And into week 3 . . .

I feel like I am now in the zone with teaching. Today was awesome - I did a bunch of interactive exercises and had students come up and learn about conservation of angular momentum by spinning with weights on a stool - classic demonstration but they get so excited.  I use something in my class that gives me instant feedback as well as an opportunity for students to ask questions: Minute papers - at the end of every class I have students write about what they learned about in class or ask questions or tell me things they liked or disliked.  I stole the idea from a professor at University of Washington and it is amazing. Although it takes a lot of work to read and comment on them every day, it is really a nice way to gauge how I am doing - and when you have good days like today, it's an awesome ego boost.

That reminds me - in my first post, I tried to be all anonymous about who I am, where I work, who my advisor was - can't really do that without much trouble so I won't bother: I'm Andrew West, I work at Boston University, Julianne Dalcanton (of the excellent checklist) was my PhD advisor . . .

By the way, a few more tips for the beginning profs:

1) 12 month plan - this is something I learned from my postdoc supervisor Adam Burgasser.  Sit down and write what your priorities are for the year in research, papers, teaching, conferences . . . it's a great technique and I had my BU students do it too, which was a great thing for them.

2) Buy quicktime pro - I know that sounds weird but it has saved my ass for lecture prep.  You can use safari to download youtube videos (can't figure out how to do it in firefox) and then convert them in quicktime.  It's only 30 bucks and so far it has saved me a ton of time.

3) Get exercise.  I think the tendancy is to be so stressed that you just work and sleep (and maybe remember to eat - I forgot to eat lunch and dinner last Saturday).  But getting a little bit of exercise every day has kept me really sane. I actually cycle to work and back every day (10 mile round trip) and it's perfect for me to keep moving and stay healthy. I also am playing ultimate on Monday nights - what a nice relief that is (and tonight I had a super sick inside-out forehand for a score - as well as a push pass).