Mar 31, 2015
-gurgles and beeps
seen from Australia
seen from Luxembourg
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Germany
-gurgles and beeps
Plan
Work on online midterms until computer battery dies. Starting... now. (It says I have 5:17 in battery life. I'd better run Spotify to make this reasonable).
The total paralysis of too much to do
I missed work time this week on at least two days because of the sprained shoulder/arm situation, which has meant my weekend should be filled with "make up" hours. Instead, I'm staring at this list of things to do, and I'm a little bit dazed and daunted. It just doesn't seem possible, suddenly. To do:
+ Finish grading papers I've been carrying around for a week and a half. Of 40, total, I have 12 to go, but then I need to review them all to make sure the grades are consistent, and upload those grades. Update Sunday: These are mostly done but took even longer than anticipated because of a charming rash of plagiarism.
+ Comment on drafts (~40) of a new paper from that same class. These I received Thursday and they need to be returned on Tuesday.
+ Grade 15 new papers (3-4 pages each) from a technical communication class.
+ Grade midterms for my online class. I've done about 4. They're taking me forever; they're based on another's teacher's model, and I should have realized (but didn't) that they would be a disaster to read and assess. Bonus: once I've read and graded them, the students all get a chance to turn them BACK in for a new grade. Update Sunday: These are worse than I thought, weighing in at between 5-8 single-spaced pages per paper and varying widely in quality. I have 12 left as of 1:30.
+ Read and grade two weeks' worth of online reading responses (~120 individual entries).
+ Reply to panicked e-mails from students who have a new paper due on Monday.
I'm just lost here. I'm trying to work my way through, but even a few hours of progress seems to make so little difference at this point. It doesn't help that sitting for any extended period drives my arm, shoulder, and chest back into "hey, we're gonna spasm now, is that cool?" territory.
NOT COOL.
So, OK, back to work.
Sick Day
So on Saturday, something horrible happened to my shoulder. I can point to no cause, but by Saturday night, sleep was impossible. Sunday, I had my first ever Urgent Care adventure, where they were equally baffled. The pain has been up and down since then, and it's of the variety that hates the following things:
Carrying a backpack
Typing
Holding a book
Erasing a white board
Lying down
Coughing, hiccuping
Driving
I had two classes to teach on Monday at Commuter-Rural CC. One of these classes has already been canceled once this term because my substitute during my conference absence caught the flu. One of them only meets once a week.
CRCC provides no sick days, and to cancel a class, you have to call (at last count) four different people directly, including the office of the dean and the department director. With every mounting obstacle to canceling, my will to do so grew much smaller, so I drove off and taught both classes. Did I teach them particularly well? Not 100 percent, but I was present to answer questions and lead some minor discussion points, though I was shorter than I probably should have been on a few points.
The upshot of that adventure, however, was that last night had hours of sleeplessness and pain, making teaching today, at Local CC, nearly impossible. Luckily, Local CC (and bless its unionization) does offer sick days (and the health care that made the Urgent Care trip possible); you call one person when you're sick; and my students there are organized enough to take messages online and complete assignments without an in-person meeting.
So, today, I have a sick day. I've been using it, of course, to work, though at a slightly slower-than-usual pace. I'm staying away from major pain killers because of the fog they threaten (I'll need to make that same 45-minute drive tomorrow), but I'm able to take it a little easier.
But how do I figure in this time for my 40-hour-a-week plan?
Like this: I took four hours off this morning to sleep, eat soup, and not worry. I'll make them up on Saturday or Sunday, maybe even some of them tomorrow evening, and have an account of things done (and not done) by Saturday.
Week 5 Status: Falling Off the Wagon from 30,000 feet
This week I went to a conference. This is a rare and delightful treat for a part-time adjunct such as myself, made more rare and delightful by the fact that I didn't have to apply for any professional development funds to go. They needed teachers to attend a meeting on the East Coast, and so my office mate and I and three other full-time folks (one of whom is my boss) flew out for three nights and four days.
This has thrown my 8-5 plan into absolute chaos. I thought, Well! I'll have time during conference breaks and in the evenings to do class work! Uh, surprise, no. Post-conference, there was dinner with the gang. During the conference, there was only time to digest what was being said. In the few hours I did have in the evenings, the time difference made concentration very difficult -- I was jet lagged the whole time -- and what little time I did have, I used for absolutely-must-be-done tasks like communicating with my substitutes and posting a lesson online for the class I had to cancel.
I came back Wednesday afternoon and taught a full day Thursday, which was, in some ways, surprisingly not a disaster even though most of the students had done only about 50 percent of the work they should have during my absence. I expect Monday, when I see my other classes -- who had only half the class time they should have, as my substitute got sick! -- to be a huge, horrifying day of catch up and failure.
