crimefighterphd

[crimefighterphd]

Seven years after, I see you again 😚

[crimefighterphd]

#exactly! #libraries

[crimefighterphd]

Course Evaluations

It’s university course evaluation season! This is a gentle reminder to be kind, thoughtful, and thorough as you fill out evaluations.

Remember, your instructors/professors are people. The purpose of course evaluations is, in part, to give instructors feedback that helps them to better understand how the course might be (re)envisioned to ensure student growth and success. If you enjoyed the class – wonderful! Tell them why/what you appreciated. If you didn’t – that is valid as well. However, explain why in a way that acknowledges that the feedback you are giving is received by a person.

The best way to have your constructive criticisms taken seriously is to be thorough. For example, “this class sucked” tells no one anything. Describe what about the class you disliked (i.e., “the expectations for the final paper were unclear. We were not provided directions and the professor was unavailable during office hours to clairfy”), explain what the impact/outcome was of this, and suggest things that you think might be helpful in the future.  

As your instructors – we know. Exams can suck, papers can suck, sometimes you just hate to go to class. But it’s our job to help you grow and to assess that growth. Your course evaluations let us know if we’re doing that, and how we can do it better.

(And never forget your own agency. Ask yourself, “Did I do everything I could have done to succeed in this course? Did I ask questions/attend office hours/read/prepare/engage the way I should have?” If the answer is no, make sure how you assess the class acknowledges that.  Learning is participative).  

- WWG

#yes #esp that last bit #sometimes students ask for things that were actually provided (e.g. practice problems) #but they just didn't make use of them #academia

[crimefighterphd]

#mood #cats

[crimefighterphd]

#goats #spring

[crimefighterphd]

As you lay dying you expect to see the Grim Reaper. Your cat walks onto your chest, looks you in the eye and says, “I don’t like it but it’s time to go.”

#somehow this fits with the idea of familiars #being tied together #i love it #cats

[crimefighterphd]

“Girls want a Superman, but they walk past a Clark Kent every day”

You fuckin CLOWNS think you’re a CLARK KENT? Not on my fuckin watch. You dumb, headass motherfuckers are barely a Guy Gardner and you think you’re a CLARK KENT? The amount of disrespect is unreal.

#ehehehe i can't say i have this problem but this is hilarious

[crimefighterphd]

Yeah it’s really strange to realize you’re part of some kind of weird family tree. There’s a lot of downsides to it, but I once met up with my mentor’s other mentee at his old school, and we became bffs in part because of our shared lineage. Like, neither of us consider our mentor anything like a dad, but we had so much in common and so much to talk about because he doesn’t work with many students (so no one else really understands what it’s like working with him). It was like meeting a long-lost sister or something. It was very strange. 

So, lineages can be harmful and toxic and we should place less stock in them. But sometimes they can also be cool.

something that I think about a lot in academia is - I don’t know how else to put this - but lineage. 

Who your PI is. Who they did their PhD and Postdocs with. Who shared offices and who graduated together. The prestige (or lack thereof) that seems to come with who and where, sometimes more than the what.

It’s a strange thing and I think it’s something that makes it even more difficult for women and other minorities. We aren’t easily accepted to a long line of white men as our academic history, because the women and people of colour who did amazing things were so often erased and discredited.

It also makes it difficult for universities that are forming new research departments, groups and doing great work. Without that lineage, they aren’t seen as “as good” and that makes it even harder for them to improve. It shuts out new ideas. So many different ideas. 

I hope that things can improve in the future and that we can build an academy that’s open to new ideas and doesn’t care about where you come from as much.

#academia

[crimefighterphd]

#me trying to park today

[crimefighterphd]

when you claim capitalism spreads knowledge but it throws everything in academic research behind a paywall

[crimefighterphd]

Since once in a blue moon I actually discover a decent rule for adulting, and since I know I have followers a few years younger than me who are just entering the workforce, I want to tell you about a very important phrase. 

“I won’t be available.”

Imagine you’re at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day off–coming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really don’t want to give up your day off.

If you consider yourself a millennial you’ve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if you’re a gen-Z kid you’re likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since you’re not doing anything important.

Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.

Lie and say you’ve got a doctor’s appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter to your boss whether you’re having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you won’t be at work. So telling them why you won’t be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.

