False alarm
The fall teaching schedules went out today (yes, for the semester that begins in three weeks), and I found out that I won't be teaching in the freshman seminar program. My boss told the department chair, who specifically recommended me, that he thought that me teaching was a great idea, but apparently that didn't translate into me being assigned any sections of the course. I'm not surprised--I've been saying all along that I didn't expect them to say yes--but it seems that I was looking forward to it a lot more than I'd realized.
The good thing, I guess, is that I'm still going to be part of it--I'm part of the trio that's been developing the curriculum, and I'm a guest lecturer during the research skills segment of the course. I'll also probably be doing some of the technology-related sessions as well, since the faculty member who was assigned to teach "my" sections is a technophobe and has already requested backup.
The timing of the announcement was a bit ironic, coming a day after a mini-epiphany that despite my lack of stage presence and tendency to get flustered and ramble, I really do like teaching. I've been doing some faculty technology training for the last two weeks, and even on the days when the sessions didn't go particularly well, I had a real sense of accomplishment that, frankly, I haven't felt much of during this long, boring summer semester. I'll still have opportunities to teach information literacy skills in other people's classes, but I was kind of looking forward to having a regularly-scheduled infusion of good feelings.
I also found out today that, due to a classroom shortage, four sections of a two-day a week math course are apparently meeting in the "annex" area of the library, which, conveniently, is where the bulk of the public computers, as well as the library's only copier/printer, are located. If nothing else, the logistics will keep me too busy to do anything crazy like teach (copier/printer wrangler being my unofficial job title). I'd just prefer to be busy with something that's not so closely akin to Chinese water torture.
The good thing, I guess, is that I'm still going to be part of it--I'm part of the trio that's been developing the curriculum, and I'm a guest lecturer during the research skills segment of the course. I'll also probably be doing some of the technology-related sessions as well, since the faculty member who was assigned to teach "my" sections is a technophobe and has already requested backup.
The timing of the announcement was a bit ironic, coming a day after a mini-epiphany that despite my lack of stage presence and tendency to get flustered and ramble, I really do like teaching. I've been doing some faculty technology training for the last two weeks, and even on the days when the sessions didn't go particularly well, I had a real sense of accomplishment that, frankly, I haven't felt much of during this long, boring summer semester. I'll still have opportunities to teach information literacy skills in other people's classes, but I was kind of looking forward to having a regularly-scheduled infusion of good feelings.
I also found out today that, due to a classroom shortage, four sections of a two-day a week math course are apparently meeting in the "annex" area of the library, which, conveniently, is where the bulk of the public computers, as well as the library's only copier/printer, are located. If nothing else, the logistics will keep me too busy to do anything crazy like teach (copier/printer wrangler being my unofficial job title). I'd just prefer to be busy with something that's not so closely akin to Chinese water torture.
posted by Madame Defarge at 4:53 PM
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