APR . . . . passed!

As an innovative program, one of the things that the U of A Writing Program has begun doing in recent years is an Annual Performance Review for Career-track Faculty (i.e., the group formerly known as lecturers and NTTs). This year being my first year, obviously this was my first APR. Since I was a member of the APR committee in the fall, I mostly knew what to expect and, despite hearing some horror-and-griping stories from older lecturers, the process was pretty manageable.

All in all, gathering together the various documents** took me . . . actually, I have no idea. Anywhere between 5-15 hours, I suppose. That's the benefit of doing bureaucratic work while avoiding harder writing tasks like composing an article -- the time just flies by.

Anyway, last Monday I had a post-APR meeting with one of the WP faculty . . . it's a nice gesture on their part and just a way to touch base with us Career-track faculty. Quite a positive experience, and it's a relief to know that I didn't flub my first big academic chance as a recent postdoc. We'll probably know by mid-May about contract renewals. No one's expecting any unexpected budget shortfalls, but let's keep our fingers crossed on that. 

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*** These documents included a teaching reflection, a teaching improvements document, Teacher-course evaluations, sample student writing with instructor feedback, an observation, and a list of service activities. The last went especially smoothly, partly thanks to the two publications I had in November. Overall, for the service, I scored something like a 23 or a 25 when the maximum was only 5.

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