Dear readers....

...I promise to answer your posts soon. I've asked for your input, and you've provided. I'm just having a bit of a bloggers block. I'll be back in a day, keep writing, and answer your wonderful suggestions to my previous post/inquiry.

Teaching portfolio

As a tenure-track professor in an institution that takes teaching very seriously into account to make tenure decisions, I've started to think about how best to document my strengths in the classroom. The problem is that while what is expected as far as scholarship is clearly written in the handbook that I got when I first started here, what is considered "teaching excellence" is not clearly spelled out. Of course, in a sense, it can't be. But nobody can tell me what they are really looking for.

I bought the Bible of the teaching portfolio's guide books, Peter Seldin's The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series).Although it has some excellent suggestions, it was a little disappointing. First, it has a general part where it gives some ideas on how to construct your teaching portfolio. As I've said before, these are very useful. The second part has specific case examples for different disciplines. I was hoping it would give me more clues. However, it doesn't cover Foreign Languages nor Literature (the example for English is based on Composition and rhetoric classes, not literature ones).


Of course, one of the reasons that in my institution handbook are so vague as to what constitutes "excellent teaching" is that they can use that wedge against you if they don't like you for a reason. Another reason is because it's impossible to objectively defined. But how do you document that you are an "excellent teacher"? Some of the general, unspoken guidelines are: your teaching evaluations have to be very good, but not perfect, or otherwise the rank and tenure committee will suspect that you are not rigorous enough (apparently, somebody has to hate you if you are good at what you do). You have to have peer observations, not only from your department but from somebody outside my department. That poses a problem, since my classes are conducted in Spanish and probably only the professor of Latin American History speaks Spanish outside of my departmental colleagues. I've collected examples of student papers graded and returned with comments and suggestions. However, I always teach 2 language classes each semester (in addition to my upper level one), and I'm clueless as to how to form a teaching portfolio from those classes (which are, in fact, 2/3 of my teaching load). I do not get to create my syllabus nor choose the textbook. I have all the formal documents (quizzes, exams, etc), but I don't know what else to do.

Does anybody have a suggestion as to what should I be doing to better present my case in the future? It can be regarding the language classes or the Lit classes. I would really appreciate some guidance here.

Inspiration, inspiration, where are you?

So far, I'm having a bit of "writer's block". Although I do believe in suddenly having a great idea, and then transforming it into an article to send for publication, I also think that it takes time and patience to develop a great idea, and that a little mandatory writing every week will do more good than writing non-stop until you finish that article.

The problem with me is that sometimes, too much time passes and I either lose interest in the great idea, I don't find it such a great idea anymore, or I just can't find the trick to put all my ideas together and make it work. I am going through one of those periods now. I had the great idea last July. A writer that although is pretty well known, is usually considered a best-seller, commercial writer, so very few academics have written about him. I read one of his novels just for fun, and I found it more interesting and disturbing than I expected it to be. I questioned myself why, and from there a topic for an article arose. Last semester was brutal, but I did manage to put together 10 pages that I hoped would develop into a 20 page article ready for publication. Now I am going back to those 10 pages, and I don't find anything else to say. I feel like I am repeating myself. I don't feel so brilliant. I know that deep down there, there is an article to be written and published, but I can't find it.

Which brings me to another issue. I have a sabbatical next fall, and I am afraid that something like that will happen. Will I spend too much time researching and perfecting 10 pages, so I will completely waste my sabbatical? How will I manage to use my time productively.

To sum up: Am I second guessing myself too much? Is the fact that the last article I sent out to publication, for the first time trying my luck at a top tier journal in the field (and I thought it was the best article I've written so far, and I've had quite a few published) got rejected and the only explanation I got from the editor was something to the point of "the reviewer says that you make your point very well but this is not groundbreaking nor a contribution to the field that will serve future scholars for years to come"? I did some revisions to that essay and send it again to another journal, and I don't aspire to be "groundbreaking". I want to be good and solid, I want my colleagues to respect my work and call me and ask me for contributions if they are putting up a collection devoted to a topic I work in.

Well, I better finish the post and get back to the struggle. I would appreciate your thoughts on the issues.

