SUSAN D. BLUM
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Selected Publications
  • Good Learning
  • Events
  • Media

Academic Resolutions for a New Year

1/1/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
We academics are lucky, in a way: we get a fresh start at least twice a year. We have a new school year in the fall and a New Year in the winter. With this luck, though, comes the requirement to start anew. Old schedules and habits are over; we have to commit ourselves to new ones. Whether we like it or not, we have to start over.

Following peer pressure—something nobody should ever do—I am therefore setting out some of my winter New Year’s resolutions. These are public, and idiosyncratic, so I will probably regret them many times over before I do it again next year. I am already afraid (see number 7) about posting them!

Academic life comes in three forms—teaching, research, and service—and then there is the personal. I’ll skip the exercise, yoga, meditation, clutter-conquering, calling-my-parents, eating-more-kale, bringing-my-own-bags (hey! I already do this one!) resolutions. You can find these everywhere you look. Instead I’ll look at my academic resolutions.

1.     Procrastinate and fret less. The plan is to start doing the things I’m putting off—grading, bureaucratic reports, polishing articles, reviews, grading, making decisions about scheduling, responding to complicated emails, and, by the way, did I mention grading? Once I am in the midst of a semester I often find myself constantly worrying about getting responses back to students. Once I start I almost always find it takes less time than I expected. So, in order to get to these things, I just have to begin. Preferably this occurs in an empty room with the Internet disconnected.

2.     Plan my daily writing in advance. I already reserve mornings, my most productive time, for writing, but I don’t always get to the writing part. This resolution requires having a concrete plan about what exactly to do. The Pomodoro Technique takes care of this.

3.     Work on fewer things at a time. Instead of compiling lists, starting new things—Oh the joy of starting!—and having oodles of unfinished work weighing down my heart, I will keep in mind what two of my productive colleagues have revealed in the last year, as I’ve asked about work habits: (a) Work on one thing at a time. (b) Recognize that the last 10% takes 90% of the effort. So in order to work on fewer things at a time, I will have to finish the half-dozen articles that are on my list, so I can get to the 600-page manuscript that I am especially excited about.

4.     Stick to my resolution about taking on only tasks to which I feel I can offer something unique. Keep relying on my “No Committee” (my next-door colleague and friend) when asked about new obligations. Each talk, manuscript review, committee, independent study, conference seems intriguing itself, but they add up to an unmanageable whole.

5.     Continue trying innovative approaches to learning, aiming to reach my students where they begin and move them to a new understanding and inspiration, rather than blaming them for not being academically oriented.

6.     Remember that my position is one of a certain amount of privilege—in comparison with many other academics, and in comparison with many others in jobs that bring only a livelihood, not a calling, and then with so many without employment at all—and that with that comes obligation.

7.     Be brave. Speak the truth, as much as I have evidence for this, even if it is frightening. Stop waiting to write the strong views I hold. It might mean people dislike or dispute what I say, but that is supposed to be the point of public discourse. In that vein, I turn to resolution 8:

8.     Blog. I’m starting the New Year able to check this one off right away. But like yoga, exercise, flossing, eating kale, calling my mother, and all the rest, it must be done regularly in order to be effective. And though I give my blogging some thought, I usually let the posts go without stewing too long. They are somewhat risky, but writing helps thinking and responses bring additional clarity.

So now I’ve publicly stated my plans. With the theory that accountability helps, I hit “submit” and enjoy the clean slate that January 1 brings. I wish you a similar hopeful beginning. Happy New Year!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2021
    March 2021
    August 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    6-4
    Academic Freedom
    Adhd
    Affect
    Agency
    Anthropology
    Anthropology Of Education
    Anti-intellectualism
    Arne Duncan
    Art
    Assessment
    Atlanta Teaching Scandal
    Attention
    Authentic Assessment
    Authenticity
    Authorship
    Badges
    Banking Model
    Barack Obama Election
    Bilingualism
    Blum
    Catfish
    Censorship
    Cheating
    Chen Guangchen
    Childhood
    China
    China Bashing
    College
    College Admissions
    College Football
    Commencement
    Communication
    Competition
    Confucius Institutes
    Con Games
    Corruption
    Cost Of College
    Costs Of College
    Covid-19
    Creativity
    Credentials
    Credits
    Critical Anthropology Of Education
    Cs Peirce
    Cultural Literacy
    Culture Of College
    Culture Of Poverty
    Curiosity
    Deception
    Decline In Reading
    Deep Learning
    Delayed Gratification
    Design Thinking
    Education
    Engagement
    Equality
    Ethics
    Evolution
    Exchange Value
    Executive Function
    Extrinsic Motivation
    Families
    Feminist Pedagogy
    Football
    Freedom
    Friday Classes
    Game Of School
    Gaming
    Gaokao
    Garden
    Gender
    Gender Ratio
    Goals Of College
    Goals Of Education
    Grades
    Grading
    Graduation
    Higher Education
    High School
    High Stakes Testing
    High-stakes Testing
    Homeschooling
    Hong Kong
    Honor Codes
    Human Nature
    Humor
    Inequality
    Intellectual Property
    Intelligence
    Intrinsic Motivation
    Jacques Dubochet
    Joshua Wong Hong Kong
    June 4
    June Fourth
    Language
    Language Gap
    Learning
    Linguistic Anthropology
    Literacy
    Literature
    Lying
    Malala
    Marx
    Meaning
    Medicalization
    Mental Illness
    Meritocracy
    Metaphor
    Money
    Mooc
    Moocs
    Morality
    Motivation
    Mo Yan
    Multilingualism
    Multimodality
    Music
    Neurobiology
    New Media
    New Year Resolutions
    Nobel Peace Prize
    Nobel Prize
    No Child Left Behind
    Notre Dame
    Nyu
    Occupy
    Pandemic Pedagogy
    Paolo Freire
    Pedagogy
    Permaculture
    Plagiarism
    Play
    Pleasure
    Politics
    Praise
    Procrastination
    Questions
    Race To The Top
    Rand Paul
    Reading
    Reading Habits
    Return On Investment
    Sat Test
    School
    Schooling
    Self-censorship
    Semiotics
    Sign
    Sociality
    Socialization
    Soft Power
    Steven Mosher
    Student Centered Learning
    Student-centered Learning
    Student Revolutions
    Students
    Supersign
    Symbol
    Teaching
    Technophilia
    Technophobia
    Teenagers
    Term Paper Mills
    Testing
    Tiananmen
    Transcript
    Truth
    Unessay
    Ungrading
    Unschooling
    Use Value
    Verbal Play
    Wellbeing
    Wicked Problems
    William Ayers
    Writing
    Youth

    RSS Feed

​SusanBlum.com by Susan D. Blum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Selected Publications
  • Good Learning
  • Events
  • Media