Next summer's plans

Earlier this week, one of our graduates came to speak to the GIS class a colleague and I teach. I know her well; she took several of my classes while she was here, and we kind of became friends after she graduated (she was, for a while, the biologist at one of the nearby WMAs, and now she works for TNC).

We had talked, off and on, over the past couple of years about either (a) a hypothetical grad student doing a bunch of research up there or (b) me doing research up there. She wants a good vegetation survey done, with permanent plots and everything, so that the sites could be resampled.

No grad student who wants to do that project has thus far presented themselves. (We get maybe one grad student interested in doing a botany type project every 2-3 years)

And I got to thinking about it again - she mentioned the idea of doing it in her presentation to the class.

And I thought: You know, if you didn't teach next summer...if you started planning for it now, you could totally swing it financially, just be a little more frugal each month. (Which actually carries the additional virtue of allowing me to work down on my "stashes" - of yarn, of books, of quilt fabric).

I have said, several years in the past, "I'm not going to teach in the coming summer" but then never talked it over with the department chair, and as summer drew closer, I thought "what about the ecology students who couldn't get into the class during the regular year?" and I thought about the money it brought in - and I always relented and taught.

But you know, after this summer - teaching the two classes, and supervising my grad student, and doing a research project with two people who didn't always get along all that hot, and doing my own research...I'm kind of worn out on summer teaching. So I think I am going to e-mail or call Jona later this week and tell her to count on me doing the research project with her this summer - that way, we can maybe meet a few times in the spring and actually plan stuff on paper first - and I'm going to tell my chair not to tell people they can count on taking ecology in the summer this year.

Because the more I think about it, the more excited I feel at the prospect of just devoting the summer to a big research project - going out in the morning and working and knowing that I don't have to worry about being back on campus at a certain time for class, or holding office hours, or whatever. And the days off! No prep work! No grading! It would be almost like a mini-sabbatical, without having to go through all the paperwork (and take the big pay cut for a year).

I think another reason why I never did the intentional-not-teach-in-summer (in 2004 or thereabouts, my classes didn't "make," and so I didn't teach) was that I was concerned that without a regular schedule to hew to, I wouldn't get anything done. But if I'm working on surveying vegetation with Jona, there will be a schedule - I will have a purpose, I will be able to get things done. And maybe I'll be more motivated to come in on days I'm not working with her, and, I don't know, do some kind of other research (continue the soil critters project, for sure). And read. And spend some time resting my brain, as well, because I probably do need it, after 11 years (that's what it will be the end of this year) of teaching pretty much solidly all year.