On (not) being American - Part II

I'm starting to believe in karma. After I wrote the post, I had a minor accident (nothing serious, just what icy roads will do), and I need to take the car in for repairs. I will be without the car until the end of the week, taking the bus. Like any cosmopolitan person, right? Well, no. I am already missing my car! Ok, ok, maybe I am more American than I thought. Or maybe it's the snow outside that makes me dread the rest of the week.

On (not) being American

This weekend, I few things got me thinking about how adapted I am to this country. From the beginning, I apologize for the generalizations and/or stereotypes. I do not want to offend anybody, just give a broad perspective from the point of view of a foreigner. And yes, I know the U.S is very big, every region is very different, there is a huge diversity, etc… So I’m going to engage in an exercise that is exactly what I tell my students to avoid doing when they have a class with me: to take this country as an homogeneous whole.

To begin with, I’ve been living in the U.S for more than a decade. Since I was young, I knew I wanted to come here to do my graduate studies and eventually get a position here. Those dreams were fulfilled, and now I have a green card (through work, not through marriage) and a tenure track position. I like my job, and I think I’ve been very lucky in many ways. So, what got me thinking about how adjusted am I to American culture. A trivial thing: my father in law gave me for Christmas a membership to Costco, and it took me until now to go and redeem it. Why? Because the idea of driving 20 miles to get groceries is absolutely foreign to me. When I was in Costco, I couldn’t bring myself to buy the package with 30 toilet paper rolls. It sounded absurd to me. So my mind started wandering around: how much do I consider the United States to be a part of my own?

1.I am very well adjusted to academic life, and no matter how much I rant occasionally, I’m happy I’m here, where things are (pretty) stable.

2.I admire the generosity of people here. Also the honesty. When somebody gives you his/her word about something, you can trust him/her (that is definitely not the case in my home country). However, I still have a hard time considering any American my friend. I have a lot of acquaintances, but there is a distance that I feel Americans keep that I can’t breach, and, on my side, it makes it impossible to completely trust them. I’m still best friends with my high-school best friend, and I keep in touch with three of my elementary school friends.

3.Related to that, I’ve been unable to insert myself in a church as a way of developing a group of friends. I’m not very religious, but when we first move to our current town, my husband and I tried going to the Unitarian Church for a while. It didn’t work. We didn’t feel a part of it, probably because we were there for the wrong reasons: to meet people and not for spiritual reasons.

4.I love American popular culture, American movies, American T.V shows. I remember when I was a grad student and a TA. One of my classmates in the program not only had no idea what Friends was (this was the early 2000s), but did not consider important to learn it. I told her that she would never have much rapport with her students if she didn’t make an effort to at least know what interested them. That being said, I can’t bring myself to read/watch the Eclipse saga. Sexually repressed vampires are not my thing.

5.I don’t want to buy a house. A condo would be nice, but there are no condos in the city, only in the suburbs and I refuse to live in a suburb. The idea of buying a house and then having to fix its problems horrifies me. I am not a DIY person, and neither is my husband.

6.Although I work hard, I do not believe that I have to do something even during my leisure time. I remember that, when we first married, my husband would ask me what I wanted to do on a certain Sunday, and my answer would be “nothing”. And I meant it. After a week of working hard, doing nothing feels great. It took a long time to convince my husband that I was happy doing “nothing”, that there was no mandate that said that you HAD to do something (go to a museum, walk, exercise, whatever) during your leisure time.

So far, this is what I came up with. It’s a good exercise, and helps me understand better my sense of belonging and also occasional nostalgia for my home country.

It wasn't so bad after all...

Despite my anxiety Monday morning, I think I managed to accomplish quite a lot during the extended weekend.

a) I wrote 4 letters of recommendations for students

b) I finish the power point for my next two Latin American civilization class. I will be explaining my students how the dichotomy civilization vs. barbarism articulated historically, but from a Latin American perspective. Considering that they usually receive a pretty ethnocentric education, I am hoping to have a good in-class debate

c) I revised my article, and it's ready to be sent to another journal. Cross fingers!!!! If it gets accepted, I will have finished with the publishing requisites for tenure (and I go up for tenure on Fall 2012). I still want to have at least one more, just to be sure.

d) I spent all Sunday with my husband, and none of us did anything work-related. I saw "The King's Speech", a really pleasant British conservative fantasy. Somehow, I enjoy more British crowd- pleasers than American ones.

e) I read a book that is not work related!!!!

f) I vacuum my apartment

g) I read and commented a manuscript from a colleague.

h) And, ABOVE ALL, I'm not kicking myself for everything I should have done but have not.

