Day 118: Work sans students

Day 118 (2 Apr) It is back to work, though a non-teaching week. There's usually a bit of time to catch up on admin work, maybe even get a chance to do some preparation for forthcoming classes (always high on ambition). 

A bonsai's view of 6.12am

But first...it is time to water the bonsai, something of an analogy for the day really, or so I was thinking at 6.12am. Remember yesterday's papers I was reading? Well today is the meeting. Some days you feel like there is some real importance in watering the plants, assisting them to grow; but other days you realise they grow without you anyway. As I've posted on the other blog, I think universities in Australia could be very different places. I don't believe students are receiving the very best possible tertiary education; they're taught well, but I don't think we are in a position to give them the sort of challenging and thinking education we should/could be, and the sort of things I'd like to teach. We're top-heavy in administrative tasks, it detracts from our core work.

Academic Board is the sort of place one would hope these decisions might be made, but they're generally not. Sometimes, one shouldn't aspire to more than merely tending the small things before you. 

The meeting goes for a couple of hours and sometimes it can be quite draining. I often come away from those meetings with a determination to ... well, leave. But this is not the blog to be maudlin. 

The other end of the day,
at 6.12pm

Spent much of the next few hours working with a colleague on new materials and a presentation we're due to give to a community group in a couple of weeks. Always interesting to plan a presentation that isn't about stereotypical representations of Japan, when, in fact, that's what we've been asked to do. 

That meant by the other end of the day, at 6.12pm, I was working away in the office, surprise. The bookshelf though, has fewer books now, as promised. 

There was a very practical use for this evening's photo too today, just in case you were thinking this is all a rather introspective indulgence (which, of course, it is, at times). A colleague rang to ask did I have a particular book...I was able to say, well as it happens, I have a photo of that bookshelf, just let me zoom in...and it was there, we found it. Hehe.