Many of you know that for the last four years I’ve taught a variety of introduction to political science courses, part-time, at the local university. In fact, I was actually fortunate enough to create my own course and teach it for the first time last spring and the word that I’ve heard is that it went over really well with the end-of-the-semester student reviews. That’s good news because it helps elevate me in the lineup of potential instructors for political science courses.
This fall (and for the first time since I’ve been teaching) I was scheduled to teach Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for about an hour and fifteen minutes each night. Typically, I teach only Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday so this arrangement was new for me and definitely more of a challenge. However, at the last minute (late last week) my classes were rearranged and it turns out that instead of teaching each night of the week I’ll probably only wind up teaching on Tuesday and Friday mornings. This, of course, is a big change for me.
In order for me to be even able to teach the morning class I had to get approval from my job (which both my direct supervisor and the President of the company approved enthusiastically – they love that I teach). So once that was taken care of, I had to think about my schedule for the coming semester and I think that this could work out very well. You see, to date the university has only canceled my Monday / Wednesday class which means that there’s still a chance that I’ll be teaching on Tuesday / Thursday nights. I’m fine with that since the Tuesday / Thursday night class starts at 6:00pm and I’ll be home by 7:45pm each night (if not slightly earlier). That’s fine with me! Plus, I was thinking that what I might do is schedule myself to have meetings with clients for my day job on Tuesdays in the late morning and early afternoon. That way I can avoid traveling from West Long Branch to Trenton and then back to West Long Branch at night, you know? At least if I have meetings during the day, I can schedule them within a reasonable distance of Monmouth County and not drive myself crazy driving all over God’s Creation.
Anyway, that’s what the face-to-face teaching schedule is looking like for the coming semester. In addition to that, I might be teaching another few sections of online courses for the state’s online college. One way or another, I’ll certainly be pretty busy in the coming months…
You will be busy, but all good times ahead it looks like. All the best and enjoy!
Welcome to the real world.
I teach full-time, non-tenured, and they just increased me from 10 hours to 15 hours with classes starting next week. Then they went and wanted me to get another professor to work part of my classes. They continually screw us on class times, and completely ignore that people may actually need more than five business days to get childcare or parent care etc.
You are very lucky if this is the first time your schedule has changed. But be advised, if you go to teaching full-time, it won’t be any better in terms of scheduling.
Thanks for the note, rh. That’s terrible what you’re having to deal with at your institution.
I have to admit, though, I can’t imagine that teaching full-time is an option for me in the immediate or short-term future. Quite frankly, working at the nonprofit loan fund provides a better salary than what working as a full-time college instructor pays around here!
I’m actually involved in a conversation right now about the college moving the location of one of my classes into a DORM! Look, I attend this college as an undergraduate and I know those dorm buildings pretty, uhhh, intimately. Teaching in one of the basements of the dorms is NOT a good idea…