You can't actually learn by osmosis while sleeping
The CS department recently decided to overlook the mess I made of grading in my new post-parenthood life (for which I'm grateful. :) and gave me a teaching award. What they didn't mention was that it came with two caveats: I'd have to pay income tax on the cute glass apple that came with it. I had to write something smart-sounding about teaching (!). The problem with #2, of course, is that like most tenure-track faculty at a research institution, I don't actually know anything about teaching. As any of you who're Ph.D. students choosing to go into academia will discover, we do an absolutely terrible job of preparing you to teach college classes as part of your Ph.D. education. Actually, that's too strong: We don't do the job at all, not even terribly! (In fairness, Hari actually gave me some great advice when I TA'd for him. But that was luck, not the structure of the Ph.D. program.) But when I protested, the powers that be that run the dep