Blogging is Tough When You're Drowning in Work (and GoT)!

I am so sorry that my blogging has taken a backseat these past couple weeks! There are so many stories to tell, but no time to tell them... I am usually waking up between 6 & 6:30, in the office by 7:15, and working until around 5 every weekday, except Tuesdays, when I work until 9pm, then I'm usually in bed by 7:30 and either looking at a magazine (because that's all the mental capacity I have left) or playing candy crush saga (my sanity-saving tool, lately) for about an hour before I fall into a deep slumber.

On the weekends, I am awake by 8am, play candy crush saga for about an hour before I spend 8-10 hours grading and planning at home. My life would seem so boring, if it weren't for the fact that, as an educator, NOTHING is EVER boring!! Which is why I chose this field :)

In the past week, I have had one older student (50s, maybe?) file a grievance against me for PUSHING THE MUTE BUTTON on her laptop, that she brought to OUR COMPUTER LAB CLASS and then turned on and couldn't stop the sound from echoing throughout the classroom... can you tell I am thrilled about that situation?? It got resolved, she dropped the course (PTL), and then came to my office a few days ago to apologize -- so THAT was nice!

I have also had to kick 17 of 20 students out of my 8am class for not bringing in their homework FOR THE 3RD TIME THIS TERM (and it had only been in session for a month at the time!), which created both the dramatic effect I needed to make them realize I was serious, and a complaint to both the Division Chair (my boss) and the Dean (his boss) by my "old man" student (self-proclaimed, mid-50s). Later that week (last Thursday), when we were drafting our first essays & they were supposed to bring in Introductions to revise, this same student brought in an Intro that DID NOT FOLLOW THE PROMPT (Narrative Essays can be Autobiographies, yes, but not when the prompt specifically states to choose 1 moment in your life to narrate, and not after we've spent three weeks talking about that one moment. Needless to say, my "old man" student had a fit. He threw a tantrum in the classroom, then left the classroom and threw a tantrum in the tutoring center (where they told him the same thing I told him), then he threw a tantrum in my colleague's office (overheard by several adjoining colleagues' offices, including my Department Chair) -- where he heard THE EXACT SAME THING I told him!

But something magical happened, and he submitted an amazing essay 6 days later - after dozens of hours of blood, sweat and tears. I will say this: he is determined to survive! And then I learned that this was the VERY first essay he'd ever written in his life, and I nearly cried from both joy & sorrow.

And yesterday, I got the ball rolling on possibly getting 2 of my early college students (high school students in my college course) suspended from their high school for extreme disrespect of me, other students and the classroom environment, in general. Meeting with them & the principal on Monday morning... awesome.

So. Needless to say, I am making a name for myself?? The best part is, while I have been terrified of losing my job before I can build my career for the past 2 weeks, my boss ('s boss)('s boss) have all been noticing the manner in which I have handled these tough situations, and the criticisms of students, and they have said, 1) they aren't in the business of hiring someone, just to spend the first year trying to find ways to fire them (WHEW!), and 2) they are impressed.

What a great feeling!

In addition, this week has been a roller coaster - I mean, QUITE bipolar - and in the midst of the abovementioned chaos, I have also:

1. Been invited to join a Leadership Institute - a grant-funded training program in Community College Leadership that requires an application process, but I received a specific invitation without applying due to an anonymous referral. Crazy!
2. Been asked to be part of a textbook adoption committee (which led to apparently organizing everything about it, haha) to find an appropriate text for this new state-mandated change in Developmental English programs (something about which I had never heard until August) called the DREs.
3. Been asked to represent the college, along with my mentor and another colleague at a statewide convention-type training seminar in Greensboro in 2 weeks to bring info back to the college and share with the rest of the department. Hotel & travel expenses are paid :), and 
4. Been told by my department chair that he "thinks I have potential for leadership here at the college", what!?

And in the midst of ALL of THAT, I still managed to do my actual job of teaching 120 students in 7 sections, and plan for an 8th section that starts mid-October. 

Two days ago, I had to send out over 10 emails to Distance Learning students who have been missing from class the past 2 weeks. If I don't hear from them by noon today, they get dropped from the course, per college policy... more paperwork for me, yay!

I have also marked over 500 assignments + 25 exams in the past week. And helped 2 students in my night class survive breakdowns over the stress of writing a research report. LITERAL BREAKDOWNS. Tears, shaking, running from the room to get air... 

it's been a wild ride so far, and I am loving every minute of it...

and in the midst of ALL of THAT, I got addicted to Game of Thrones. So, you see? Blogging just HAD to take a backseat for a minute, but hopefully, this novel will suffice :)

xoxo

My very first self-promoted course!

Below is an email that I sent out last Friday to the Students and Faculty at my college. I literally JUST realized that, somewhere in my drafting, I managed to remove the course prefix, # and section #... oops. But, regardless, I'd love your feedback! Here's what I sent: 

Hello everyone!

