me feel loved and appreciated. I hope that they understand that I love and appreciate them, too.

This summer will be crazy busy, with time for fun, too, I hope! Then on to a new job and a new city to explore. I'm looking forward to both!

Graduation

Done. Finally done. All the grading, all the paperwork...done.

My last duty for the semester was to attend graduation at the community college last night. Of course, it was the hottest day of the year so far (106 degrees!) and the ceremony was outside, but it was worth it to see all the happy faces. A couple of stories:

• I had an extremely shy student this past year in astronomy. So shy she could barely make eye contact with me and very seldom spoke to other students. Good student, though, but hard to draw out. You should have seen her at graduation last night - beautiful bright smile. She looked so happy! Congrats, Heather!
• One of the most amazing moments at graduation is when those graduates who are the first in their family to earn a post-secondary degree are asked to stand. About 50% of the students stand up, and I noticed one of my best students from this semester amongst them. During the recessional out of the ceremony, I saw his folks taking pictures of him, all so happy. Congrats, Justin!

I was too busy to get to the graduation ceremony at the university, which meant that I missed the graduation of two of my former students. A few more stories for you:

• Eight years ago, during my year as an adjunct faculty, I had a student who was afraid of science and math. She came back the next year, though, for the second semester of astronomy, and she made it through, quite well I must add. We've kept in touch over the years, through some rough times for her, but I remember how happy she looked at her community college graduation. I can only imagine how she must have been glowing yesterday, receiving her Bachelors! Congrats, Sarah!
• And now on to my Padawan. First he battled with the question, engineering or physics? The choice was obvious to all rational people, and he soon figured it out, too. ;) Yesterday, he graduated with a B.S. in Physics and will be starting at graduate school at Brown at the end of this month to do research in dark matter physics! The Dark Side lured him and won! I couldn't be more proud. I know he'll do great! Congrats, Carlos!

Grading levity

A student just referred to my "piercing, intimidating glare" in an email. Hee hee hee. I do so appreciate sarcasm.

Almost there!

Ah, spell-check

A student's paper included the term "constipations" in place of "constellations." Nothing like an immature giggle-fit to wake me up while grading.

Mush

I graded about 100 physics exams yesterday. I have graded 110 physics essays today, with more to come. If it weren't for bbq from Greg and hot chocolate, my brain would be completely mush.

I don't care that the Suns lost today...Steve Nash is the MVP. Nowitski scores EIGHT points in a game 7, whereas Nash is forced to leave a game with blood gushing from his nose after scoring over 30 pts. What a contrast!

Sigh

Are you okay? Your eyes! You look terrible!"

...

What's her name again...I can never remember...you know, the thin astronomer? Uh, I mean, the other thin astronomer?

Sigh.

It's that time

Just writing my to-do list here. Move along, move along.

• write 1 physics final
• write 3 astronomy lecture finals
• write 5 astronomy lab finals
• write 2 astronomy lab quizzes
  
• grade astronomy papers
• grade physics papers

That should keep me busy for the next few hours. Whee!

Busy

This weekend has gone by in a blur. How did it get to be Sunday night already? Oh yeah, this is where the time went:

Work

• Corresponded with many students.
• Corresponded with TAs.
• Checked physics essays for cheating - found one. Not a good move on his part.
• Graded many astronomy essays.
• Wrote two letters of rec.
• Wrote two astronomy quizzes.
• Corresponded with part-time faculty.

Home

• Did grocery shopping.
• Did some much needed recycling.
• Went to the bank.

Fun

• Spent a leisurely breakfast tormenting much beloved Philip.
• Spent an hour dancing around the apartment with my iPod.
• Dinner outside at the brewpub with my dear Greg.
• Suns beat the Lakers!
• Sat outside in the stunningly lovely weather with Greg while he grilled tri-tip and chicken, making the best dinner ever. Mmm...I shall call him the Grillmaster now. Mmm...

Hope y'all had a good weekend!

Sad Questions (long)

This week was sad, busy, and stressful. For the first few days of the week, the students were subdued. I don't know that any single action could have prevented the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I do know that letting the students bear arms in the classroom is not a solution. My arguments?

