Dustin Kidd

I received my Spring 2010 evaluations yesterday. They were the best I've ever had, which was great. But in the midst of the positive comments, multiple students complained that I was cold and unapproachable, and uninterested in hearing their problems. This all true. I'm not a warm and fuzzy teacher, and I'm not flexible about the standards for the class. Despite what they think, I do wish the best for my students. But I am very aware of my role is in their lives: I'm their sociology professor. I'm not their father, their counselor, their friend, or their confidant. I think I'm really good at teaching them sociology and I know I'd be pretty cruddy at doing those other things. My instinct is to ignore the comments and focus on the positive, as well as the critical feedback that strikes me as more constructive. But I'm curious why students feel compelled to critique me for my warmth, and lack thereof.

I recently submitted my tenure paperwork. By the time tenure rolls around, it's too late to worry about publishing. Instead, you have to worry about printing. There is a mountain of documentation that needs to be submitted. If I could go back 5 years and give myself some advice, I'd suggest collecting the following, and reviewing it once a year: 1. Printouts of my listings in the programs for every conference I went to 2. One good email or letter for each service activity I performed (ideally a thank-you letter, otherwise, an exemplary email) 3. A citation report for each of my articles using both JCR and Google Scholar. 4. A journal impact assessment for the journals I've published in, tracking impact factor, number of libraries that hold the journal, whether indexed and whether refereed 5. A short paragraph or two on each of my publications, explaining why I wrote them and what they contributed 6. A printout verifying every internal and external award I received, and ...