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