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Sep. 2nd, 2006 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meanfreepathPeople are heading back to Swarthmore this weekend, and for once in four years I'm not going. Well -- that's fine. This is the first time in several years that I have had a Labor Day weekend without a physics seminar problem set hanging over my head, which is nice.
If the weather in Swarthmore has been as crazy as it has been here in Princeton, with high winds and heavy rains, of which I have little doubt, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ricerurouni's post with the picture of the fallen oak limb blocking Magill Walk, it would not surprise me at all if the fire department got a bunch of calls. It is precisely this sort of weather that produces downed power lines, funny smells in people's houses, random MVA's, and flooded basement marathons.
Packing proceeds apace. Piles of papers and books line the floor; boxes have been filled. I go through boxes and find ancient problem sets, lab reports, random books and magazines. Alas, I haven't had the time to read a lot of them, especially a few interesting-looking issues of "Physics Today" and "APS News." One is reminded of the "Packrat's Lament" in Rounds Galore: "How long must I castigate my conscience he said / And keep the magazines that I haven't read" to the tune of "Rose, Rose."
I also got an invitation in the mail from the Bok Center at Harvard. Each fall, they organize a teaching conference for graduate students who plan to be TF's. I was rather surprised to see this talk on the program:
If the weather in Swarthmore has been as crazy as it has been here in Princeton, with high winds and heavy rains, of which I have little doubt, thanks to
ricerurouni's post with the picture of the fallen oak limb blocking Magill Walk, it would not surprise me at all if the fire department got a bunch of calls. It is precisely this sort of weather that produces downed power lines, funny smells in people's houses, random MVA's, and flooded basement marathons.Packing proceeds apace. Piles of papers and books line the floor; boxes have been filled. I go through boxes and find ancient problem sets, lab reports, random books and magazines. Alas, I haven't had the time to read a lot of them, especially a few interesting-looking issues of "Physics Today" and "APS News." One is reminded of the "Packrat's Lament" in Rounds Galore: "How long must I castigate my conscience he said / And keep the magazines that I haven't read" to the tune of "Rose, Rose."
I also got an invitation in the mail from the Bok Center at Harvard. Each fall, they organize a teaching conference for graduate students who plan to be TF's. I was rather surprised to see this talk on the program:
Teaching Lessons from Harry Potter, W 1:15-2:45I don't intend to TF this year, but I will eventually, and a lot of the talks on science education sound very interesting. So I may go if they don't conflict with the GSAS orientation.James Wilkinson, Director, Derek Bok Center and Lecturer on History and Literature
With their [sic] emphasis on sports and character development, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series belongs to the tradition of English schoolboy novels inaugurated by Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857). At the same time, the faculty at Hogwarts also illustrate contemporary issues of effective classroom practice -- both positive and negative -- which we will explore with the aid of excerpts from the series.
