One Dress, Three Ways: Maternity Autumn Work Wear

I know maxi dresses have been around for a few years now, but I have always resisted.  They just seemed so...long and flowy and conspicuous.  However, I have found that they are extremely forgiving of growing bumps, so when I found one in my favorite color (I know, gray is the most boring thing ever, but it's beautiful and versatile and I love it), I picked it up.  I was beginning to have second thoughts, however.  How was I going to wear this?  The top is rather awkward and, without a camisole, obscene.  I was wanting something to wear to work once classes start back this fall, and I rather doubted that this would work.  However, since the dress came from a consignment shop, it couldn't exactly be returned.  I decided to see what I could do with it.

Here is the back view, just to emphasize that the top was not going to work for creating a professional image on its own.

Look 1: Black Blazer.  At this point, I can still button the top button, but it would also look fine open.  I would wear this with a long silver chain necklace, which I forgot to put on for the picture.

Look 2: Blue Button Down with Brown Leather Belt.  I love belts and wear them almost everyday.  A friend asked how I would manage to wear them with the bump--just cinch them higher, of course!  I also think my brown leather boots would work with this look.

Look 3: Long Gray Sweater.  Gray on gray--love this.  I am hoping I don't stretch the knit out too badly as I get bigger.  Notice the strategically placed arm to actually make the bump visible.  I am 20 weeks along, and although the bump shows up in person, on camera it somehow disappears.

A few thoughts on making the maxi dress (typically a casual, summer item) work for the office in the fall/winter:

1) Pick the color/print carefully.  Solid charcoal gray (or black, beige, navy) can be made to seem appropriate.  Bright colors and huge prints might be a bit more tricky.

2) Keep the top covered.  Basically, it it going to make the dress look like a skirt.  I toyed with the idea of cutting off the top and adding elastic to actually make this a skirt, but decided against it--I think it is more comfortable this way, and I don't have worry about waist band placement.

3) Choose a fitted top.  To balance the long, flowiness of the dress, a more tailored piece helps.  A loose top with a loose dress is going to look sloppy.  A belt can make a looser top seem more fitted.

Just to point out a few things: first, none of these pieces is "maternity" and I hope/plan to wear them all again post-pregnancy.  Second, this is my first pregnancy, and I have no idea how big I will get.  Hopefully these (and a few other ideas that I have, some involving actual maternity wear) will see me through.  

Classes start back in late August and I am due in mid-December.  With teaching five days a week over the course of my third trimester in weather ranging from sweltering late summer to freezing early winter, this should be an interesting experience.     

Gibson Tuck

I have had a problem since I started teaching at E University: nobody believes I am a professor.  I definitely don't mind being mistaken for someone younger, and I am not at all yearning to look aged, but it is a bit off-putting at times: when I went to the registrar's office to have a student's grade changed, the registrar seemed suspicious that I was a student trying to commit some kind of grade fraud.  I actually started pulling out my ID card before she gave me the paperwork.  And, I guess, when I think about it, my look isn't helping much.  The picture below was, ironically, taken the day of the grade-change-incident.  It wasn't a teaching day, but I am still wearing a button-up shirt and dressy jeans and boots.  But...the hair, the trendy jacket, and the multiple bags probably don't communicate authority.

If it were only occasional cases of mistaken identity, I wouldn't mind so much, but something I read by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink has made me reconsider.  He cites a study in which students viewed two-seconds of video of a professor they had never met lecturing with the sound off and made a snap-judgment of that professor's effectiveness.  These judgments were identical to the evaluations made by students at the end of a whole semester.  Clearly, something about appearance is forming students' judgments and showing up in course evaluations.  Which made me think about the few comments I received on last semester's evaluations where students mentioned that I didn't seem authoritative, or lacked confidence, or seemed shy.  I am curious to see how appearance might play into this.  I did, after all, write a dissertation on how dress and appearance shape identity and can be manipulated to gain power.  So, I am conducting an experiment: this semester, I have worn my hair up every time I step on campus, I teach wearing dressing, skirts, hose, heels, the works.  The trendy bomber jacket stays home, as does the puffy blue parka.  So far, there have been a lot more addresses as "Dr."  rather than "Mrs." and definitely no "Miss."

I have tried several different hair styles and try to rotate between ponytails (the grown up kind, sleek, low, with hair parted in front) and various buns and braids.  I like period-hair styles, like the Gibson tuck below, but try not to wear them too often--I want to look more authoritative, not nuts.

I like the Gibson tuck.  It is very elegant, but easy to do--a basic ponytail tucked into itself with a few pins.  It looks a bit messy, because this is at the end of the day, but it actually has good staying power.  And, bonus, when I take it down at home in the evening, beautiful waves.

