Saturday, August 04, 2007
Time's fun when you're having flies
When you teach at a real school you get to brag to your friends about some things like
 "Class time" (Yellow) means I must be in the classroom. Usually this means teaching or administering labs and tests. However if the students finish early I am required to stay in the classroom the full time anyway. This of course can be an excellent time to grade papers. "Office hours" (Orange) I must be in my office in case students need to drop in for assistance or questions or counseling. "Campus hours" (Green) means I must be on campus somewhere. It's also not as obvious but my Mon/Wed class is on the North Campus where my actual office is, but my Tue/Thu classes are on the downtown campus about 15-20 minutes from my office. All combined, I am required to have 30 hours a week made up of my class time (18 hours this semester), 5 hours of office time, and the rest made up of campus time (7 hours this semester). Looking at the schedule, you may have noticed something strange on the right hand side. Did you catch it? Yes, that's correct. I do not have any classes on Fridays. Actually the school rarely has Friday classes, as the students don't want to be in school in Fridays. So I "front loaded" my week with office and campus hours, so I get Fridays off, too. I have been told though that Friday classes are starting to become more popular as employers are starting to move to 4 day work weeks (10 hours a day) and that leaves students free to take Friday only classes. Yuck for them, and yuck for me, too! So now that you're convinced that my life is going to be impossibly easy with all those vacations and a 3 day weekend every weekend. I do need to point out the ugly secret of teaching: What happens with this rigid but open schedule is that I can make my plans on a different time scale than most people. Lots of people spend time planning what they will be doing next week or next month at the most. Since my schedule is basically set for the next 9 or 12 months, I have the luxury of being able to plan extremely long term. Currently, I am working on plans for Spring Break, Christmas Vacation, Thanksgiving Vacation, and also contemplating next summer. For example, I already know I will not be able to go to the next Emily's Toybox concert in Brunswick as it happens the first Monday in December. Thats about a week before my semester ends. Because they always play Brunswick on Mondays it is going to be a fluke if I can ever catch them again in Brunswick, as their trips don't usually line up with any of the major academic breaks. I know I will be trying to get back down to middle Georgia soon, but December appears to be the best time. I suspect my parents will disown me if I skip out on Thanksgiving this year since I am so close I can actually participate. So that means it looks like Spring Break of next year before I could seriously mount a trip to see ETB again. Perhaps heading north to PA to see them on their home turf. And since my brother is currently living just outside DC, I could combine the trip and see my brother, sister in law, and the nephews. Labor Day weekend, the end of this month, will give me a Monday off, but I will again be heading back to Atlanta for Dragon Con, like last year. A couple of days ago, Krystal finally announced the Krystal Square Off Qualifying Tour Dates. I haven't quite figured out which city would be the closest to me. I think heading back to Perry would be good so I could squeeze in a short return to Macon and see friends there. I am just not sure if the drive is worth it, keeping in mind I have to drive through South Carolina (See previous post). I also hope to make it to the Square Off Finals in Chattanooga again this year. That date hasn't been announced yet, so I am just keeping my fingers crossed. And that is going to be a LONG drive. So as you can see, my schedule looks awesome on the micro-scale. On the macro-scale it's a mess. And before you start in on me about "only having to work 30 hours a week" let me go ahead and let you know that pretty much every teach on Earth puts in way over 40 hours a week once you include grading papers and tests and prepping for classes. Even so, I am so excited about my new job. I wish I had a tail so I could wag it. instead I am going to go run up and down the hallway and bark at the TV.  |
Labels: Macon
