TA Evaluations

I received the course evaluations for the class I TAed last quarter. Have to say, it was better than I expected it to be. On an average, the class thought that I was being too tough on them, but also mentioned that they learnt a lot more and that I was helpful. I will take that as a complement. There was this one disgruntled student who gave me a “Very Poor” grade on every single item. It kind of pains to see that considering how much effort I put into it, but then again 1 out of 37 students is not a bad ratio I guess.

Original from DirtFlake. Edited by your’s truly.

Original from DirtFlake. Edited by your’s truly.

Candle in the Wind

Last Saturday, arguably one of the leading academic stalwarts of our times, Denise Dee Denton, committed suicide. She was a faculty at University of Wissconsin, and then the Dean at University of Washington, before joining UC Santa Cruz as its chancellor. We will never know the entire truth behind her decision, but the leading theory is that the support system of academia had failed her. If that is the case of a chancellor of a university, what chance do we grad students have?

Back to Work

Got quite a bit of work done today. Wrote a proposal for QoH. Not the best of my work, but passable. Honestly I didnt feel like going all out on it. Why should I work my ass off getting funds for some project that is going to fund the other grad student? Anyways, it is not like QoH is paying me for the RA work till July 1st anyways. Guess repressed hostility eventually surfaces are passive agressive behavior.

In any case, it felt good to be working again.

In Good Company

I had a really pleasant evening with myself. I went for a long walk around a lake, and then went golfing. It was more of a fun golf course than anything else. Easy fairways, and no bunkers Got home, took a shower, ordered in a pizza, and watched Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda”

Good times.

Vacation

The spring quarter ended on Monday. Turned in the evaluated project reports and labs. I was very very generous with the grades. If I got the feel that the student knew what he/she was doing, I gave them 95% of the score irrespective of the final result. It is my strong belief that it is more important that we evaluate students on their understanding of the subject rather than mathematical skills.

Since Monday, I have resolved that all I will do this week is to sleep and watch TV. It feels so good to do nothing. My roommate says its a form of meditation, while the other maintains that it is first stage of burnout. Either way I don’t care.

I am meeting with HappyFace tomorrow. I need the meds adjusted. A month ago she brought down the dosage because I was complaining about feeling too detached to everything. Now with the lower dosage levels, I find myself depressed every now and then. Better de·tached than depressed. Lets see what she has to say.

Clean up

My office is all sparkly now. Well, not so much sparkly as not dusty. I removed my PC from my desk. I am going to use my laptop for everything from now on. I am using my desktop as a file server now. I threw out more than 2 boxes of papers. Talk about rain forrest destruction.

I spent the rest of the evening evaluating the final projects for the class. The students did well. I was feeling generous so the mean ended up being 98%. I guess christmas came early for the students.

Retaliation

I am feeling a lot better these days, and have learnt a lot of interesting things about myself during the short period since failing quals. More on that later.

Couple of days ago I rearranged the furniture in the living room to my taste. My roommate did not like the new arrangement, and wanted to revert back. When asked for a reason, he said, “just coz.” So I told him no, and moved on. This evening, he rearranged stuff to the old style without consulting me. I got pissed and retaliated by blocking off his internet access. Actually we kind a “borrow” our neighbor’s wireless connection, so I had to hack into their machines to block my roommate out. How evil am I? Am I turning passive-aggressive?