It’s Sunday morning and I’m sitting in my living room and pondering about how I actually never had the joy of either hosting or attending a writing retreat.

When I was a faculty member at CIDE I tried to host #ShutUpAndWrite weekly sessions.

These mostly didn’t work.
I get that we are all busy. I am an incredibly busy person myself.

But for me the joy of organizing a writing retreat would reside in making it work.

I have my own daily writing retreats. I write 4:30-6:30 in the morning all by myself.

I have enjoyed the collective writing.
But if I were to organize something post-pandemic it would need to have firm commitments from everyone.

Life happens to us all, I get it.

But for me, to commit to doing a writing retreat would mean really focusing and not paying attention to anything outside.
I DO want to organize post-pandemic, in-person writing groups and retreats.

But only if they work.

Otherwise I am happy to write all by myself.

I have done this before.

In 2011 I toured my home province, British Columbia, and spent a glorious week writing by the sea.
I spent 2 days in Nanaimo, 2 days in Victoria, 2 days in Parksville/Qualicum Beach and 2 days in Comox/Courtenay.

Honestly, best solo writing retreat ever.

A 2 week retreat would work best, to include Tofino/Ucluelet.

To be honest, writing staycations work too.
I’ve done these writing staycations before: I have booked hotels in New Westminster, North Vancouver, Richmond or Burnaby and stay there for a few days to just write.

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More from @raulpacheco

8 Dec
REAL TALK:

I started this week feeling entirely unmotivated to do any work (even though I have a metric tonne of things to do). I was afraid of working on the revise-and-resubmits I have to finish because I was AFRAID OF GETTING THOSE PAPERS REJECTED BY THE JOURNAL.
I have a fairly decent publication record, and to this day I STILL FEEL WORRIED ABOUT GETTING A REJECTION.

(I no longer feel humiliated, but I still don't like rejections).

Public thanks to my writing group, and especially @AcademicBatgirl and @LuxanaRO for help motivating me
If you are starting this academic life, or are in the throes of getting a degree and/or writing a thesis, know that even the most experienced of us feel:
- lack of motivation
- fear of rejection
- stress
- unwillingness to do work (see above)
- overwhelmed feelings.
Read 6 tweets
6 Dec
It took me a VERY long time to appreciate my own writing.

Academia instills in you a false sense of humility. You ALWAYS have to be self-deprecating.

I'm a very good writer and I love what I write, and what I write is meaningful, valuable and important.

(yes, I said this).
Also, it took me submitting 3 articles this year, getting 3 R&Rs AND publishing 3 journal articles (two of them in the top journals in my discipline) to feel like I was back to writing as well as I did when I was a doctoral student (back then I wrote with such ferocity!)
I remember a couple of years ago, re-reading my doctoral dissertation and thinking "man, I used to write with such authority and audacity!"

These past couple of years I've just written with abandon.

I love writing, I love what I write and I am happy I am healthy again.
Read 4 tweets
28 Nov
THREAD: A student (new to my methods) asked me what I did when I could not highlight.

Most people know I don’t mark my own books (nor the library’s!) but you can do with yours whatever you want.

Since I don’t mark my books, the highlighting and annotating methods I use ...
... may not work in the same way.

Since I prefer analog systems and do not mark books up, here are a few ways in which I take notes that still retain some of the characteristics of my strategies for printed materials.

I’ll outline them in separate tweets.
1) THE INDEX CARD METHOD:

Since I have used them since grade school, I often take notes of books on index cards.

I usually categorize by colour of said index card, unless I run out of color-coded ones in which case I use non-coloured ones, but with a 1/2” coloured plastic tab
Read 20 tweets
28 Nov
I just read that thread about awful experiences during dissertation defenses.

My own was an absolute breeze. I had a fantastic time. I was asked tough questions that were fair, helped me showcase that I actually knew my stuff, and then gave me an opportunity to shine through.
HOWEVER... and herein lies the rub, and this is the reason why I spend at least 2 weeks full time working with my doctoral students on their defenses, pre-defense:

My advisor made me do dry runs and send him draft slides over 3 weeks before my doctoral dissertation defense.
I did at least 4 dry runs with him where we went through the changes that needed to be made. He was thorough but never rude.

Then I did a mock defense with @hishamzerriffi (my best friend) as my audience. He gave me extensive feedback on the slides, my presentation style, etc.
Read 5 tweets
21 Nov
I read the original thread and it makes sense. After having taught 4 courses this fall and 1 this past summer, I have some thoughts.

First, I've blogged a bit of my experience here: raulpacheco.org/2020/10/recons… and here raulpacheco.org/2020/10/teachi…
There's one element that isn't discussed here: the heterogeneity in teaching styles, technological expertise and competency, and pedagogical training.

For people who do weekly seminars, it would appear as though they could just transport the concept across, just online.
So, I (with some level of pedagogical training, tech literacy and a teaching style and courses that suit more offline work that does not involve any contact with computers, or reduces online work), could potentially actually manage to reduce students' workload.

Not everyone.
Read 13 tweets
20 Nov
El día de hoy di una clase en el curso conjunto de @CPliscoff de @EGGP_UCHILE y @psanabria de @GobiernoUAndes a la cual invité a mis estudiantes de @FlacsoMx (y colegas y estudiantes de otras universidades a quienes superviso).

Hablé del saneamiento y suministro de servicios.
Una pregunta que me hicieron en la clase me dejó un poco preocupado porque he oído a estudiantes de políticas y administración pública que dicen “el gobierno no PUEDE ofrecer un servicio público como la provisión de baños públicos universal”.

Casi me da el soponcio
El gobierno tiene entre sus muchas funciones el proveer servicios públicos a la sociedad. Decir que “el gobierno no PUEDE ofrecer servicios” lo exime, incorrecta e indebidamente, de su responsabilidad.
Read 4 tweets

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