Summer Update

AS promised, when I'm in the thick of Spring semester with midterms, academic advising, department evaluations, student events, graduation and so forth I'm so in survival mode but when it ends, it's like falling off a cliff (in a good way). I have some school stuff to wrap up though definitely not as intense as the aforementioned activities, but more specifically teaching a research class in the Summer and participating in a faculty PD on Hyflex Learning. 

🏆 Rarely throughout the year do I actually engage in any kind of reflection on what I've accomplished so far this year, but I have some things:

• Biggest one obviously is hitting the most significant milestone in academia is TENURE! Last summer it was all hands on deck as I put together this 100+ pager on all my accomplishments since Fall 2016 with the added work of meticulously updating all these hyperlinks and various hyperlinks. I was blessed in end of Feb when I got the letter stating that I received tenure. As I always say, getting job security is always more important to me than $$ or any kind of promotion, though the nice thing is that technically I received tenure/promotion which entails both. Now I know what it's like when Mike Trout or Giannis Antetokounmpo got that big bag locking them down for a long time

• Next, sorta related to my professional career but I would say as Chair of my Department there were some tricky things to navigate as I confronted the goal of how can our Liberal Studies department deliver the similar or higher quality learning, advising, mentoring and support via online and/or the pandemic environment; following this, what's the post plans of delivering these services in the in-person return environment? The adaptation was not as bad as I imagined it. The tech stuff - Canvas, Zooms, Calendly, Google Slides - all the go-tos for teaching online was easy to set up. But the main issue that surprised me more was just the fatigue and weariness of having to do 5 straight hours of Zoom each day because it's not just class, but various faculty and student meetings. And as Chair I encountered the challenge of navigating faculty through online teaching. Some were entirely brand new faculty and I commend those for being able to nimbly go through the onboarding process while at the same time setting up their courses and having to learn the various ed tech for the first time. Personally, the teaching part was mostly workable, but just does not beat any aspect of the in-person experience which I sorely miss. But running the program in terms of providing communication to students, planning student events, advising, and so forth. It was a major adjustment and I had to become much more social media savvy, not to mention be more public, that required providing more content like videos and posts. Next, the post plans of delivering in-person return environment gradually became more of a possibility around end of April with the loosening of health/safety guidelines so that more on-campus events could occur. It was a cascade of events that occurred with the precious last 3 weeks of the semester - Honors Society banquet, ice cream social, senior dinner and graduation. It was so good to be there in-person with my students who remind me why I fell in love with this profession. I'm also grateful for the various student leaders who were fully engaged and organized down to every last detail. It was awesome too to serve as Chair of the Faculty Development Committee. Though I've been active in 3 committees per year, this is the first that I've served as Chair. The non-ideal circumstances due to covid really limited what we could do, but at least I got my feet wet ready for next year. 
• Not all achievements have to be in the form of certificates and awards, but I feel that I've made a major impact for my home church- Zoe Church ✝️ . Long story on what precipitated the major shift in joining a new church, especially what can be best described as a start-up (started Jan 2021), but I've been blessed to help oversee some of the ministries including providing the church announcements and small group. For a long time, my church history has always been more about receiving, rather than serving. The church is so small, understandably so because of covid restrictions, that the technical team is as large as the guests who show up. But the experience has humbled me to the point that the church is not based on a physical structure w/ all the bells and whistles but really at the core are the relationships. Being around bigger churches (Harvest, Sandals) I'm reminded that church is what you make out of it. 

🤫 I haven't reflected much on COVID global pandemic. And thankfully I've gotten my vaccination 💉. It's still mind boggling to think about that fateful Mar 15th, 2020. Initially I thought it was going to pass in a heartbeat, but we've been in the midst of this for little over a year. Working at home was a transition, but I found that having a great family to support me made the adjustment palatable. I definitely learned more about myself especially when it came to my work, and though I value it because it's something that I never doubted, I also realize the importance of home work life balance and truly valuing the precious relationships with my wife and two daughters (4y and 20 mos.). Knowing that my 4 year old is going to start K in August, makes me more appreciative that I get to spend intense time with her given that our time together is going to be increasingly more limited. COVID has been a retooling time for me to reevaluate my priorities and approach my career with a bit more energy.

😎 This summer (now and until first week of August), I hope to accomplish my list of things to do

• Research for my Civic Education in the Christian K-12 Schools book (post about it here soon)
• Prepping for the Liberal Studies Department. There are some things to get ready from developing a stronger marketing plan with videos and new website to updating the advising information for students and more broadly focusing on ways to expand our program beyond K-12 teaching with other new ideas like child development and social work. 
• Personal, professional website -now updated here

Those are all my thoughts for now, but though it is summer time and I really should utilize this break to recharge, I'd like to use this time productively like working on some strong habits, like most notably to 📝 write. It's definitely on the back burner but I have to find that discipline where I developed this habit of writing everyday (365 a year) even if it was for 20 minutes. I don't want to count this blog as part of the 20 minutes, but this would be the way to start. I'm inspired to go back to utilizing the pomodoro technique which has been a really effective tool for me to really manage my discipline to write. 

I end here with a song that's been circling my brain. 

Yeah, I'd probably grab your hand and tell you life is hard ..  If you got questions or you need advice, then talk to God ... 'Cause He's the only one that listens even when you think He isn't .. But everything that breaks you down can also build your character .. 'Cause people love to see you fail, just be aware of it.. Don't let nobody tell you who to be or write your narrative (NF - "Nate")

Going back to review this month's best finds in movies/tv shows, music and books