Dear Red Line,

11/17/2008

Atlast! I was at work today. I looked out the window to see pecular pieces of frozen water swirling around aimlessy. Now, no need for worries, good friends. This is normal... well, unless you live in Florida.

We live in Indianapolis. Every year it gets cooler, and cooler until cooler turns to cold. Now, I know in Science class they taught us how seasons work and how the Earth tilts on its axis.... or something to that effect. You would love to believe that we could get used to these funny season things, but it seems harder and harder as you get older. Now, by no means am I old, but I do remember liking winter alot more as a child than as an adult. You could have snow days at school (well, you still can........) and meet your friends (again, you still can) and go play outside and make snow angels and snowmen and snow forts and..... and..... and..... well you get the idea. Surely, my friends, I show no enthusiasm any longer to frolic in the snow.

So, back to the Red Line. I get on the bus, half frozen. Luckily, the heater on the bus was cranked up, pre-heated and ready to defrost me! As I got on the bus, I must have been the only one on the bus. I gladly took a seat. A few stops later, a young lad got on the bus as well. He sat across from me awaiting his next destination. I looked down at my shoes and across the isle. What did I see, you ask?

I couldn't believe my eyes. Perhaps I was at work too long and was halucinatng from the long day at work. I blinked once. I blinked twice. I blinked three times to be sure. Were my eyes failing me?

[Dunt dunt dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

The nice gentleman across from me was wearing flip-flops.

Then, as to mock my disbelief, he took his feet OUT of his shoes and began to swirl them around in the air. Now, I have two theories on this.............

One: It was fun to watch the snow and his feet had to take part in the snow swirling. They were doing a happy dance!

Two: The kid doesn't watch any weather before he leaves the house for the day.

I felt silly bundled up in my gloves, scarf and wool coat. I sat in disbelief (and almost disgust from bare feet dancing around in the air). I shook my head, and got off at my stop to go home for the day.

Lesson of the day: Check the weather report. Then, you won't have to defrost your toes on the public bus.

Until we meet again, Ciao.

I can tell that Thanksgiving is quickly approaching!  The campus is starting to thin out and some of my colleagues are planning on taking next week off.  As I walk down the hallways I hear students talking about their Thanksgiving plans and what they are looking forward to.  I remember in my undgrad my dad found out about deep fried turkey.  I thought he was crazy in the beginning, but I was wrong!!  That is now the way that I prefer to eat my turkey!  You can find all kinds of flavors to inject it with to see what the flavors are going to be!!  A deep fried turkey is moist and juicy!!

As the semester comes to an end, I reflect upon my first time teaching an X103 (Business Learning Community) class.  It was fun to have some of the first year students learning about the business world and seeing their reaction to some of the homework loads.  A Learning Community does not have a lot of work, but it does keep you busy throughout the semester.  I like the smaller class sizes because students really get to know the others and can really make some friends in the classroom.  One thing I have noticed is that I have some students who take the class VERY seriously, while some others do not take it seriously enough.  I think you need to have a balance.  You should take all of your classes seriously but have fun!  College is hard work, but you have got to have fun with it as well!!  So I am glad that the students get a nice break before the semester ends.  So take some time to relax and eat lots of food because when you come back, it will be FINALS!

I just finished grading final exams from my class. This may sound odd because most students have three or four weeks of school left! But I teach a shorter course so my students and I are deeply involved with final exam/grade stress now. I suppose it seems strange that a faculty member could be stressed out about exams, but I am and have been every semester for the 25+ years that I have taught. But I will save that conversation for my next post at the official end of the semester. I should introduce myself!

I have several roles in the Kelley School on the IUPUI campus but I've agreed to become a blogger as a faculty member. I'm a senior lecturer in the Accounting department and I teach several undergraduate accounting courses. I've been with Kelley at IUPUI for a little over ten years. I started my teaching career at IU South Bend in the early-1980s as an adjunct or part-time faculty member. But I fell in love, so to speak, with the university and teaching so I've been doing that, more or less, since that first semester. I taught my first class only because a friend of mine was hurt in an accident and I agreed, at the last minute, to teach his A201 class for him. Kicking and screaming, I might add, convinced I would HATE it and the students would HATE me. Ten minutes into my first class, I realized how wrong I was, at least on my end. After reading my first semester teaching evaluations (that's another story for another day), I realized I might be wrong on the students' ends as well.

I started my academic career as a student majoring in English Literature, my first and most enduring love. I spent three years in the English department in Bloomington in the 1970s (now you know how old I am!!) and loved every minute of it. I wrote plays and poetry and read everything from Brecht to Brautigan, from Shaw to Shakespeare. I was in heaven. Then I realized I was going to have to get a job, that English majors were starving, and that I had better figure out what else I might be good at in a hurry! (I do not advise changing your major in your senior year unless you want to be an undergraduate student forever!) My brother told me to take an accounting class – he said that accountants always had jobs! I was convinced I would hate it. I was wrong about that one, too. Are you seeing a pattern here?

In future posts, I will fill in the blanks between the English department and Accounting, and why I find them so similar and love them both. I'll tell you why I get stressed out to the max concerning exams and grading. I'll tell you what I love and what concerns me about teaching and higher education. And I'll answer any questions or comments that you send me. I haven't quite made up my mind about this blogging thing – it seems to be a bit of a one-sided conversation. So I hope you will feel free to make it a two, three, four, or more-sided conversation.

Jane L. Lambert Nov. 18, 2008