Edit:
And I forgot the most important thing of all: I was quoted by Dr. Crazy in one of her posts!

Ok, things are getting done...

...not as fast as I would like, but they are.
On the plus list:

a) I went grocery shopping so I won't have to pay for my lunch every day this week.

b) I spent all Sunday with my husband, we went to the movies, chit chat and just goof around like in the good old times. He also got a NatureBright SunTouch Plus Light and Ion Therapy Lamp that is doing wonders for his insomnia. He slept like a baby for four days in a row, which obviously improves his mood.

c) I wrote three letters of recommendations for my students (I still have three more to go).

d) I was congratulated by some colleagues that my courses are rigorous enough that the one I submitted was approved as fulfillment of the diversity requirement (I thought it was no big deal, but apparently not that many courses were approved).

e) I did half my power point for my Wednesday lecture

f) I finish reading two chapters that a colleague sent me at the beginning of December and asked me to comment on it. I finally did it!!!!

On the not yet accomplished list:

a) Revise and send to another journal the article that was rejected.

b) Finish the powerpoint for my Wednesday lecture

c) Try to prepare at least a week worth of my language classes.

e) Vacuum my apartment!!! Allergies are killing my husband, and he has arm problems, so he can't vacuum himself.

f) Use my new gym membership for the first time.

g) Start thinking about a proposal for the next LASA congress.

Not too bad, although I wish I had more time!!!!!

Struggling to get into the rhythm

Although I still have to teach tomorrow (and have a committee meeting), I'm struggling to go back to work full time after the break. Last Fall was pretty exhausting, and I achieved a lot (a proposal that gave me a very competitive sabbatical, three classes where I feel I performed really well and will receive good evaluations). I am trying to replicate last semester, but I am finding it hard.

Monday: I read the syllabus with the students, explained formal issues, and that was it.

Tuesday: It was snowing, so I decided to stay home. Probably a good idea as far as my car goes, but not so much in terms of productivity. My husband drove me crazy, pacing around every time I tried to focus and start doing something. I did manage to read one and a half chapters of a manuscript that a colleague asked me to read and comment after I decided to go to a coffee house around the corner.

Wednesday: First day where I really taught. I'm teaching 2 beginning Spanish classes this semester. I put a lot of energy into them, and I managed to make my student laugh a few times. It sounds silly, but it is always good to make them feel comfortable. So that was good. I was tired after them, so I couldn't do much in the 2 1/2 hours I have between them and my next class, "Contemporary Latin American Civilization". Luckily, I had a power point ready from a previous semester, so I went and lectured for 75 minutes. Not very funny, but necessary to give my students a decent historical foundation. My throat was sore after that.

Today: I met with a student who is doing his senior year capstone project with me. I like him a lot, although I don't think I'm the best match for his topic. However, he wants to work with me, and he is smart and passionate. Since this semester we have a big number of seniors, we decided to put a cap on how many students will work with each professor. Accepting to work with him will allow me to avoid some not so smart and dedicated students. After that, I did a few slides of a power point for next week. However, I've been unable to start working on revising my rejected article (see a previous post) to submit it somewhere else. I want to do it as soon as possible, so I don't loose the enthusiasm about the topic (it's a little outside my normal research), but I can't gather the energy. I also think that the heat in my apartment is not beneficial. I've been waking up with a pretty bad headache for the past three days, and it takes a few hours for it to go away.

I know I haven't even finished the week, but this semester is going to be heavy on administrative duty, so I was hoping I could be efficient and work hard on what I like: teaching and research.

Working hours, part II

As I posted yesterday, I've gotten used to working during the daytime while my husband has not. It usually is more of a problem for him than for me, since one of the best things my job has is that I have a magnificent office: it's huge, has a great view, and I do not have to share it with anybody. So it has become a wonderful place for me to work. When I need a break, I can even close the door, lay on the floor and do some stretching and breathing exercises. In fact, I have a sabbatical for next fall, and I plan to go to my office almost every day.