All of this is by way of saying: I'm going to have to do some classwork this weekend. I don't know whether to count it as work above my 40 hours or not, but it likely needs to happen. And that's OK, because two of those days earlier this week felt just like vacation.
Week 4: Status Report
I kept to the ~40 hour pledge1 this week, though it was a struggle (see Mid-Term Cheating for details). Here's what I did, mostly in terms of papers:
Monday: Hours Worked: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.1
Finished grading and recording all of the first assignments for Technical Communications Class.
Picked up 13 new essays from Comp I class and 15 new papers from Tech. Comm. class.
Improvised wildly when computer failed in Comp.
Showed video in Tech. Comm. which ended up making several students cry. I'm counting this as an effective ethics lesson.
Tuesday: Hours Worked: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 5-5:30 p.m.
Picked up 15 new quizzes from developmental reading class.
Taught three lessons I've never taught before.
Met with Le Dean about upcoming conference.
Managed to lock myself out of my house for about 20-30 minutes at the end of the day, when I had come home to scan readings to upload (because neither of the places I work has a scanner available within the department. Drives me nuts). So today was closer to an 8-5:30 day as I tried to make up that time while cursing at the scanner.
Wednesday: Hours Worked: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Drove :15 one way for a :20 meeting with other instructors (soooo frustrating) and lost about an hour of productive time.
Finished grading all developmental writing first papers and updated grades online.
Finished grading all reading quizzes and updated grades online.
Wrote first set of sub plans for next week.
Thursday: Hours Worked: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Returned reading quizzes and collected ~40 more! (We take two on Thursdays, and I had a ton of make-up quizzes come in).
Returned developmental writing pieces and collected ~30 reading questions.
Collected ~40 homework quizzes.
Wrote second set of sub plans; made all necessary copies for next week's classes.
Submitted winter book orders.
Friday: Hours Worked: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Graded and recorded all homework quizzes, all reading quizzes, all vocal quizzes, all extra credit assignments, and half of the Comp I essays.
Re-wrote sub plans because Plan A (video) fell through.
Wrote midterm exam for reading class and sent it to printing services.
Wrote second midterm exam, then answered all questions on second midterm exam, and posted both to online class site.
Organized and opened Week 5 midterm and readings for online class.
Began writing online lesson for the class that won't have a sub next week and, therefore, will have to get all of their class info via our online class site.
Somewhere in there, I also made pumpkin bread.
The good of this week is that I have precious few papers left in my pile: 8 essays from Comp and about 15 3-page assignments from Technical Communication. If this were a normal week, I would absolutely be able to get those done on Monday morning and turn them around by Monday afternoon for students, which would keep me within my promised one-week-turnaround for all grading.
However, since I leave tomorrow for this conference, I don't have a physical way to return the papers. I'm looking into ways to turn my smartphone into a scanner for the trip so that I can send feedback that way; we'll see if it works. Next week will bring its own challenges, since most of my classes will be either turning in work online while I'm gone or preparing for exams without me. I expect the e-mail load to be very, very heavy for a while, and the next two weeks will be serious grading loads.
I keep thinking, "Well, I'll just have a grading weekend!" and then… I think, no. We'll see how long that lasts.
1It's always going to be more like 45, because on Mondays I teach from 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and then commute home. If I discover some secret efficiency later in the term, I'll wake up later to compensate. Heh.
What 5 o'clock Can Be Like
Today, I finished writing feedback on my first batch of first drafts from first-level college students. When those pieces are good, man, they are good (and the same is true of the converse).
I also taught a class, conferenced with a student, and got a head start on grading my first set of technical writing assignments. So the stack of a few days ago is now down to 12 papers to grade by Monday, though I will collect about 40 additional papers tomorrow (and 40 new quizzes).
But it's 5 o'clock and my e-mail is closed, my bag is packed, and I'm not worrying about any of this until tomorrow. That's a wonderful feeling.
Today's Tasks (a sample)
By tonight:
Prepare for first round of peer editing in Composition class (relying on printing services to have delivered my handouts)
Prepare for second round of peer editing in Technical Writing class and explain third assignment, plus prep lecture on grammar (semicolons, I think) (further reliance on printing services)
Class from 3:30-4:50, 6-9. Office Hours: 5-6. Commute :45 before and after.
By Tomorrow:
Read and comment on 22 first drafts of first Developmental Writing paragraph
Review 30 pages of reading for tomorrow's Developmental Reading class and prepare discussion
Tomorrow's classes: 8:30-9:50, 10-11:50, 2-3:50. Office hours: 12:30-2.
Monday and Tuesday are the long days.