Blogging from the iPad

So I got an app for my iPad from which, supposedly, I can easily write and post to the blog. We'll see.

I'm almost halfway through the year of the tenure file. In May I submit my file for consideration for tenure and promotion. It's a bit deal. Get tenure and I'm pretty stable in my job (barring the university dropping the drama program or me doing something really stupid I basically have job security). Don't get tenure and you start looking for a new job.

For the file, I basically lay out everything I've been doing for the last 6 years teaching-wise, in service the University and the larger community, and professionally. And, of course, not just list it, but discuss it. I went through a trial run of this process a couple of years ago in my mid-tenure review, where I created the file and gave it to my chair and the Dean. That went well, so I'm not too worried, but you never know what happens when the full committee looks at it (literally, it's very secret). Sometime during the next school year I'm granted tenure and promotion, or not.

So there's that going on...

We also have 2 new faculty in the drama program, and a new faculty in the music program. When I was hired I was the only non-tenured faculty member of the department (music and drama), and now 6 of the 10 aren't tenured (5 more faculty have been hired since me). I'm now the 5th most senior faculty in the department, which is strange given what it was like when I was hired. In all its great...lots of new energy and a willingness to re-think how we do what we do. I find myself in the enviable position of having some experience at UP, and a the same time feeling like I'm still relatively new and more than willing to experiment with how I teach and work here. And with so many other new and newish folks, I'm not alone.

Otherwise the end of the semester is coming on fast, and I'm at the coffee shop grading (well...taking a short break from grading at the moment).

And now back to it. If posting is this convenient, maybe I'll do it more. Of course, I've said that before.