If you say “I won’t be available,” giving no further information, you’d be surprised how often that’s enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say “sorry, but I won’t be available.” But don’t make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, they’ll accept that as a ‘no’ and try to find someone else. 

But bosses aren’t always professional. Sometimes they’re whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer is–politely and sympathetically give them no further information.

“Are you sure you’re not available?” “Sorry, but yes.”

“Why won’t you be available?” “I have a prior commitment.” (Which you do, even if it’s only to yourself.)

“What’s your prior commitment?” “Sorry, but that’s kind of personal.”

“Can you reschedule it?” “I’m afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?”

If you don’t give them anything to work with, they can’t pressure you into going beyond your obligations as an employee. And when they realize that, they’ll also realize they have to find someone else to come in and move on.

#adulting

[crimefighterphd]

I saw my fav big-name professor at a talk today. I was worried he might not remember me despite taking two of his classes last year, but I was concerned for nothing. I joked that he probably thought he was free of me and my questions, but he said it was good to see a friendly face and that I always asked good questions. Then he said:

“I was serious, you really did ask the best questions.”

Me: *internally screaming*

He asked where I was in my degree and reiterated his offer from last year to help me with research design and Bayesian analysis for my dissertation when I get to that point. Like...holy shit. I am so jazzed I made such an impression on him.

(I also got to rib my mentor after the talk because I’ve been talking this prof for a year, and now he finally understands what I’ve been on about. This prof is so utterly delightful, but he’s no joke -- he knows his stuff.)

#gradblr #dear diary

[crimefighterphd]

When I think I am handling the stress but then I am like…

#me this week #gradblr

[crimefighterphd]

Me, before relationship: really into hermit time, dislikes spring and summer, dislikes the countryside, hates singing, hates other people singing, hates yellow, loves black, loves red lipstick, is into being bitter and really, really into fandom and being skinny.

Me, in relationship: has realized excess hermit time is sign of depression, suddenly looks forward to spring, wants to move to the countryside and raise a goat, makes up silly songs for everything (complete with improvised dances), suddenly likes yellow flowers, prefers pink to red lipstick, is annoyed with bitterness, has no interest in fandom, and is really into baking things with butter. 

#wow #same #eerily same #is this a thing??? #about the author

[crimefighterphd]

I know Fire Is Scary Thomas Edison Was A Witch etc, but there really is a growing body of evidence to suggest that spending a huge amount of time on devices/social media/etc is not great for your mental health, physical in-person activities are necessary for our brains and it’s prob a bad idea to flippantly ignore that just because we hate neurotypical katie’s hippie dippie advice about how camping in the woods for six weeks eating nothing but tree bark is the only Real antidepressant

#cure #yeaaaaah #medication is Great sometimes #but medication + regular in-person social contact + leaving your house + regular exercise + GOOD sleep + healthy food = even better #that shit won't you but it sure as hell helps #mental health

[crimefighterphd]

I hear you guys, but as someone who teaches stats at the university level, there’s only so much I can do to bridge the gap between you and understanding the material. Sometimes you have to just sit down and struggle with it. You have to re-read your notes, go back to the book, go back to the notes. Stare at the practice problems for a while. Actually try to do some of them. Ask a classmate. Then try again.

There is not enough time in lecture to take you all the way from ignorance to full comprehension, and even if there were, the only way to internalize something like statistics is to practice. I could run my mouth all day, but if you think you will learn how to do it just from watching me do it, you’re wrong. If you think that trying to transcribe three 50-minute lectures instead of listening to the lecture and practicing outside of it, you’re wrong. That’s not how learning works.

Now I am more than happy to answer questions. To talk through answers or sit down and look at a student’s work to see where they went wrong. Hell I beg my students to ask questions. And they just stare at me. But the few who do ask questions, the ones who (usually) read, who actually do the practice problems I make for them on their own and then come in and ask pointed questions to fill in the gaps of their understanding, they crush it.

So in that sense, you maybe don’t need to teach yourself the material on your own, but you do need to learn it on your own. Nothing your professors say or do is a substitute for sitting down and wrestling with the material on your own.  

#college #university #teaching #learning #psychology #teacher days

[crimefighterphd]

I like that “good morning, princess” / “morning baby” kinda relationship. The no games, great communication, lots of sex, lots of kissing, lots of cuddling, lots of flirting, lots of being goofy kind of relationship. The kind that makes you want to run 100 miles, read books, clean up your bad habits kind of love.

#yes