Mondays from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Tuesdays from 2:15 pm to 4:45 pm
Mondays from 2:00-5:00pm
Wednesdays from 2:15-5:00pm
Wednesdays from 2:15-5:00pm
Thursdays from 9:15-12:00pm
Pomodoro Cafe
(10 min) Welcome
(5 min) Goal setting/writing tips
(25 min) First POM
(5 min) Break
(25 min) Second POM
(10 min) Break
(25 min) Third POM
(5 min) Break
(25 min) Fourth POM
(10 min) Wrap up (or repeat break and another POM)
Anyone in the department who has writing to do (so, everyone...?)
Our primary goal is to create an inclusive and welcoming environment to help encourage graduate students and postdocs to meet and write on a regular basis. We understand that new postdocs and graduate students can feel isolated/alone, especially after a couple of years of closure/restrictions. Through the weekly writing café, we provide a community of mathematicians who are helping each other progress in their writing.
Writing process steps can be
Brainstorming
Researching
Drafting
Revising
Proofreading
We (Seda Albayrak and Erik Holmes) are both postdocs at the University of Calgary working in number theory with Khoa Nguyen. Having gone through the last years of our PhDs and the first years of our postdocs amidst a pandemic we know the feelings of isolation. Therefore, we wanted work towards establishing a community in a department that was slow to return to in-person activities. In the near future we hope to host panels for students and postdocs which are dedicated to job documents, website construction, etc.
(Here is one link to one article on the topic.)
The outline:
Set goals/to-do list items
Set timer for 25 minutes and focus on one task during this time
When the timer goes off you are done your first POM.
Take a break (stand up, get coffee, get a snack, stretch, use the washroom, get some steps, etc.)
Continue (our goal for each writing session is to complete 4 of these)
The no-talk writing blocks are dedicated for focused writing. However, the welcoming time, the breaks and the wrap-up time are dedicated to socializing and sharing the challenges and successes of writing. The main goal of the writing café is to provide space to write with peers.