FINISHED. 1 year down...

4 more to go? 4.5? (Please no more than 5???)

I am so tired. But I can FINALLY start reading all the papers I've set aside for classwork/TAing. And FINALLY at least have enough time to sit down and try and synthesize some sort of research plan. And FINALLY troubleshoot some of the various things that have gone wrong. I've been doing just lameo preliminary handwavy solutions to fix this particular problem. Unsurprisingly, doing this has not completely fixed my current problem.

But done! Now no one mention quals until the summer's over.

Teaching portfolio.

Last Wednesday was my last class of GSU's "Teaching Wombats" seminar series. While not super useful, the prof was very nice and the only real work was showing up every week. Not a big deal.

However, as a closing note, the prof mentioned to us that now is a good time to start making a teaching portfolio. (GSU has all of the first year chem grad students finish their teaching requirements within the first two years, unless you're asked to TA a grad level course.) Teaching portfolio!?! Crap. I don't even know what that really means.

After a quick google search, Berkeley's career center comes up with one of the best descriptions. Of course, I now wish I'd had the prof I'm teaching for come in during my discussion section. Luckily, the prof who taught the seminar course did come in to see me teach. Hopefully she liked what she saw? We have a meeting later next week, so I'll find out more about this teaching portfolio deal. She said that we should save things like emails from students that thank us. Really? Is that actually a legit thing to put in a teaching portfolio?

Any suggestions out there for what to put in a teaching portfolio? What not to put in a teaching portfolio?

Just keep swimming...

In times like these, two different child-oriented stories always come to me:

"Just keep swimming!"-Finding Nemo
"I think I can I think I can I think I can..."- The Little Engine That Could


Oh goodness. On Wednesday, I will be completely done with my first year of grad school. Yay!!!!!! I am proctoring one final on Monday and taking two finals on Tuesday. I will be done with grading by Wednesday if it kills me.

But oh, the lack of sleep for the past two weeks. When it rains, it pours!