In the Dark

I thought that this semester would have had an easier start than the last because I am teaching only one new module (and one familiar one) instead of the two new modules I had last semester. Unfortunately I wasn’t very well before the start of this one and have been struggling to recover so this term hasn’t been easy at all and I’ve had a lot to catch up. At least I’ve managed to stay on top of the lectures and lab sessions and everything so far has gone relatively smoothly. I have to admit though that only two weeks in, I already feel extremely tired. I went to bed at 9pm last night and slept straight through to my alarm at 7am. I’m getting old.

Last week we had our Examination Board meeting for Semester 1 in the Department of Physics. I also attended the Examination Board for the Department of Engineering because I was teaching an Engineering Mathematics module last semester. The students in both Departments should receive their provisional examination results this week, although there have been some gremlins in the campus systems which may lead to a delay in the marks being released.

Semester 2 is a bit more complex than Semester 1 because of a number of interruptions for holidays, etc. The first Monday of this term was actually a holiday, but I don’t actually have lectures on Mondays this term so that didn’t matter, nor will Monday 5th May which is also a holiday. I do, however, have a Particle Physics lecture on Fridays so will miss one on because of the national holiday on April 18th for Good Friday and will have to plan accordingly. The following week (Mon-Fri, starting on 21st April) is the Easter Break, and the week from 17th to 21st March is Study Week (starting with the St Patrick’s Day national holiday on Monday 17th). Although the number of teaching weeks is the same as Semester 1, they are spread out over a longer period with two gaps instead of one. One break is coming up about a month from now, and then another a month after that. This schedule is rather kind to those of us Oldies who tire easily!

Although I’ve kept up with the teaching preparation reasonably well, I have let other things slip. In particular, I have a graduate student getting ready to submit their PhD thesis ahead of an imminent deadline. I promised to read it and supply suggestions/corrections which I have yet to. That’s right at the top of my list for this week.

Talking of PhD students, my first ever official PhD student at Maynooth has already already passed his viva voce examination – about a year ago actually – but owing to bureaucratic delays he won’t graduate until this year, at a conferring ceremony in the March study week mentioned above.

This entry was posted on February 17, 2025 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags education, Maynooth University. 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.