Summer is winding down

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We have just over four weeks until classes start, so I am trying to get things organized and finish a few things before the students get back into town. I am teaching three classes this semester and need to write the syllabi and plan those for the semester. This means I have to make my final decisions about attendance monitoring in GEO 121, update reading packets for GEO 333 and GEO 444/544 and plan out the sixteen weeks that start on August 24th. It will be hectic when classes start, so the better I plan things now, the easier things will go then. I also need to think about how to revise assignments I've used in the past. For instance, I always have some kind of journal assignment in my hazards class, but usually tweak it a bit each year. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, so I need to think about how I can modify the assignment. I also need to decide on some things for GEO 121: whether to keep the paper assignment this time (or put more weight on exams), decide about using quizzes on Blackboard (I have not used these used before).

In addition to teaching prep for fall, I need to sort out some research activities: do some reading for future work and collaborations, finish up with my REU student (she leaves in one week!), decide what to do with some other unfinished projects, and do some service work.

The next few weeks should keep me pretty busy. I can't believe summer is almost over!

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