In the Dark

The forthcoming week is the second-to-last week of teaching term at Maynooth and, as usual at this stage of the Semester, we’re getting busier and busier.

The examinations for January have been sent off for printing and are (presumably) ready to go, so that’s one item crossed off the to-do list. I’m still behind on the coursework grading for one of my two modules, but should be able to catch up in the next few days. Other than that, I am miraculously on schedule as far as teaching is concerned. I should finish covering the respective syllabuses by Friday 13th, which means the following week will be devoted to revision. I expect attendance on campus will be fairly sparse in the last week of term, especially later on. I’ll be there until the bitter end, however, as I have a lecture scheduled on Friday 20th and have to attend final-year student presentations that afternoon. After that I will probably collapse in a state of exhaustion into the welcoming arms of the Christmas break.

While the week ahead will be fairly normal from the point of view of teaching itself, there are quite a few extra things in my calendar, as people try to get various things done before the break. Extra items for next week including a meeting about a staff recruitment (of which, hopefully, more anon) and another about the possible reorganization of teaching in the light of the merger of the Departments of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. Rationalization of teaching could lead to an improvement in the courses offered and also, by removing duplication, reduce our very heavy teaching workloads. Whether it will actually be possible to achieve either or both of these aims remains to be seen. In any case I’m not sure if any significant changes to teaching will be implemented before I retire, but I’ll probably go along to the meeting anyway in case there’s anything I can contribute.

I’ve also agreed to give a talk on Wednesday to the student Pride Society which I am looking forward to, although such events invariably make me feel very old!

As it happens, Friday 13th December is the date for the first Christmas dinner of the newly formed Department of Physics; previously, the Departments of Theoretical Physics and Experimental Physics held separate celebrations. It will be a much bigger group this time and, it being on a Friday evening we’ll have the weekend to recover before the last week of term.

Anyway, although it’s a Sunday I’ll be working all afternoon as I have a task to finish that is due tomorrow so I had better sign off. When I was younger I used to look forward to Christmas as a time for feasts and parties and socialising. Now that I’m older I look forward to it more than anything as a time for the sense of relaxation that comes from the lack of deadlines.

This entry was posted on December 8, 2024 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Education, LGBTQ+, Maynooth with tags Christmas, Maynooth University, teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.