• I have students show up to class drunk.
• I have students who use calculators to multiply by 1.

---

One of the biggest problems facing higher education today is dealing with students with mental health issues. Do we expect instructors, who are untrained in this matter, to pinpoint problems? Differentiate between the blues and clinical depression? I have no answers, but anecdotes:

• I wrote an essay in high school that my English instructor praised highly, but also let me know that I should feel free to talk to her about anything and everything. It was a much appreciated offer, but I didn't take her up on it. I am eternally grateful she did not contact my parents, nor do I think the content warranted such attention. Nowadays? At least parental contact, I'm sure, and that would have made matters much worse for me. The catharsis of writing was what I needed.
• Two very important men in my life, Greg and Aaron, would have been detained. Kirsten and I would have been single. Splatterpunk, anyone?
• I had a student once who, quite frankly, gave me the creeps upon our first meeting. My gut told me he had issues, but my Ph.D. in physics doesn't make me qualified to make such diagnoses. I had to treat him just like any other student. I started to notice strange behavior in class on his part, particularly towards young women. Then he even appeared to follow a girl when she finished her lab. I made eye contact with another student, who said to me, "Did you see what I just did?" I went into the hallway and called him back in. For a few classes after, I would distract him with discussion while the last girls left the classroom, because his, um, interest in them was overt. I went to the chair of my department, who is amazing, and he said that he'd have a word with this student with security present. The student didn't show up that day, though, and never showed up to my class again. The chair still contacted his family, who said that the young man had been hospitalized and had problems that were controllable with medication. The next year, he showed up in somebody else's astronomy class at our satellite campus. He made one girl so uncomfortable that she told the instructor, who contacted me. Once again, the chair and I started the mandated steps - first warning, then removal if behavior continues. However, this did not go smoothly. The dean who showed up to monitor this class and make the warning told the instructor after class, "You just don't understand this student's culture." Um, does his cultural background explain why he followed the instructor out to his car yelling threats immediately following the warning? We eventually succeeded in having him removed, but not fast enough. He actually touched the leg of that female student in class, and she withdrew before we finished all of the steps to get him removed. I still have regrets that the system didn't work fast enough, and my chair and I fought to at least have the young woman's registration fees refunded for that class.
• Many students have voluntarily revealed to me that they are on medications - depression, social anxiety, bipolar disorder. I would hazard a guess that as many as 50% of my students in some semesters have been under mental health treatment. Is it my duty to ask them if they are taking their meds? Is it the college's responsibility to monitor this? Force them to take the meds?

So many questions, so few answers...so much sadness.

---

Jamie Bishop was dear to friends of mine. The Jamie Bishop and Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarships will be awarded annually to German and French majors at Virginia Tech. Donations may be made payable to the Virginia Tech Foundation for the Jamie Bishop Scholarship (for German Majors) or the Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarship (for French majors):

Virginia Tech Foundation
University Development
902 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Working things out

Today would have been my father's seventy-fourth birthday. He died in August 1999. It seemed to be a quick death from our perspective, but for the amount of pain he was in, it was agonizingly slow. I regret that I cut short our last conversation - he was in quite a bit of pain, so I told him I'd catch him the following week, but there was no following week.

A colleague has been diagnosed with Pick's Disease. He's only in his fifties. Many of us have been quite affected by this news, putting together all the little symptoms we just didn't recognize, much the same way he suddenly doesn't recognize us. I wonder if he understands that many of us appreciated him?

I have two dear friends making big life decisions, and they both asked me for advice, which I did my best to give them. I think I gave good advice. However, in doing so, I realize how I don't follow that advice. Things that seem so clear in hindsight or from the outside are so blurry in the moment. I guess I'm just dwelling on all of this because there are changes ahead, and I'm faced with uncertainty and situations out of my control. I'm feeling on edge and I'm hoping the choices I've made are the right ones. I can certainly think of things I should have done and things I should have said, but never did.

Sometimes it just feels better to write things down.

It rained tonight, unexpectedly. What a gift.

And there's always Saturn, from Cassini

Good thing I was drinking cocoa...

