You do not have to visit me in person…An email will suffice!

Yesterday I had a student visit me during my office hours to tell me she was sick. She informed me that she wouldn’t be able to perform her presentation because she had a staph infection and strep throat. She then preceeded to have a coughing fit. I told her that she could have just sent me an email and didn’t have to stop by.

I was freaking out inside and cringing into a ball. Why?

Earlier in the day she had called to say that she was sick and to ask if she could email me her work. I told her that was fine. (She didn’t drop off any work either so the visit was not necessary.) During her office visit she also told me that her roommate, who also happens to be in my class, has the same symptoms. I said okay, you guys can perform your presentations when you are feeling better.

Guess what?

An hour later, they both come back and the roommate was sicker than the first and it shows. They both started to cough and I felt like I was going to pass out. I am not a germaphobe but I do not want a staph infection or strep throat and certainly not both of them at the same time…

Whew!

Research Projects Update/Oh Yeah, My

My research projects are going well. I am making progress and gathering data for one project and working on the literature review for another. Last Friday my college had a meeting for those interested in publishing. Out of six people that showed up, five were from my division. That is a very good sign for me. It means that I can bounce ideas off of people  in my department and have support for my work even if it’s  just encouragement. The outcome of the meeting was the idea of a monthly meeting to share our progress with others that will essentially serve as a tool to keep us motivated.

Oh yeah: My wife found a job! She started as a math teacher for a middle school, one mile from our house, last Thursday. She is an accountant by trade and has worked in university and private positions for the past 5 years. However, when we moved here she decided she had enough of the field and said she wanted to work as a teacher. Well, she got her wish.

“This Class is Straight” and the Tax Minefield

Last Thursday, I had a student at the end of class say, “This class is straight. I didn’t know that it would be like this.” On Monday, another student told me that she really likes the class.  I’ll take these compliments when I receive them. Often I can’t tell what the students are thinking when I am lecturing or assigning group work so it is always nice when they go out of their way to make positive comments. Classes are going rather smoothly this week and I have made significant progress on an academic article I have been working on.

On another note, our health and dental cards arrived in the mail yesterday so I will be setting up an appointment to go to the dentist soon. I am not pleased with how much the insurance costs, but it has to be done. On another financial note, I was born in Florida where there is no state tax. Well, Georgia is not as nice. There is a state tax here and they take out about five to six percent of your paycheck. I know some people who read this are probably saying join the party, however I am not used to having that much removed from my pay. They also subtract a mandatory five percent for retirement. Once you subtract what the federal government takes  and add all of the deductions, I lose almost a third of my pay for the month.

Is this class on Mondays?

I had a student come up to me after class today and ask, “Is this class on Mondays? I swear when I signed up for the class it said that we only meet on Wednesdays. I’m glad this Monday was a holiday, but I promise I’ll be here from now on.”

Uh, Okay!

Right after that as I was walking accross campus to go to my office I crossed paths with another student, who I didn’t recognize. I guess he must have felt a twinge of guilt as he hastily threw out an excuse about missing class and asked what did he miss. If he had said nothing, I would have never have known (except for my attendance sheet).

When I was an undergraduate and even sometimes as a graduate student I always thought that the professors who acted like they didn’t know you when you spoke to them were rude. Although some really were rude and haughty, I am beginning to understand why some acted the way they did. I will get to know a lot of the students, but there are too many to know them all. I also have to be really careful when teaching on Monday and Wednesdays because I teach three classes back to back and everything begins to blend.

Didn’t Want to, But I had to…

Yesterday, after five years of teaching college students, I had to kick students out of class for the first time. I had been warned about students using cell phones, mp3’s, video games, etc., however I never thought it would be an issue. In five of my classes its no concern. But the sixth class is off the radar (I teach three classes a day/Monday-Thursday).  Two students were playing a video game or something on a cell phone and brazenly passing it between each other while they were supposed to be doing a group exercise.  I had no other choice or risk anarchy (at least with this group). One of the students I dismissed from class made the comment “Well I’ll just go back to my nap.” He muttered a few other comments under his breath and just as he realized that he really had to go he asked if I had that policy in the syllabus. I responded in the affirmative and he picked up his books and left.

I don’t like babysitting, so this is a negative. However, I did have one student from an earlier class state that she really enjoyed some of the in-class assignments I have them do (That’s always nice)…. 

