We were talking about the evils of e-mail spam and he blurted out 'Yes, I get about 50 emails a day from people who want to enlarge my penis'. I didn't know quite what to say after that.

In my panel meeting, he told the other members of my panel that I am 'a perfectionist to the point of being anal'. Which is true but that's not the way I would have liked him to put it.

He's French and has a bit of a brusque personality, so I'm not even sure he knows what he's saying sometimes. He's still great though.

I had a seminar observed by a lecturer last year, and he was very good with his feedback. I did get the impression, though, that there was absolutely no procedure for supporting TAs and that I was only being observed because I'd asked to be. It seems to be very inconsistent, depending on the course leader.

I think the answer is to be proactive: ask to be observed, for your questionnaire scores etc. Even simply ask the students. Half-way through the last semester, I gave my students an informal feedback sheet to ask them what they thought was good/what I could do better. This way, I got lots of helpful feedback and ideas I could act upon, alongside reassurance that I wasn't totally crap.

I do wish departments would give more guidance and support to new teachers.

I'm in History. Don't tell anyone, but I don't even know what the PDP is supposed to look like! My supervisor was, until September, postgrad director and was fairly, erm, relaxed about it. Current postgrad director is on my panel and seemed happy enough with the list of courses attended, papers given, publications etc, that I gave them. I wouldn't get too hung-up about it.

How could one fail to remember SAGE? Dear supe was responsible for that too. Although it is, without doubt, head and shoulders above the old RT programme that I had to do when I did my MA. I still shudder at the very thought of it.

Good luck with the coloured pencils - sounds like a plan!

Do you know about the SAHC forum?

Hi,

A couple of things that really helped me:

1) My supervisor made me summarise my thesis in five different ways. I wrote five short paragraphs (no more than three sentences long) which all started 'This thesis concerns...' (kind of like a tie-breaker question in a magazine competition. Answers on a postcard please...!)

2) We then spent a supervisory session going through these summaries, separating out distinct issues and things that should go together, until we came up with four or five broad areas.

3) We then put together a rudimentary chapter plan.

The details have dramatically changed since then but having even a rough outline was useful. And somehow having a proper brainstorm with the supe was even kind of fun? I am kind of weird, though.

Also, from your other postings, I think I might be in the same school as you. SAHC? Of course, that now makes me look like a stalker, but I'm not, I swear! Hope things are going well.