teaching notebook
I occasionally read through my teaching notebook to get a sense of what tools, techniques, examples, activities and strategies seemed to work well for my classes. This is not educational research (yet), but it is a collection of my observations and ideas that others may find useful when tackling new
interactions
It's that time of year: I've received last semester's student evaluations, and, as always, it's a mix. Early in grad school I got both "She's the best!" and "She's the worst!" in a single
education
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="800"] "Inserting a contact lens" photo by Flickr user suanie [https://www.bethhaas.me/caption] I have pretty terrible vision. Without corrective lenses, I can barely see past the end of my nose. I am also susceptible
soapbox
I listened to some of the inaugural episode of Late Night with Chemjobber & Friends last night. As a whole1, I think it was a decent start. There were some technical issues (the audio cut out several times), some glitches (at one point Chemjobber accidentally hung up on the callers)
scientists
Chemists are trained to use lab notebooks, whether paper or digital, to record their observations, measurements and preliminary conclusions. Good lab notebooks include not just what you tried, but why you tried it and even what expectations you had for the outcome. Lab notebooks are a record; reading over previous
womenInScience
Geoff Marcy recently resigned from Berkeley after word got out that he’d been a serial sexual harasser of women in astronomy, that a Berkeley investigation concluded he had violated campus conduct policies, that the university had barely even slapped his wrist for it, and that the women in astrophysics
reflection
I haven’t posted here in a while. I’ve written, but I haven’t shared much, and the reasons why have a lot to do with Impostor Syndrome. I am very good at convincing myself that everyone else knows what I know. This line of (faulty) reasoning leads me
education
A love letter to my freshmen. These kids today, man. They're the best. They're thoughtful, enthusiastic, full of dreams and passion. These kids have plans. They want to help people. They want to go to med school, get a job, have a family, retire rich and
reflection
I didn't appreciate syllabi when I was a college student. Professors handed out papers of dates and requirements, which they read to us. We stuffed those papers into folders, tucked them in the end pages of our notebooks, or just dropped them in the circular file. Before college
safety
Whenever I'm going to teach in a new classroom, I like to scout it out ahead of time. I want to know if it has a chalkboard or a whiteboard so I can bring the right writing implements. I want to make sure it has enough seats for
culture
Back in February when I posted some thoughts from the fall about clothes and professionalism, someone left an anonymous comment that I chewed on for several weeks. I think it's worth replying to in full, but I didn't take the opportunity before. Now that the semester&
fixit
I really like to take electronics apart and put them back together again. I don’t usually tinker with working electronics, but when something is broken, I enjoy the attempts to fix it. This little project took a some internet searching, a new set of tools, and some on-the-fly problem