Six-Month Roundup

Now that I’ve been blogging for six months, it seemed like a good idea to take stock of what I have or have not accomplished (or maybe learned) through the process.

I re-read the first six Harry Potter books, thereby averaging one book a month. It’s been a very enlightening experience to re-read the books with a different lens. I learned that when I have an additional motive (blogging), that I do read topics that intersect my blog with a different eye. This also proved to be the case with some of the students in my class. Having an assignment of blogging regularly made them see things and ask questions from the point of view of scientific inquiry. This was eye-opening for some of the students who proceeded to also enjoy writing about their observations. However, for other students, this remained a chore. I’ve found myself flagging through the months of March and April. I’d like to blame it on my bad back problems and the busyness of the semester, but maybe it is just a matter of re-prioritization. I am looking forward to re-reading the seventh Harry Potter book after the semester ends.

Looking back at some of my blog posts, I realized that I read many books about teaching, education and the liberal arts, more so than I have in the past. The blog may have contributed in encouraging me to think more about education systems. Having more involvement in academic administration has probably also contributed significantly to what I spend my time thinking about. I’m very glad that I decided to attempt to overhaul my General Chemistry course this semester because that made me go out and read more about teaching and learning. The three best books about teaching and learning I’ve read in the past six months were Building a Better Teacher, make it stick, and most recently Minds Online.  I need to write a review of this third book, hopefully in an upcoming blog post. It’s sitting right next to my home laptop for that sole purpose!

I was hoping that blogging would help me become a better writer. I’ve learned that I need to be more disciplined in the drafting and editing process. I paid more attention to this in the early stages where I spent time thinking about the best way to craft a blog post. Admittedly I got lazier and was not willing to put in the time to improve my writing. I will have to re-evaluate my time priorities and figure out if I’m willing to put in the time to allow myself the opportunity for significant improvement. I tell my students that they need to put in the time and persevere and then learning isn’t “easy”. I should apply the same principle to myself.

Thinking about the intersection between science and magic, and exploring the world of alchemy, has given me interesting ideas about the intersection of philosophy, history, literature, art and science. To make further advancement in this area would require a significant time investment. I feel as if I’m dancing around the edges thinking about low-hanging fruit, but am unwilling to throw myself into a larger and more significant project. That being said, with the summer approaching, I’ve recently become more excited about my science research projects. It also helps that I have some enthusiastic new research students who will start in late May and early June. I’m enjoying the excitement of potential new “discoveries”. It seems easier to keep doing what I was trained to do (in terms of the science and my methodological expertise) than to branch into a philosophical-historical-scientific project. Maybe I’m just not quite ready, or I haven’t found the right collaborators yet. I certainly don’t have the expertise to pull the different threads together.

Blogging has opened up fun and interesting conversations I’ve had with students, colleagues, and friends & family outside of academia. Some of them read my posts with bemusement. I actually feel that I bring a bit more to a conversation when I’ve spent some time previously thinking about or blogging on a related topic. Maybe it’s just the academic in me!

Finally there is always a time trade-off. I’ve found that what I do in my “leisure” has changed since I started blogging. Some older hobbies lay untouched (but not forgotten). New interests have taken hold. I think that overall this is enriching. Will I continue blogging? I think so. Although I think it is okay if I don’t make my self-imposed requirement of two thoughtful posts per week and not feel guilty about it either.