I’m finally starting to feel human after my abbreviated night of sleep. I, who usually drifts away quickly sometime between 11 and 11:30 PM, found myself still struggling to shake the gremlins of academia from my brain at 3:30AM. You see, today is the first day of classes for the fall semester, and I’m not ready.
Oh, I have my first four syllabi done and Blackboard sites up for those courses. Texts are packed in my tote for my 6PM College Writing class, and my online class and hybrid class are ready and awaiting student participation. I’m certainly not nervous about walking into a classroom of students after ten years. Actually, having been a music and drama major, I’m quite comfortable (and happy) in front of an “audience.” I’m just not ready.
I’m not ready to be thrown into fifteen weeks of the non-stop chaotic prep, grading, driving from school to school, packing tote-bags, making copies, attending meetings, scheduling and being available for conferences, answering tons of e-mails from students who either have questions that have already been answered in handouts or who are complaining about grades I “gave” them, updating Blackboard sites, monitoring discussion groups, and more. I know that no matter how organized I try to be, I will not do enough to stay on top of it all.
As an adjunct, I have taught straight through from Martin Luther King Day until August 20. After 10 days outside of a classroom, I’m thrust back into six different classrooms to teach seven different classes in three different schools and one distance learning course from my own over-used desk chair. I will have approximately 110 faces to match with names and 20 or more names that don’t have faces in my distance learning course. I’ll bounce around the worlds of College Writing (MLA), Argument Writing (APA), public speaking, World Literature, and creative writing. If I’m lucky, my last grades of the semester will be uploaded the day before Christmas. Gosh, I’m not ready.
I’ve done this before. I know that the last warm summer days will drift into beautiful cool and colorful fall ones. I know that the leaves will fall and flow from the trees and their spectacle will give way to the spectacle of holiday decorations. Trick-or-treaters will be replaced by turkey eaters, and holiday shopping and decorating will come and go, as I Velcro my face to my computer screen commenting and grading one paper after the next. When I finally emerge, it will be just in time to see the wrapping paper fly and the Christmas tree packed away for another year. The World Series, football season, the opening of Celtics basketball, fall festivals, craft fairs, apple picking, Santa parades, the first snow fall, and twinkling lights will all come and go, and I will barely notice.
And not having slept, I’m tired before it all starts. Every time I started to drift off, I thought of another piece of material to present, a change I needed to make to a syllabus, an alternate way to keep students interested. I’m an adjunct. This is my life. And I’m not ready
Oh, I have my first four syllabi done and Blackboard sites up for those courses. Texts are packed in my tote for my 6PM College Writing class, and my online class and hybrid class are ready and awaiting student participation. I’m certainly not nervous about walking into a classroom of students after ten years. Actually, having been a music and drama major, I’m quite comfortable (and happy) in front of an “audience.” I’m just not ready.
I’m not ready to be thrown into fifteen weeks of the non-stop chaotic prep, grading, driving from school to school, packing tote-bags, making copies, attending meetings, scheduling and being available for conferences, answering tons of e-mails from students who either have questions that have already been answered in handouts or who are complaining about grades I “gave” them, updating Blackboard sites, monitoring discussion groups, and more. I know that no matter how organized I try to be, I will not do enough to stay on top of it all.
As an adjunct, I have taught straight through from Martin Luther King Day until August 20. After 10 days outside of a classroom, I’m thrust back into six different classrooms to teach seven different classes in three different schools and one distance learning course from my own over-used desk chair. I will have approximately 110 faces to match with names and 20 or more names that don’t have faces in my distance learning course. I’ll bounce around the worlds of College Writing (MLA), Argument Writing (APA), public speaking, World Literature, and creative writing. If I’m lucky, my last grades of the semester will be uploaded the day before Christmas. Gosh, I’m not ready.
I’ve done this before. I know that the last warm summer days will drift into beautiful cool and colorful fall ones. I know that the leaves will fall and flow from the trees and their spectacle will give way to the spectacle of holiday decorations. Trick-or-treaters will be replaced by turkey eaters, and holiday shopping and decorating will come and go, as I Velcro my face to my computer screen commenting and grading one paper after the next. When I finally emerge, it will be just in time to see the wrapping paper fly and the Christmas tree packed away for another year. The World Series, football season, the opening of Celtics basketball, fall festivals, craft fairs, apple picking, Santa parades, the first snow fall, and twinkling lights will all come and go, and I will barely notice.
And not having slept, I’m tired before it all starts. Every time I started to drift off, I thought of another piece of material to present, a change I needed to make to a syllabus, an alternate way to keep students interested. I’m an adjunct. This is my life. And I’m not ready
