Archive for May, 2008

RIP to the RAE, hello to the REF!

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Hours spent preparing my RAE submission: many painful ones
Hours spent wondering what the REF will be like: even more!

Coming near to the end of my first academic year in my new job my thoughts are naturally turning to research. It is the first summer since I got my PhD where I don’t have to take a non-academic job just to pay the bills and so I can get on with my research for a sustained amount of time. The way my research is audited will completely change from now on, and no one seems to really know what the new system will entail! (more…)

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The importance of networking

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

I was interested to see how the poll on the jobs.ac.uk career development site is progressing. For those of you who haven’t seen it (go and have a look now!) the current question is ‘what is most important when finding a job?’ and the three possible answers are: networking, searching for a job online, or searching for a job in print media. The poll changes when anyone updates it, but as I write this well over half the respondents have chosen online jobseeking. But interestingly, in second place comes networking. (more…)

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Technology in the classroom

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

A fascinating article on chronicle.com really chimed with some thoughts I have been having this week about the sorts of technology I want to use in my teaching next year. Now as a history teacher you might think I’d be a complete technophobe and to some extent you would be right. But I also want to try to learn new techniques for improving my teaching practice, for the benefit of my students and of course to improve my CV. And if that means thinking about technology then so be it! (more…)

Posted in Jobseeking, Teaching | 3 Comments »

Marking season well under-way!

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Number of papers marked this week so far: 50
Number of papers to mark in the next 10 days: well over 100, and then there’s the Baccalaureate and A levels to think about!

It’s obvious to anyone involved in university life that exam season is upon us. Hordes of students looking rather green around the gills are being followed by lecturers looking only marginally less stressed! The sun has come out as it always does when students are forced into stuffy exam rooms and I am forced to stay indoors marking. I think a former colleague of mine had the right idea when he told me his marking routine was to grade his papers sitting in his garden with a large gin-and-tonic listening to the cricket! (more…)

Posted in Academic Life, Teaching | No Comments »