Saturday, October 26, 2013

It's still going...

But how is it going? Why, thank you for asking, dear Internet.

The term is advancing. I'm over the half way hump and staring down the end, although I still have quite a few weeks to go.  I'm tired, yes. I work a lot of hours, but I also seem to have developed a bit of an insomnia thing. I wake up about an hour after going to bed, and work starts circling through my head, so I toss and turn all night. That certainly doesn't help me be more productive...

I have to take a day off per week. I have to, because this city is so shitty that if I try to entertain myself for a day, I get bored, and then I'm ready to go back to work. That makes me more productive. It's hard to remember that though, when I have SO much work to do.

I'm plugging away at my weekly courses and trying to build courses for next semester, all while also building application packages for better jobs. Research? What research? Who has time for that?

My courses are going well. I'm pretty confident I'll get pretty good evaluations for a first year. Not perfect. I've had a few bad classes where I kind of dropped the ball. That is due to 1) insomnia and fatigue, 2) focusing too much on building my courses for next semester, so not preparing as much as I should for this semester. Yeah, gotta remember to focus on now, especially since THIS semester's evaluations are what will count for getting next year's job.

Do I love what I'm doing?

Well. There are aspects I like. I do like the students and the teaching. I have interesting material to teach (most days) and I like that I have the freedom to do it as I want to.

On the down side, it's way freaking too much work. I would like to have a job that I don't have to take home with me every single night and weekend. I would like to be able to just turn it off. But, that's not academia, apparently.  I do sometimes question my commitment. I really don't want to work THIS hard. Eventually it's supposed to get easier though, or so they say.

So, yeah. Nothing new to report. I'm just reporting on it anyway, for reference sake when I'm trying to figure out what's next.

G'nite, dear internet.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Here we go again...

Is it really time for this already?  I'm just a matter of weeks into the school year and I'm already preparing job applications for other cities.

Remember how disappointed I was that this was the job I ended up with? And that I was going to have to start looking again soon, since it was a contract position?  Well, soon is now.

So, as I figure out what I'm doing in round 2, I need to round up some of what I learned from last round of job applications and from my short couple of months in this position.
  • Don't expect to hear from the bigwig universities.
  • Do expect to possibly hear from some of the smaller ones or ones that feel like a really good fit.
  • Don't bother applying to jobs that I have to twist my resume to sort of fit.
  • If I get to the interview stage, ASK what the teaching load is. This is very important. If the quantity is too high, then their concern with quality is low. And I will suffer.
  • Don't panic if I don't get something right away. Contract positions do pop up quite late in the game. 
I dunno. That's not much. But I do feel like I have a better idea of what I'm looking for this year. I also know that my candidacy is stronger this year -- not night and day stronger, but stronger.

To be honest, I don't have time for this. Preparing academic job applications is a full time job. But I have to do it. Am I too naive to hope that my next position will be THE position? The one I'll stay at? The city I'll make my life in? Naive perhaps, but I have to hope. Hope is what's driving me forward.


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Student Evaluations

Ghad, student evaluations suck. It's too early for formal evaluations. But by the time formal evaluations roll around, it's too late. So I did an early informal one myself.  Most of the responses are very positive -- not perfect, but certainly more than positive enough for me to keep my job.

Then there's that other one.

One student: crash. and. freaking. burn.

So, I've got one unidentified student sitting there in my (small) class hating every moment of it and hating ME. Yes, there were enough questions on there about the personal characteristics of the professor that the person actually does hate ME.

How do I go back in there and keep up my upbeat attitude?

This was supposed to be a little activity to reassure me that all was well. Yeah, of course I knew there could be problems, but I didn't expect an evaluation THAT bad. Seriously, folks, it's ALL bad and nothing but bad.

It's just one student. It's not a big deal. The majority was extremely positive. It's just one student. It's just one student. It's just one student.

But it feels like shit.

Cruising speed...

Or at least approaching cruising speed.  I'm a few weeks int. Things are going relatively well I, think.

-written Sept 24, published later