Tag Archives: teaching

Dec 13 2024
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Class of 24/25 (and teacher)

Thursday 12th December 2024, 1.30pm (day 4,858)

Class of 24/25, 12/12/24

In the last of my taught classes last year, it took about three-quarters of an hour (or felt like it did) for all the students to get their shots with teacher that then go onto social media, somewhere. (And, see also 2022’s version of same.). As I am, essentially, a grumpy man, I insisted that this year I would do it on everyone’s behalf. Apologies to those whom I have eclipsed.

There have been very few shots of my 4,858 so far which have been taken using the self-timer, but there have been some: any of the astronomical efforts (e.g. this shot of Jupiter and its moons, of which I’m still quite proud) will have used it. But I’m sure this is the first where I’ve used the timer to take a photo of myself, with or without others, and used it as the daily picture. So there you are, this is what I look like when I’m not taking a photo.

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Dec 03 2024
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Learning with a Psalm

Monday 2nd December 2024, 2.45pm (day 4,848)

Psalm lecture, 2/12/24

My Monday afternoons as a student continue, though the next one isn’t going to be until February. It crossed my mind today that we are being taught in much the same way as we would have been a thousand years ago, had we been doing much the same in an abbey somewhere. Look at examples of other people’s writing, be told about some idiosyncracies and abbreviations, and then do our best to reproduce it all. We don’t get handed a quill pen and some parchment, which is a shame, but then again these were valuable items in medieval times and perhaps not to be wasted on students just starting out. It does work if one merely wants to learn to write, or rather to copy: but although I admit my Latin is getting a bit better, there is no interpretation here. What does any of this text actually mean, not just in translation, but really mean for anyone’s life? Beats me. But for that, I guess we would have taken different classes.

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Sep 14 2023
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Dina speaks

Wednesday 13th September 2023, 10.10am (day 4,402)

Dina presenting, 13/9/23

Dina was last seen in Toronto in October 2021 and, as part of a project which has been (so far) a wholly positive development but with which I won’t bore you here, has been visiting Manchester this week. Other than myself, Clare and Joe this makes her only the second person to appear on this blog in two different countries and the first on two different continents.

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Sep 22 2022
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Ivy and Mark get ready

Thursday 22nd September 2022, 9.55am (day 4,046)

Ivy and Mark, 22/9/22

Time for the new academic year to get going. Behind us, as I took this shot, the latest clump of aspirants, our objects of care for this year — the new students. Ivy tries to outline the scale of it all to colleague Mark. I think we’re ready for the whistle.

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Jun 25 2022
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Prof Brown tells us how it is (or was)

Thursday 23rd June 2022, 12.35pm (day 3,955)

Prof Brown and fans, 23/6/22

During this week at the London Rare Books School I have felt privileged to be taught by Professor Michelle Brown, second from the left here. What an awesome fund of knowledge she has, seemingly knowing absolutely everything that happened to everyone before about 1500 AD. Like being taught physics by Richard Fenynman, and the sort of experience that you just ain’t gonna get through Zoom, sorry.

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May 06 2022
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Daily Post, Interior

Sat at the back

Thursday 5th May 2022, 1.55pm (day 3,906)

Back of the conference room, 5/5/22

When academics grow up they still behave as their students do: sitting at the back and hoping no one picks on them for input. I wonder how many chairs there are at the University: tens of thousands I imagine. Perhaps the entire student population could sit down there at once, but many of them would definitely be visible at the front.

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Apr 07 2022
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Daily Post, Interior

Late, and still teaching

Wednesday 6th April 2022, 7.50pm (day 3,877)

Online evening class, 6/4/22

A tough assignment today. Online classes late in the afternoon then another in the evening meant I couldn’t go out. The world outside was grey and dull — though at least, still light, at approaching 8pm. This is the kind of day that will eventually kill the creative spirit in me, and thus, this blog. But here’s my best effort.

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Feb 22 2022
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Steve, in virtual life

Monday 21st February 2022, 11.25am (day 3,833)

KF and Steve, 21/2/22

Before 2020 I never minded doing online teaching, because it offered variety, and was not the only game in town. But there are limits, and I probably reached mine about this time last year. Fortunately, a sense of Real Normal has largely returned. This particular class was always designed to be an online session — when it works, use it, when not, get face-to-face. Steve, one of my PhD students, peeks his face out from his virtual cell.

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Feb 10 2021
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Daily Post, Interior

Marking and more marking (not even halfway)

Wednesday 10th February 2021, 11.40am (day 3,457)

Marking, 10/2/21

This has been my life for days, and will be for some time to come. This is not even a Covid thing; this endless increase in my workload is presented as something inevitable, a sign of success even. Four years ago there was a third of this number.

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Dec 17 2020
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Self-portrait as Zoombie

Thursday 17th December 2020, 1.00pm (day 3,402)

Zoom portrait, 17/12/20

Another day with little to record except my further Zoombification, along with much of the rest of the planet. It’s nearly Christmas, which of course will lead to radical change in the current shape of life. But at least I won’t have any Zoom meetings for two weeks.

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