It seems that in very many lecture courses there are Power Point slides with a bulleted list of points from the textbook that the professor reads aloud, without explaining. Exams are multiple choice and come from the test bank of the textbook. You can tell the test bank you want fifty medium-hard questions and it … More Revelation
I have finally discovered a way to make the language students write coherent compositions without using translation programs, and without saying they do not know what to do: give very, very specific instructions, mostly in English. Here, the actual exercise is basically lifted from one of our books (¿Qué te parece esta lectura?) and the … More The well crafted assignment
Someone said: I had to get past the internalized shame and doubt because I hadn’t been producing when I was sick. I am expected to have this issue but I do not really — it is more sadness at the fun I missed. I have internalized shame and doubt is about not being able to … More Algo bien básico
It is not time management, y’all, or management of priorities, or of tasks, these are the things many of us learned even before serious school started. It is energy management and again, I am not talking about time or priorities or effort. I will explain. Axé.
Colleague, by telephone: You must help me, as I am terrified. I am painted into a corner, it is not easy to move from here and I cannot afford to move soon. I need to make tenure, really need it. Yet conditions are such that one cannot work to it. And I have found I … More Pelo Telefone, sung by Bahiano (1916)
Colleague: Only you did not lie to me or misrepresent anything at my interview. Z: None of us lied, or intended to misrepresent anything. It is only that I know what it is like where you are from, and also where you studied, and I am not from here either, although I have been here … More Coda on advice and its sources II
I keep insisting, and I am sure I am right, that you in fact learned how to do academic work if you have a degree from anything like a reputable institution, and that you got it from the program itself. Where else do you get advice? This is the submerged question, since much of the … More Coda on advice and its sources I
The right to desire to aspire to feel inspired is a human right I am surely the first to articulate, but that I have not invented since it is eternal. These are the main pieces of academic advice I have received: – Do not think you will get a job – Obey to get tenure – … More Coda on the right to desire to aspire to feel inspired
Z: Did you enjoy Madison? Person from Houston: Yes, but it was really hard. Z: How so? Is it really as cutthroat as one sometimes hears? Person from Houston: No. It was that I had to learn how not to defer to men. You are not expected to do that there, and doing it does … More Another dialogue, another fact
Person: This is like being in Mexico in the 1820s. Z (laughs): Perhaps it is really about 1830 (if this is Mexico). There has been a post-Independence civil struggle. Only the winning leaders were not killed. Of the peons and civilians, I am the only one left standing, although I am wounded. All the other … More A dialogue, and one fact
