- I think I need one of those 1970s era posters of the kitten hanging off the tree branch, with the caption "Hang in there, baby" for my office now.
- Could that poster have been the proto-LOLcat?
- Sometimes I think all academics should be married. Preferably to someone like a plumber or someone who builds furniture: a person whose work is more grounded in the real world. It would help a lot these days to (a) have someone to "talk me down" when I get way too wound up about the stupid minutia of this portfolio and (b) have someone who feels like they have the time to mow the lawn and pick up the house. (Both are getting bad and it distresses me terribly).
- I'm going to try saving the bloody files to my "spare" flash drive (the one I carry papers to conferences on) and try taking it and a CD home and seeing if I can transfer the files from my home computer. If it works, I save the $50 or whatever it would cost to have the computer dudes do it; if it doesn't, I'm only out a little time.
- I need to dive into the student evaluations today. This is one thing I've been sort of dreading, because the dean asked me to "provide sample student comments" and I'm conflicted. Do I just provide good ones? Or do I go the honest-but-probably-foolish route and provide a randomly-selected sample? And I don't even want to re-read the "This class bores me" or "There was too much math" comments again, but will have to.
- I also need to: contact the other Education Section members and invite them to give papers, work on my paper, go out and collect the fall soil invertebrates, go out and do a fall vegetation sampling, write a homework for one of my classes, write an exam review for another, and work on getting used to the new stats package enough that I can teach students to use it. I can get the homework and the review done for sure today. Maybe I need to promise myself that if I work hard tomorrow and Friday on the packet, I can go out and do the veg sampling and soil collection Saturday; fieldwork will actually be a relief.
- In more serious matters: there was another campus shooter incident. At UT-Austin. (Which was the site of the first of these, back in '66 or so). The good news is their program of notification and alerts worked very well: every faculty, staff, and student wound up safe. Well, except for the shooter. But he wound up killing himself. (Which is, I suspect, the goal-in-part of any public shooter.)
My campus has a somewhat similar system to what UT has now. (We do not have the sirens/loudspeakers as yet, but I think we're supposed to get them). There's a system that will automatically flash a warning on every computer logged in to the Internet, and also sends messages to office, home, and cell phones. (I have my settings set NOT to send to my cell phone; it's usually only on when I'm far away from campus and not likely to come back right away). And I will admit to having a mental plan to keep the students safe if a notification comes during class: fortunately, many of my classes are taught in lab rooms that have connecting sturdy prep rooms with doors that stay locked - so I would just shepherd the students into the prep room, turn out the classroom lights (and power down the projector) so that it looked like no one was there. (In the other classrooms, it would be trickier: the doors are not lockable from the inside so I'd have to quick reach out in the hall, lock the door with my key, shut it behind me, turn out the classroom lights, and get everyone over on a wall away from windows or the door. And if there were a couple big strong guys willing to help me pile tables against the door, all the better.) In my office, it would be simple: shut the door (which is set to lock when shut), lights out, sit under my metal desk and wait for the all-clear.
It makes me sad that I have to have those plans in my mind, but I think I'd be afraid if I didn't have clear plans.
3 comments:
Most (if not all) elementary, middle, and high schools have to have similar plans now after Columbine. It was quite traumatic for my youngest son when his school had a 2 hour lock-down in response to a bomb scare. Between Columbine and 9/11, I think we are raising a generation of anxious kids. (Not so great for the adults, either.)
Whenever one of those kinds of shootings happens it always makes me a tiny bit angry (or maybe just frustrated) that they have to kill the shooter. Because that's what they want and I don't want them to get what they want. I know law enforcement does what they have to do - they usually don't have any other choice - but it seems to me that if they could in most cases capture the person alive shooting sprees might be less popular as a way to commit suicide.
i actually emailed my sons' teachers about plans when the last crazy happened, because liam was worried about it. this was at least 4 years ago, because i emailed his middle school principal.
it's sad, but better to be prepared
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