The semester comes to a close

It's been a while! I've been busy busy busy this semester teaching first year Environmental Science. It was a fun course to teach, we read three books, Silent Spring (Rachel Carson), A Short History of Progress (Ronald Wright), and Shovelling Fuel for a Runaway Train (Brian Czech).

The first addressed the increasing contamination of our environment with synthetic chemicals. The second addressed historic society collapses and highlighted how we are on a similar path. The third speaks of a different approach to economics, one that strives for a steady state and not economic growth.

The students had to complete a term project that investigated the Saint Mary's University Campus and suggested ways to improve sustainability. The projects ranged from reducing waste from Tim Hortons Cups to reducing the impact of water coolers by replacing them with hydration stations (water bottle fill-up sites) to powering the campus gym with energy harnessed from stationary bikes.

Today my students are writing their final exam (in fact I'm sitting here moderating it currently... perhaps I shouldn't be typing). I cannot believe a whole semester has went by. It feels like I've only just started - too bad I don't have a course to teach next semester! I really enjoy telling people about something really interesting (to me) and then seeing that knowledge come up at a later point (on an exam or in an assignment) - it shows that they were actually listening (and that I can actualy teach!).

Now it's onto the dry stuff, marking finals, marking term projects, inputting marks... I almost don't want to do it, because then it will really be over. I guess this means it's time for me to start a new chapter, and hope that my students move on from here with a positive attitude about the environment and continue taking courses in Environmental Studies (one can hope) :)

Continuing on a new path

Sorry for the second hiatus. To get you up to speed: I moved back to Halifax, started teaching, am continuing writing, and just picked up a 2nd part-time job doing program-related research for a Geography prof...

I don't think I'll be writing on fieldwork any more for a while, mostly because I haven't done any in almost a year. What I can write about is teaching while writing your thesis while doing research.

Teaching is actually much more fun than I thought it was going to be (don't tell my students I said that!). I teach a first year course, and I enjoy shaping developing minds (the students take everything I say as absolute truth, which is nice for a change after being a grad student). The prep isn't fun, but I like to talk, so the lecture part is relatively painless.

The writing is going well. I'm finishing up the first draft of my last chapter, and my first chapter is almost ready for submission (to a journal, not to my committee!). If I can get it accepted before I submit to my committe, then I won't have to do any revisions! At the same time, my supervisor just went away for a month, so I'm not sure how soon I'll be getting his edits back...

And enough of the hiatus

I've been back from the east coast for two weeks now. My computer was fixed as soon as I got back. It's all shiny and new with a new keyboard (I was previously missing the Esc key) and everything. The pink screen cover is even a nicer pink, more of a rose, than the original salmon.

I haven't written anything for the past two weeks because I have been working day and night writing, editing, and packing. I'm moving back to Halifax next weekend. I have a sessional lecturer position for the fall semester teaching 1st year Environmental Science (Environmental Challenges) at Saint Mary's University.

The position was difficult to get as I am techinally not finished my M.Sc. yet, but as I am nearing the end I had to get my supervisor to write me a letter confirming that, as well as submit a recommendation from the professor who regularly teaches the course (he's going on sabbatical this year).

As a SMU alumna, the professors and administration are familiar with me (which likely gave me an advantage). Either way, now I'm in the process of writing and editing a thesis WHILE prepping for a course (which starts in less than a month). As far as I can tell, I'm a sucker for punishment!

There are many benefits to this turn of events:
A) I get to move back to Halifax (I'm not the biggest fan of Peterborough)
B) I get a job in September
C) I get teaching experience
D) I get to drop down to part-time and pay less tuition :D

D is especially important, because if I didn't get this job I would have had to stick around Peterborough and pay full-time tuition in the fall. There is just no way I'll be written, revised, submitted to committee, defended, revised, submitted to the grad student office before Sept. 26th (the tuition cut-off date).

So all in all, it's a good thing! And I'm looking forward to moving :)