So, this will be a long-term experiment.  I will have to see how reactions go and student course evaluations.  Hopefully, these few tweaks will help students see me as a more authoritative figure.  Maybe they'll even start doing their reading!


And PS:  I know, the real focus should be--and it is--on crafting my teaching practice.  The appearance-manipulation is just a fun side-project.

Some thoughts on grading...

Having just finished a semester that was capped off by grading 38 freshman composition portfolios, grading is still fresh in my mind. I feel I have come a long way in the four years I have been teaching. Grading is a tricky task, especially in English, especially in composition - it's so "subjective." No multiple choice. So I use rubrics and try to thoroughly explain what makes a paper a good paper or a not so good paper.

However, some doubts still linger, doubts also voiced by some fellow TAs. Like, "The student worked so hard and improved so much. They deserve an A." Or, "The student is working with a disadvantage, like English is his second language, or she comes from an underprivileged background. They cannot be graded by the same standard."

Here is the analogy I have developed. English 101 is like a race. The students sign up to run the race. The teacher is a coach. We make them run laps and give them pointers about improving their form or their time or their strength. Then, we mark off a course, yell "Go," and start the timer. Some students will have a natural advantage - they are stronger, they've done a lot of running before, etc. Some students will have improved a lot from the time they first started training and can run much faster. However, the stop-watch is what matters. If a runner improved their time from a 13 minute mile to a 10 minute mile, that is fantastic and they should be celebrated. But that does not mean that they have run an 8 minute mile. Some students will make stupid mistakes. They won't show up for practice, or they will veer off the course, or they will come without their shoes. They will have a lousy time, but the coach can't adjust their time, give them extra-credit.

I think that the problem lies with conflating a grade with a reward. And I have to confess that I did this for the entirety of my student career - my self-worth was entirely mixed up with the grades I received. But the grade is not the reward, it is just the assesment, it's your time. It shows you how well you have done, what your abilities are, and how you could improve. It is a valuable tool for a runner, as a grade is for a student. This is why grade inflation is so ridiculous. Giving a student an A when he has done B- work, is like telling a runner who runs a 10 minute mile that he can run an 8 minute mile. He will be unaware of the training he needs and at the next race, he will be overwhelmed when he is passed.

From what I have gathered, there is a lot of debate on process-value and product-value in composition circles. Do you place value on the student's ability to master the process of writing, shown through revision, or do you place the value on the final product they have written? It seems to me that perhaps there is another way of looking at it, not just process or product but performance - if you run well with good form and a lot of miles of practice behind you, you're going to have an impressive time - performance seems to encompass both the final product and the process that it took to achieve it.

Anyway, thoughts?

Status

Here's what's going on on various fronts in my life:

Work: Now that comps are over, I can devote more attention to the two sections of 101 that I am teaching. Just before comps week I realized that I had concocted an insane schedule that was bound to do me in eventually. So I trashed the expository essay assignment I had given them, revised it and cut it down to two pages. Now, I just have to grade the things. Not fun. I also need to revise the rest of the semester, but make it look like I am competent and know what I am doing, not just freaking out in the middle of the semester. Also, I am going to submit a portfolio for the Eng. Dept. teaching award and I'm going to apply for a dissertation fellowship. Lots of things to get together - like a prospectus and a first chapter of said dissertation.

Church: We finally have a new pastor! This is great news after almost two years and the entire time that the dh and I have been members. He's young and seems really intelligent and enthusiastic, so I have high hopes. The DH and I continue to work with our youth group. We are planning a service outing with them - to make lunches and then deliver them with the Loaves and Fishes food ministry, but it looks like turn out will be less than stellar. Of about twelve kids only two are planning on coming. This is frustrating and discouraging, but, what can you do?

Family: I'm going to be an aunt! I'm still getting used to the idea of my little sister being a mother, but I can't wait for a little niece or nephew - oh the hats and sweaters and booties his or her auntie will crochet! Also, the DH has a birthday tomorrow. I am planning a fancy, schmancy dinner - steak and potatoes, salad, and French Silk pie. I have never made steak before, but I am hoping that it will work out. Pictures should follow.

Headaches: Despite the fact that I have had three headaches in the past four days, I am actually doing a great deal better. In September, I had only six headahces, and in August it was only five. Compared with the ten to twelve headaches I was having each month before that, I think that I have made progress. I think the biggest thing has been eliminating pork altogether (the origin, apparently, of the week-long migraines) but also think that running and eating regularly has helped. There are still some triggers that I can't do much about - the weather or everyone's perfume, but there are still some that I can work on - sleeping better, drinking more water, eliminating some stress.

This isn't nearly all that's going on now, but these are the highlights at least.