What I realize today is that I can't work at home when he is there. I stayed home today, since I am not teaching and it's snowing. It isn't too bad (2-4 inches), but I hate and I am not particularly good driving in the snow. Well, I haven't been able to do anything. I started revising a paper in my laptop, and he is pacing around, not knowing what to do, so that is driving me crazy. Since the semester just began, I do not have anything to grade. So I changed to reading material I assigned my Latin American Civilization class for later in the semester. I retreated into the bedroom (we have a small one bedroom apartment), read for 10 minutes, and he comes in, and says he needs to take a break. And there goes my concentration. So I've come to the realization that I actually do not enjoy staying at home, even if it's cozy and warm. I much rather be in my office not wasting my time. The only productive thing I did today was going to the bank and depositing a check. Hey, it something!!!!

Working hours

When I was younger, I was a night person. I didn't go to college in the US, and where I went, most classes were at night. So I would go to class, then go to study, go to bed at 3 am and then wake up around 1 pm. I moved to the US for my Masters, but my schedule didn't change much. It was only after I got married, got my PhD and a TT job that I finally got used to having a more "normal" schedule. Nowadays, getting up after 9 am, even if I am not teaching that day, feels like sleeping in. Somehow, I've managed to change my internal clock, and my more productive hours, at least in terms of research and writing, are in the afternoon. It takes me a while to get in the rhythm, but from 1 to 4 I'm at my best.

Alas, the only problem with this is that my husband hasn't been able to change his schedule. He is a freelance artist. He works better at night, but since I am the one who has an income, he feels compelled to "work" from 9 to 5. And he feels terribly guilty if I come back home and he hasn't done much. He also has insomnia, and during those hours, he actually does his best works. I've told him many times that he should embrace his "insomnia". We do not have kids, nor are planning on having any in the near future, so there is no reason for him to feel obligated to work during the daytime. It is just a cultural mandate he can not escape, the same way that he still finds hard to accept the fact that I make the money, and he is the "artist". He has finally come to terms with this when he finally realized that I actually like my job and wouldn't be doing anything else. But he still feels that he needs to show something in exchange for this: that he is not lazy, or a "kept" man.

I couldn't care less about this, but he does. I think I am finally convincing him that it doesn't matter if he works at 2 in the morning. If that is what works better for him, so be it. And he has sacrifice for my career. He followed me here when I got the job, even if my Midwestern city is not exactly New York or LA. Luckily, he has found a good community of artists around here. Hopefully, he will soon accept that he doesn't need to work during office hours, just when he is at his best.

New Year's Resolutions

Yes, I know, that was a week ago. However, after the disappointment about my article, I made a few New Year's Resolutions:

1- I will organize my research better. I will try to control my ADD to produce an article of quality and not just good ideas

2- I went to my institution's gym. They were running a promotion, half off for faculty members. I became a member. Let's see how much I use it.

3- I will try to save money by organizing my grocery purchases, using coupons, cooking more often, etc.

4- I won't procrastinate

5- I'll be happy at the end of the year if I can stick to at least two of the above resolutions

Critical thinking in a Latin American civilization course

Last semester, I taught an Advanced Spanish language class that had a service learning component. As I've blogged previously, I believe service learning in the classroom can be a useful tool, but I still had my doubts about it. Many of those doubts came from the fact that I've never been well trained on how to apply service learning in a classroom effectively. But there were also other issues: for example, that a student might consider it "busy work" if she/he has a full-scheduled (for example, if he/she is working 20 hours a week to pay for college), or that service-learning can reinforce stereotypes already held by the student.

In my Advanced Spanish class, students had to write a composition at the beginning of the semester on the controversial topic of illegal immigration. I made sure to grade those composition based on the language and not the political opinions (although it can be bizarre to have a student that on one side is very willing to learn Spanish, and on the other think that all illegal immigrants, including minors, should be deported as soon as possible). In the final exam, I asked students whether the service learning experience had made any change in their beliefs regarding the subject. It did in some, it did not in others. For a few, it really reinforced stereotypes. I had a student whose service-learning experience was at an ESL program, and she said that while she was trying to help Hispanics, they were lazy, refused to learn English, never did their homework, etc.

