Longtime, No See

You may have noticed that my blogging has become less frequent. I am not giving it up, but I have been dedicating much of my time to getting work in order and have been pretty busy. I have been spending lots of time meeting with my students and mentoring them. I guess in some sense this is optional. I mean you don't have to mentor students, but if you don't work proceeds much more slowly and students will be unhappy.

A few posts ago I told you about the student who was thinking leaving my group. Well, he decided to stay and things seem to be back on track now. I am meeting with him weekly to try to keep him focused and it is really helping. Of course that also means that I am meeting with him weekly. Seeing how well this worked I have started regular meetings with all my students, although not all are weekly and it seems to have a big position effect.

The downside is that it takes up a lot of my time (which is why I didn't do it in the first place). There is no way I can sustain this when classes start back, but hopefully everyone will be in a good place by then and we can meet much less frequently. I have to admit getting two grants funded (thank you stimulus package!) has really taken a lot of the pressure off.

Well, I have to go write a book chapter (due end of month), two letters of recommendation, and review an article.