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You ask a really great question, and one that I think could easily require another extensive blog post to answer. So at the risk of too much brevity, I will just say:

1) I don’t know that I have figured out the perfect balance yet. I just work a lot. But I love it, so that’s ok.

2) I really do enjoy the teaching, and think it is important, so tenure is not the most important thing.

3) I think it is valuable to note that there are other benefits to teaching and teaching well beyond tenure and satisfaction. I have found that being involved in teaching and discussions about teaching has not only helped me continue to develop as a scholar, but also to connect with other scholars and possible collaborators, and to find opportunities that I might not have otherwise had.

That’s the quick answer. That, and I don’t know any other way to do it–I can’t just “dial it in”.

Thanks again!

Joshua

Around these parts, we sometimes refer to Joshua as “the soulcrusher,” which is simultaneously really funny because it’s the exact opposite of what Joshua really is AND–for me, at least–sort of accurate, given how excruciatingly painful and powerfully formative his courses have been and continue to be.

If you want good student evaluations, one strategy is to be really nice and easy on the students. Then you’ll get comments like: “This was a fun class–I learned a lot.” If you’re a little braver, you can make tiny decisions about when to challenge and when to help each individual student. If you do it right–and I think Joshua does it right–students will feel pain (that’s the pain of being right there on the edge of your abilities) before the end. Then you’ll get comments like this: “This was one of the hardest and most rewarding classes I’ve ever had.”

Okay, anyway. You can probably tell how much I respect and value Joshua as a teacher and a mentor. Now, Joshua, I’d like to ask you this: Given that at many universities teaching is less important for tenure than research and even service, how would you justify the time-suck of both your instructional approach and the openness experiment? I know faculty who regularly feel forced to make decisions between finishing a draft of an article (good for tenure and advancement) and planning for 30% more class time (marginally good for tenure and advancement). This doesn’t even begin to touch the reality that managing a course-related twitter feed and website results in “course creep”–the expectation that an instructor will be available around the clock to respond to questions and comments.

I would write more, but at the moment I’m dealing with an extreme case of catarm.

As for the rest… whoops! I actually meant for them to be a metaphor for different processes in the mind! Next time I’ll have to draw some extra gray matter.

As for the rest… whoops! I actually meant for them to be a metaphor for different processes in the mind! Next time I’ll have to draw some extra gray matter.