Well, I have that student enrolled in my Latin American civilization course, and I wonder how will I make her think beyond her boundaries. My goal is not to make her think like me, but to open her world to a reality she might not be very aware of. Since the class will be studying issues like violence in Latin America, how can I make her (and all the students) see the root of that violence? How can I avoid the stereotyping? I realize that I won't be able to achieve critical thinking with all my students (one of my most memorable moments was a few years ago, when a student in an exam wrote - in Spanish - "In the struggle between civilization and barbarism, Latin America has often sided with barbarism"), but I would like to think that I am not reinforcing their previously held stereotypes.

Assesment and critical thinking.

A new semester, a new syllabus. Besides the two beginning Spanish classes I already blogged about, this semester I have to teach a 300-level Contemporary Latin American Civilization course. I've already taught the class, and it was pretty successful. But since I am a perfectionist, I am modifying the syllabus to incorporate issues that interest me.

I do not use a textbook, so constructing the syllabus is an additional challenge. It needs to have an internal coherence that is apparent not only to me but also to my students. This semester, I've decided to divide the syllabus in three parts. The first one will focus on the dichotomy civilization vs. barbarism in the XIX century. The second one will study neoliberalism and its economic and political consequences. The third part will include cultural manifestations during the neoliberal times.

One thing I always try is to make my students think critically. That is why my exams are usually open book. I do not care about dates (and I'm usually pretty bad about them). I want to open their minds to a different world, but one that goes beyond the folkloric: I do not care about food, music, etc, in a superficial sense either (although well presented, they can be wonderful insights into the realm of a different culture). The problem that my approach presents is: how do you assess critical thinking? I've found some good rubrics, but I still need to tailor them to my specific course. I would like to find more assignments that can make my students think outside the box. I will keep looking

Using Twitter in the Spanish classroom - Part II

As I posted yesterday, I've suddenly become very interested in the possibility of using Twitter in my Spanish language classes, so I started doing some research online. My preliminary conclusions were that it was probably a useful tool, for the Intermediate level student (or above).
The following article gives, in my opinion, the best ideas of how to use Twitter in the Spanish classroom, and for what purpose: http://www.elbazardeloslocos.org/?page_id=748. Although the author teaches Spanish to foreigners in Barcelona, I think his conclusions apply to a course in the United States. I like his idea of tweeting as a way of breaking the gap between "class" time and "private" time in the learning of a language, to make Spanish become part of the students' everyday life.
I also found the following presentation by Dr. Gillian Lord and Dr. Lara Lomicka: "To Tweet or not to Tweet" (http://www.slideshare.net/glord/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet-4458423?from=share_email_logout2). The authors said that although many professors vouch for the usefulness of Twitter in the foreign language classroom, there hadn't been many empirical studies. They conducted two experiments, one which involved the use of Twitter in a Graduate course for new language TAs. The goal was to build a community to share, reflect on experiences as a new teachers.
I suddenly realized that that isn't too far away of the goal of this blog, even if I've never stated it explicitly. Although I have my PhD, I am a tenure-track professor that is new to the profession and is using blogging to reflect on my own experiences. Somehow, although I still haven't found similar blogs, I am sure there are many new professors in a similar position, and probably my goal for the future will be to build a community so we can all share impressions, ideas and tips.

Using Twitter in the Spanish classroom

Yesterday, my husband started following on Twitter an Argentine friend of mine and exclaimed: "Wow, this will be a great tool to improve my Spanish". His level is Intermediate-High. His comment got me thinking. Maybe I should incorporate Twitter into my Spanish language classes? I am the kind of person that does not think that a class is better if it has more technology in it, and I've had my fights with other colleagues regarding the issue. Just because a student is using a computer will not make him/her a better learner. However, I have a hunch that Twitter might actually be useful.

First of all, I would have to learn how Twitter works, and the opportunities it offers. I did a small Google search, and professors around the US seem to be incorporating it into their classes. However, for foreign language classes, I got the feeling that Twitter would be more useful at an Intermediate/Advanced level. But maybe I am wrong. I will keep looking around, because now I am really interested in the possibilities it offers.