Teaching in the Trenches

Summer, what summer?

Mid-August. I’m lying on a hammock under a tree, reading book number twelve (at least) and thinking back fondly to my week by the shore, my trip to the Adirondacks, or all those not-so-nice days roaming around art museums and the great historic homes of New England. Ah, two weeks left before the start of another interesting and challenging academic year ahead in Ye Old Ivory Tower.

That might be my reality if I were a full-time tenured professor in one of any number of private or public post-secondary institutions. But, alas, I’m an adjunct, and I’ve realized that at my age, this is my life now and for the future. Instead of lurking in the supposed ivory towers of academia, I’m mucking around in the trenches. Welcome to my world. Grab a cup of coffee, a glass of wine….never mind, grab a fifth of whisky and a straw and enjoy a taste of the other side of the college experience.

Yes, it’s mid-August, and I haven’t had a week without a class since mid-January. Over the summer, I’ve completed two-trimester classes and taught six different summer classes in public speaking, English composition, and developmental college writing (read remedial). My last class of the summer is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, August 20, and my first class of the fall meets on Monday, August 31. In the interim, I have summer grades to complete and fall syllabi to develop, and a whole summer of fun to cram.

Through this blog, I hope to share with you everything from my own frustrations and satisfactions with my life as an adjunct, give you some insight into what an adjunct does and how a career adjunct lives, help you to understand the college experience from an instructor’s perspective, and put forth some of my own theories about post-secondary education today. We’ll explore topics from tests to textbooks to technology (good and bad) in the classroom.

And I’ll take you out of the classroom into what’s left of my life (not that there’s much of it left) and dispel some of the myths of that ivory tower world everyone keeps talking about. Thanks for dropping by.