Blog

This weekend was an adventure that I had been needing for far too long. The trip to Denver was a great way to clear the head, and wonderful to see Jeff Parker, a great friend who has been there through a lot with me. I'm happy I got to spend a few days seeing what … Continue reading Color Crashing and Colorado Camaraderie

Many of you may know that I've been working a lot toward incorporating health and wellness into my professional focus, given how important it is to me personally. And a lot of concern is being rightfully voiced about excess in nutrition- childhood obesity, diabetes, heart disease and the like. However, the country is starting to … Continue reading Ran for Something Pt. II: Cruisin for Cupcakes

We are in a field that LOVES its "one on ones". I like having that time with a student to talk about what is going on in his or her life, and also how I can best support him or her in the work being done. I know that students get varying levels of value … Continue reading One on One? One on Four? How Do You Operate?

Yesterday I had my first meeting with my summer intern. Hopefully her summer does not end like this member of the Team Zissou intern program.The idea of doing internships in our office has been often vacillated on. At times, it has seemed unnecessary because of graduate assistants, and positions have been created to allow long … Continue reading I Got an Intern

For those keeping score at home, I mentioned a few weeks back the prospect of using Apples to Apples for year-end evaluations. I like the idea of making these final meetings more engaging and less dry, and also giving myself the opportunity to hear students describe things as anything other than "good", "fine", "cool", or … Continue reading Apples to Activity Apples: The Exciting Conclusion!

All week I've been talking about it, and today I finally had to go for it. I pulled my hair back, grabbed my phone and keys, and sent the following Tweet:The 127 Hours reference refers to a previous trip to the closet to grab T-shirts to take to NACA. I got my arm caught between … Continue reading Cleaning Out My Closet

I will be the first to admit that I've had some struggles lately trying to find what makes me happy outside of work. I have gotten tremendously lucky in creating wonderful friendships with the people in my office, and I don't wish to discount the relationships that I've built with them at all. However, not … Continue reading Back at the Barre

For those who this reference precedes, this is Arnold Horshack. He was the most easily maligned of Gabe Kotter's sweathogs on TV's Welcome Back, Kotter. He was nasally and had a grating laugh, had a pronounced accent, and typically the most often made fun of in the group.As a kid, the reruns showed him as … Continue reading Who’s Your Horshack?

When did it become the end of the year, incidentally? Where did I leave the rest of the year? Has anyone seen it?We have come to the end of my first school year at Florida State University, and yet I'm still navigating some new processes. It has come time to do year-end evaluations, and I … Continue reading Comparing Student Performance, "Apples to Apples"

Between my recent high praise of Nick Offerman's informative and engaging speech this past week, Joe Ginese's spot-on assessment of the value of conference presentations, and a somewhat unfortunate case of a presentation I saw this morning from the Center for Academic and Professional Development, I have some guidelines on how to give a meaningful … Continue reading Speak Up, Please: Great Practices for Public Speaking