End of the Summer Term
Published on Aug 18, 2007 at 2:31 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under college teaching.
Well, I tried to post this yesterday, but I lost my internet connection just as I was about to post it!
The summer term ended for us yesterday. I gave the final exams on Thursday, and grades were due Friday. I had two finals that I gave back-to-back on Thursday night. Grades were due to the registrar my midday on Friday. Yeah. The people who made that schedule obviously don’t teach. So, it was a late night.
Oh, and speaking of those who make schedules not teaching, … they decided to renovate the classrooms. Some of them needed work, for sure. But, they tore out all of the tables and chairs. They put in new tables with power connections for students to plug in computers, recorders, and so forth. Great idea. But, when do they schedule this? You guessed it. Thursday. Yep. The day of the final exams. We were scrambling to find places to hold the final while they tore out the furnishings in the classrooms. And, of course, all the noise was disturbing to students taking exams in neighboring rooms. They just didn’t think this through!
So, this week, I was frantic finishing up the summer term of classes. But, that’s not all. The end of academic year reports are due. Also, the next year’s flex plan enrollment is to be done this week (I did it Friday after grades were due). So, you see that I was busy. That’s why there has been little posting this week. Now, I’ll try to get back to it.
Classes for the Fall resume in about a week. In the mean time, we have a whole week of long, boring, pointless, stupid, and time wasting stimulating faculty meetings. Every day. For a week. I have just gotten my grades turned in for the summer, and now I need to prepare for three classes that I am teaching in the fall semester starting in just over a week. And, I have to spend an entire week in meetings. Yeah.
Oh, and there is more. A whole mess has come up with textbooks for the fall. More on that in my next posting. I really like teaching. However, often it seems that I spend more of my time as a professor doing paperwork and administrating than I do teaching. And, I don’t like that. I wish that I could be left alone just to teach and research.
-Astroprof
Jessica on August 18, 2007 at 5:00 pm: 1
See, that’s exactly why I think being a teacher would kill me. I would love to teach, but between the bureaucracy and the extreme apathy of most students, my idealistic self would be burnt out very quickly.
Ed Minchau on August 18, 2007 at 11:19 pm: 2
“I wish that I could be left alone just to teach and research.”
And of course to write the astronomy textbook based on several dozen of the essays from this blog…
Seeking Solace on August 19, 2007 at 10:03 am: 3
Your last statement speaks volumes!!!!
Hope the fall semester goes better!