End of the week

The week was a blur. I have never taught so many classes in so few days. During the week I would see some of the students from my classes and would not know which class they were taking from me. I hope this will change, but unless they are absolute stand outs it probably won’t. I’ve learned very quickly that I have to be very organized if I want to stay ahead here.

On a brighter note, I received a new computer this morning. They upgraded the size of my monitor too, from a 15 inch flat screen to a 19 inch with a much sleeker design. I was fine with the old one but I am not going to say anything.

Overall, I can say that I am really sastisfied with how things turned out. As with all things, nothing is perfect, but understanding the academic market, I know that just finding a position is a blessing. This is more than just a position so I am happy….

First two days of classes

I’m getting settled into my teaching routine. As expected, the earlier in the day that I teach, the more serious the students. Each class has it’s own personality and I’m not quite sure how I feel about these “personalities” yet. I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed the first day. Teaching six classes in a semester is an extremely heavy teaching load. I have streamlined the classes as much as possible so I don’t burnout and the students can still have a quality semester.

I am teaching introductory courses with the promise of being able to develop more challenging courses in the future. Hopefully, this will pan out. 

However, I have decided that I will not let the load interfere with my academic and public goals. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a lot of time between the classes I teach so I will use that time for academic writing, research and public writing.  On Monday and Wednesday I have less time between each class, but my day ends at 1 pm even though an academic’s day is never really officially over. I have set up plans, objectives and goals with daily checklists so I can stay on task each day. I can see that if I don’t do this everyday, I can quickly get in a rut of doing nothing and can blame it on the teaching load.

Oh and by the way, on Tuesday a college that I interviewed with (in the city I was living in) earlier in the summer called and offered me a job. They must be kidding…..I turned them down. It’s been over two months since I interviewed with them and no word. I can only assume that they are really backwards or that another choice backed out at the last minute.

One last comment: On the first two days of classes I had students introduce each other and one of the tasks was to tell the class something interesting about the person they were introducing. Many of the comments were statements such as; she likes to talk on the phone, he or she likes to shop and tons of statements such as he plays football or basketball. Many of the classes that I am teaching at this college require heavy participation so I can see that I have a lot of work to do.

Academic Advising Day/First Day of Classes Tomorrow

Today was the last formal day of academic advising for the college. Luckily the college has been advising and registering students all summer for the fall semester so I didn’t have much business. I only dealt with two students, although I spent about an hour and a half with one student.  I was assigned people whose last name began with C  for our division.

Tomorrow I will teach my first classes at SCG. I have everything prepared and I am ready to go. It’s weird but I have been teaching for over four years now (in my graduate program and now at the college) and no longer have any nervous emotion before I teach. When I was in the 7th grade I wrote an essay that ‘won’ me a spot as a speaker in a program before my middle school. I blacked out in spots, stuttered and tanked in front of an assembly of 500 students. Now I stand before groups and teach for a living…..

Syllabi Production

I spent 8 hours today putting together syllabi for two classes. The college and department has a lot of rules to follow in this area. Tomorrow I will proof them for the final time.

Boring stuff…..

Good News on Two Fronts

While reviewing my contract today I realized that I will be receiving my full salary for the month even though I will not start until the middle of August. I called the college just to make sure and they confirmed it.

This is great because now we can get off to a running start instead of a slow crawl…

The college also confirmed that they received my signed contract so now all I have to do is show up at the faculty orientation next week.

On the Jiu-jitsu side of things; I took all of my paperwork for starting the club up to the recreation center. They are pretty thorough. They notarized my application for a background check, went over the list of obligations for an instructor and I talked about a number of issues with the coordinator and her assistant about what I would be teaching. Although I have to pay a deposit for the building fee of $25, I don’t have to pay the building rental fee until the 10th of September. This will give me a chance to collect fees so I don’t have to pay out of pocket.

The people at the center are very helpful and listed a number of ways they could help by doing things like posting my fliers, creating a PSA to send through email, contacting friends they have in the police department to ask about self-defense potential (I don’t know if I want to go that far), etc. The coordinator stated that a lot of people have been calling and asking for Jiu jitsu. That’s good news, but I may have just created a monster.

I scheduled the classes for Mondays and Thursdays from 6:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M., starting on the 3rd of September.