Realm: Teaching - Subrealm: Woes
Aug. 3rd, 2012 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
choco_froshOK. Now I'm hired.
Which is a good thing (and thank you all for your good wishes!) But life is not universally sunny...
1) Being hired means I have to create a syllabus. From scratch, since I took a look at my predecessor's syllabi and...welll...it's like the left-wing equivalent of my predecessor at SNHU's. (As in, "This is kinda too much to expect of Freshmen, AND ...wait, is she trying to brainwash them?? On both counts, I don't think they have the critical thinking skills necessary...)
So. Um. Syllabus.
In three weeks.
Let alone the fact that teaching World History is a matter of trying to cram about three intro courses worth of history and historiography and basic critical thinking and text analysis into one unit. (Or as 'the Rhinoceros' put it, "The trick - and it's really hard - is to keep the students grounded as you hurl huge amounts of data at them.")
Hopefully I can get a discount on their textbook: it seems to be by far the least stupid option.
But still. Syllabus in three weeks. I suspect that by the end it's going to be a struggle not to bum cigarettes off my FUTURE students.
1a) Writing a syllabus effectively means I have an extra part-time job. For which I am not getting paid.
And while MECA's paying me more than I ever got paid as an adjunct, that's still only "ALMOST enough not to be insulting," and thus a long way still from "Enough that I can take three weeks off from temping and/or token job applications."
Which would be nice, given that I have to read three books, fret a lot, create a new quiz ex nihilo, design a course from the bottom up, get the textbook straightened out, find the additional readings, and deal with six kinds of bureaucratic crap.
[And naturally, this is the week I really have a yearning to go visit New Haven and/or climb a mountain. Boo.]
2) Did I mention that SNHU has taken me off their shortlist of online profs?
< breathe >
Well. We know where COCE can go, and what they can do there.
3) Peter will be joining me for the week after next. While I suppose this is a good thing, this means I will get no temping done, and that any course prep. will be done sitting outside my door in the interval between putting him to bed and crashing myself.
Oh, and
4) Summer(+ global warming) -> Hot -> High humidity -> Condensation in belowground areas -> all my stuff is growing mold.
...
On the plus side...well, various relatives will be helping me wrangle Peter, and I got interviewed for a p/t NON-canvassing job with Environment Maine. (If I get it, between it and MECA and some temping/random commissions, I'll actually be making enough to be solidly in the black, AND keep my sanity.) Fingers crossed...
Which is a good thing (and thank you all for your good wishes!) But life is not universally sunny...
1) Being hired means I have to create a syllabus. From scratch, since I took a look at my predecessor's syllabi and...welll...it's like the left-wing equivalent of my predecessor at SNHU's. (As in, "This is kinda too much to expect of Freshmen, AND ...wait, is she trying to brainwash them?? On both counts, I don't think they have the critical thinking skills necessary...)
So. Um. Syllabus.
In three weeks.
Let alone the fact that teaching World History is a matter of trying to cram about three intro courses worth of history and historiography and basic critical thinking and text analysis into one unit. (Or as 'the Rhinoceros' put it, "The trick - and it's really hard - is to keep the students grounded as you hurl huge amounts of data at them.")
Hopefully I can get a discount on their textbook: it seems to be by far the least stupid option.
But still. Syllabus in three weeks. I suspect that by the end it's going to be a struggle not to bum cigarettes off my FUTURE students.
1a) Writing a syllabus effectively means I have an extra part-time job. For which I am not getting paid.
And while MECA's paying me more than I ever got paid as an adjunct, that's still only "ALMOST enough not to be insulting," and thus a long way still from "Enough that I can take three weeks off from temping and/or token job applications."
Which would be nice, given that I have to read three books, fret a lot, create a new quiz ex nihilo, design a course from the bottom up, get the textbook straightened out, find the additional readings, and deal with six kinds of bureaucratic crap.
[And naturally, this is the week I really have a yearning to go visit New Haven and/or climb a mountain. Boo.]
2) Did I mention that SNHU has taken me off their shortlist of online profs?
< breathe >
Well. We know where COCE can go, and what they can do there.
3) Peter will be joining me for the week after next. While I suppose this is a good thing, this means I will get no temping done, and that any course prep. will be done sitting outside my door in the interval between putting him to bed and crashing myself.
Oh, and
4) Summer(+ global warming) -> Hot -> High humidity -> Condensation in belowground areas -> all my stuff is growing mold.
...
On the plus side...well, various relatives will be helping me wrangle Peter, and I got interviewed for a p/t NON-canvassing job with Environment Maine. (If I get it, between it and MECA and some temping/random commissions, I'll actually be making enough to be solidly in the black, AND keep my sanity.) Fingers crossed...
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 06:01 am (UTC)I consider this one of the only things that could save the con from imploding, provided infrastructure can be found to replace the board members.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 03:13 pm (UTC)Though the "infrastructure" bit is gonna be... tricky.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 05:17 pm (UTC)I hope it all works. *fingers crossed for the con not imploding*
no subject
Date: 2012-08-04 04:46 am (UTC)And also with the Environment Maine job. As well as everything else.