Summerzcool -- chair hat

There are several items on my Bucket List to accomplish before I'm vertical and one of them is to get to a Jimmy Buffett concert. I totally enjoy his world music and listen to Radio Margaritaville through the computer. His latest CD, Buffet Hotel, has a song about Summer School or as he says, Summerzcool.

Well, it's time to get serious about summer. We have 6 weeks left in this semester and as chair, things are popping for summer already. We got our booklist in and schools are starting to register for summer (and fall). What are you doing?

1. Faculty: Have you checked in with each of your faculty to determine their intentions for summer? I send out two or three emails to follow up if I haven't received a response from a particular faculty. Usually, this email is the one that everyone notices and responds to quickly.
2. QA: Have YOU checked into each instructor's performance this semester? It's getting late in the semester and I have not heard if we will have a new QA person. So that means YOU should do a run-through the classes to determine if your instructor has been doing OK with D2L and fulfilling teaching expectations.
3. Dupes: Once you start building your faculty list, you should verify from each instructor, which section they want duped for summer. Don't assume the section they are teaching in Spring 1 will be OK for summer, especially if they have a Spring 2 section that is already configured for ten weeks. Asking the faculty which section to dupe shows respect for the instructor and recognition of their work.
4. New faculty: Now is the time to follow up with them and, if you need to, bug them to get their paperwork to the office. I have one potential faculty who was very gung-ho a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard from her since. When do you realize that this person isn't going to follow through and that you need to find someone else? Can't say but there does come a point in that process for me.
5. Misc: Have you ordered books for your new faculty? Have you chosen a mentor for them? How about training, got them on the list yet?

I love summer and our summer semester will be here in no time. It's best to get organized now so that you can enjoy your hammock and umbrella drinks later on. Take some advice from Jimmy...

You need to go to Summerzcool
Get to the beach or at least to the pool.
Time to go to Summerzcool
Remember what is and what is not cool.

http://buffethotel.margaritaville.com/welcome.html