Don’t I have to teach, too?
Published on Apr 19, 2007 at 4:19 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under college teaching.
If only I didn’t have to teach classes, I’d have time for all of the end of semester reports, detailed budget requests for next year, textbook adoption forms (due now, though the bookstore won’t order books until August), end of academic year evaluations, performance self reviews, etc. that we are expected to turn in in the next two weeks.
Don’t administrators realize that the last three weeks of the semester are a nightmare? Students are panicked with the end of the semester. Every day, I get several phone calls, emails, and visits from students wanting to know their grades. They want to know if they can turn in work from back in January and February that they now realize they’ll need to pass the class. Can they do a paper? How about if they write a major research paper and turn it in two days from now? Yeah. Like they are THAT much better than I am at writing papers of that level.
Others really want to learn, and they are getting antsy about the end of the semester. They have worked hard, and they want to do well in this final push. They have real questions. They are working hard to get the material. I have a steady stream of them coming in and out of my office this time of the year.
Oh, but I can’t take time to help my students. I have to fill out paperwork. Instead of answering questions, I am writing a stupid insightful report about how my course fits with institutional objectives and the college’s mission statement. Yeah, right. Like anyone cares. I have to turn in a performance review stating how well my course projected outcomes for last fall, this spring, and this coming summer have been met. Yes, you read that right. I have to say how well my students did this semester, before the semester is even over! Further, the report is due tomorrow, and it covers the classes that I am scheduled to teach this coming summer! What, am I a prophet now? Can I see the future? Oh, yeah, 85% of my students will pass this summer. Sure. Oh, and there is the project of rewriting the course pedagogies, outcomes objectives, and goals using a hierarchical system based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Gah. Someone will check to make sure that the top level things have top level verbs, the mid level things have mid level verbs, and the lower things have lower level verbs. These people will not understand a single other work, of course. The document will be stamped, and then filed someplace and no one will ever see it again.
Yeah, so I am doing all of this time wasting highly important stuff instead of teaching my students. I am so glad that the administrators have their priorities straight.
-Astroprof
Byrd on April 19, 2007 at 5:06 pm: 1
Ouch! Do you feel better now that you have that out of your system?