...while grading a paper from a student. First of all, he referred to "astronomy" as "astrology". Secondly, his summary of a newspaper article derided the idea of being able to infer a previous collision between Kuiper Belt objects as being "too great for a reasonable person to believe" and that humans in the current era couldn't possibly have the ability to make such a statement. In fact, he extols his own skepticism and that he doesn't believe everything he reads. It distresses me, because putting this opinion together with his body language in lecture, I think he's been approaching the whole course this way. Don't get me wrong: I encourage my students to call me out when they think the ideas are too wacky to be possible. It's especially crucial in astronomy. I'm always careful to point out where the error bars are large or what assumptions underlie an idea. The goal of this course is to get enough of a fundamental basis so that you can be a "reasonable" person. To read this with only one month left in the course leaves me feeling a little pointless. Sigh.

It's all clear now

This explains that 98/60 at my last doctor's visit.

Cocoa calms blood pressure.

Hack, Wheeze

Well, the sore throat and the earache are gone, but the plague of snot continues. I can't even taste my cocoa! I did not finish anything approaching the amount of work I should have done this weekend. It's going to be a busy week, but then again, I am at the "one month to go" mark of the semester, so busy is the norm til the end.

But for all that, the weekend was pleasant and mellow. Who can complain about a weekend that involved eating donuts at the park at night? Hope y'all had a good weekend.

Year Zero

Nine Inch Nails has posted their new album Year Zero in its entirety in a streaming format on the website. Very different from previous work, political commentary wrapped in a story arc throughout the album. Noisy in the beginning, beautiful in the end. (Would somebody please convince Trent to do a piano tour? Please?) And if you haven't explored the associated ARG yet, here are a few sites to look at:

http://anotherversionofthetruth.com

http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/

End of Public Service Announcment.

One of those days

Today I'm very tired. I think I got through last week on sheer adrenaline, but my supply gave out last night. I was already feeling poorly when I graded exams that made me feel even worse. I mean, I'm not having an awful day, but a tired and cranky day? Oh, definitely. So I will attempt to dwell on beauty and otters and It's-Its and weekending.

Simple Life

One of my goal's for yesterday was accomplished - I had an It's It. You know how most things from your youth aren't as good when you're an adult? These are still as good as I remember. Mmm...

Goal for today: see an otter.

So pretty

Saturn makes my job easy - Rhea and Saturn, from Cassini

Moments

Monday was the first day back from Spring Break. My first class had just started when one of the students walked in. Before Spring Break, and for at least the year I've known him, he had a long blond ponytail. But this day, his hair was much shorter, and it looked great. The class watched his progress as he walked to his usual seat in the front of the class. One girl's jaw dropped. (And if you're reading this, no, I will not tell you who it was.) From my point of view, it looked like one of those slo-mo scenes out of a high school movie. Just awesome.

On Tuesday I handed back the physics exam I was fretting about last week. It had the lowest average of any exam I've ever given, but also had a lot of high scores. An inverse Bell curve. I was still debating what to say to the class when one of my students came to my office asking if he could make an announcement about a new honors society. I handed his exam to him, telling him that he had the only perfect paper. "Really?" he asked. "Yeah." "But this exam was so easy. Maybe I shouldn't announce the honors society to this class." Between his comments and a helpful talk I'd had with Greg, I felt so relieved. Then I went into the classroom and told them they had three more exams to get their acts together.

On Wednesday, a former student (in fact, the one I ran into at a NIN mosh pit) dropped by my office. We had a nice long chat. He's at one of the state universities now and he's a physics & astronomy major! Yay!

Thursday was a 15-hour day. Started at 8:30 am, ended around 11:30 pm. I had to substitute for one of my AST TAs, so I spent the evening at the university. I must say, I enjoyed eating dinner in the student union, watching the NCAA tournament with all the other folks on campus. And I had a chance to talk to my Padawan about his grad school decision - Brown or UCLA. I think UCLA is the better choice, but this Bruin might be a little biased.

My week ended with an email from a former student, because the following reminded him of me. It does suspiciously sound like one of my lectures. :)