While I love Amazon for how easy it is to order books that I know I want, it isn't convenient to use to find a new book or author to read. Zoomii.com has changed that by developing a virtual bookstore where you browse by book cover. I especially like the bestsellers and new releases shelves. Great for those days when I don't want to actually go to a bookstore (come to think of it, that doesn't happen too often!)
Professors Paul Gray and David E. Drew offer advice from their new book, What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career (Stylus Publishing, 2008). As they note:
“Most new Ph.D.'s who accept faculty positions are shocked to discover that no one told them what their day-to-day jobs would really entail. They struggled as graduate students to master the literature, theories, models, and analytical techniques in their fields and wrote dissertations of which they are proud, but they quickly realize that this knowledge is separate and distinct from understanding and dealing with the challenges and obstacles that face a beginning professor.”
Some tidbits from the book:
Finish your Ph.D. as quickly as possible. Don't feel that you need to create the greatest work that Western civilization ever saw. Five years from now the only thing that will matter is whether you finished.
Don't take a tenure-track faculty position without the Ph.D. in hand. We estimate the odds are two to one against your ever finishing your degree. Furthermore, without a Ph.D. you will be offered a significantly lower salary, and you may never make up the difference.
Know that publications are your only form of portable wealth. Prioritize accordingly.
Never, ever choose sides in department politics. The side you are on expects your support and will give you no reward for it. The side(s) you are not on will remember forever.
Never become a department chair unless you are already a tenured full professor. Yes, it will reduce your teaching load. Yes, it will give you visibility. No, it will not confer power on you. Most department chairs do less research and publish less while in that position than they would as a faculty member. Thus you are producing less portable wealth per year, and you are reducing your chances for tenure or for promotion.
Write most of your articles for refereed journals. Papers presented at meetings get you funds to be a world traveler. However, even if refereed, conference papers don't really count for tenure, promotion, or salary raises.Do, however, serve as a reviewer for journals, particularly top journals. Treat this job seriously. You will see much junk being submitted and appreciate why some journals reject 80 percent or more of their submissions. You will develop an aesthetic for what is good and what is not. You will correspond with some powerful people. When you do get a good paper to review, you will receive much earlier knowledge of an important new development. And the information gained is worth more than the time you take reviewing.
I've been teaching at the college level for 26 years and would agree with their advice. Unfortunately, some of this I had to learn the hard way my first few years.
Ted Demopoulos has updated his ebook, Effective Internet Presence (Now Required For Success In Business And Life) and is offering it for free.
He has some good points for our students in thinking about what personal information is on the web that could affect their job search. Many companies are now googling their applicants' names as part of the recruiting and selection process. We need to remind our students to be careful what they post on the internet.
Angela Maiers of Maiers Educational Services, Inc. has tagged me with the following questions:
Last book read:
Last book bought:
5 meaningful books (I chose my favorites on teaching):
Can I include my own book on teaching? Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher
I'm tagging Timothy Johnson, Vicki A. Davis, Tammy Lenski, Liz Strauss (all people involved in educating others)
Recently I reviewed Dr. Peter Filene's book, The Joy of Teaching (University of North Carolina). In his chapter on evaluating and grading, he gives some excellent advice to all of us on how to teach through the comments we make on students' papers. He advocates:
Dr. Filene gives the following examples:
Lydia: This essay has some good ideas, but they aren't very clear. You didn't spend enough time organizing them or finding evidence to support them. Commas and spelling need work too. You consistently misspell "sucession."
OR
Allen: You have produced a lucid and interesting explanation of the Civil War. I particularly like the examples you cite on page 2 because they clarify the importance of John Brown and "fanaticism" in pushing the South to secede (By the way, it's "secede," not "succeed.")
The essay would be stronger if it had said more about Lincoln's policy toward slavery. On page 3 you say "he hated it," but that doesn't clarify what he proposed to do about it. Do you see how there's a missing link in the story? Moreover, the thesis paragraph doesn't do justice to the rest of your essay. It repeats the question instead of alerting the reader to your subsequent argument (which you capsulize neatly in your conclusion).
I'll be glad to talk about this.
As you can see, his second example continues teaching beyond the classroom itself and would be more likely to result in a better paper from the student next time.
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