I am very excited to be teaching the new Mini-Mester course, "HUM XXX: "American Women's Studies", beginning on 15 October 2013. 

If you are a woman... OR if you know a woman, then this course is the place to be!

This won't be your "typical" college course where we read and learn about things that have already happened - things over which we may have no influence. We will be discussing topics that are relevant in today's society, political and cultural movements in recent years, and why Women's issues are no longer limited to empowering women, but are also about teaching and empowering men to fight for women's rights. We won't be sitting around complaining. We won't be casting blame. We will be looking for ways that each of us might become productive members of American Society in 2013.

• Did you know that, 50 years after John F. Kennedy passed the "Equal Pay Act", women are still only making 77 cents for every dollar a man makes?

• Did you know that, in Texas, in 2013, a female senator stood for 12 hours and 45 minutes in a filibuster that was witnessed live across the nation, in an effort to keep new abortion laws from being passed? And that the law was still passed a couple weeks later? Or that similar laws are being
  proposed (
  and passed) in North Carolina
  ?

• Did you know that, in colleges and universities around the nation, students and faculty are protesting against what is 
  t
   ermed "rape culture"? They are speaking out against an America where both the word "rape" and the act of rape have been silenced and, at the same time, normalized, acceptable.

It is tough to accept that these are issues that are not only unresolved, but also growing in 2013. You can stay informed (because knowledge is power),find ways to avoid participating in this epidemic (inadvertently), and gain intellectual ammunition so that you are able to join the fight against current trends in American Culture that leave women unprotected (if you choose).

Below is the catalog description: 

This course provides an inter-disciplinary study of the history, literature, and social roles of American women from Colonial times to the present. Emphasis is placed on women’s roles as reflected in American language usage, education, law, the workplace, and mainstream culture. Upon completion, students should be able to identify and analyze the roles of women as reflected in various cultural forms. This course has been approved to satisfy the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement general education core requirement in humanities/fine arts. 

HUM XXX satisfies elective courses in the following programs:

• Nursing
• Associates in Arts, Science & General Education
• Automotive Systems Technology
• Business Administration
• Computer Information Technology
• Criminal Justice Technology
• Dental Hygiene
• Early Childhood Education
• Human Services Technology
• Industrial Systems Technology
• Medical Laboratory Technology
• Medical Office Administration, and 
• Office Administration

I have also attached flyers to this email, if you'd like to print some off and share them.

Here's to changing the world, one person at a time, 

Me

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

A rare day in the life of Me:

Hoping it isn't possible to overdose by mixing health drinks! I've been drinking protein shakes for breakfast for just over a month... then about a week ago, I got back into the habit of drinking an Emergen-C packet to boost my immune system, now that I'm interacting with hundreds of people & touching way more door knobs than my OCD can handle... and today, I added .5tsp of Vitamineral Green for an added boost of energy, immunity and cleansing. I can always feel an almost immediate difference in energy when I take the Vitamineral Green, so I don't want to give it up. But I've got a mild version of "the shakes" right now, so I'm wondering if there is a connection... hmmm...

In other news: what a great weekend!

Now, bear in mind that my "great" and most people's "great" aren't exactly parallel, haha. I fueled up my car for the first time in 3 weeks! I spent 5 hours in a Starbucks people watching and class planning. Then came home, ate, and graded for another 5 hrs. I had an awesome 2.5-hr phone date with my friend in California (whom I met in Ireland); she is a High School English teacher, so we spent over half the conversation discussing pedagogical theory & practice - and I loved it!

This morning, I was wide awake at 8:30am - completely out of character for me, but this new mattress allows me to get better rest in fewer hours than I have ever gotten in my life!

I played on my phone for a half hour, looking at Groupon and catching up on the past 9hrs of Facebook (because SO much happens on FB between the hours of 11pm & 8am on a Saturday night?), before I made my way, reluctantly into the kitchen to tackle the mountain of dishes. I am sure that's hyperbolic - I just hadn't done dishes in a few days and had run out of both clean cups & clean cutlery, so it was time. Spent the past hour emailing students and organizing my emails/documents files, and it's not even 11am. Wild.

The rest of my day should look like this:

1. Review the 500+ assignments that have been posted to Blackboard in the past 10 days. 
2. Post grades on Blackboard for all assignments submitted thus far.
3. Place items on my walls that are just laying around in the few remaining half-unpacked boxes.
4. Go grocery shopping
5. Possibly go to Walmart (if not today, then tomorrow) to find window cling that I intend to place on the sliding glass doors in my bedroom as a room darkener. The curtains I've been using for the past 4 years are just a wee bit too short.
6. Research nearby hair salons - the silver is beginning to show again :)
7. Catch up on my budget.
8. Make some of that Starbucks coffee that I purchased yesterday, Kati-Kati, in my French Press.
9. Figure out how many KWH I've used so far, so that my first Electric Bill this month isn't such a shock.
10. Plan for 2 more classes.

So, what have we learned about Steph in this post?

That she finds the menial, domestic, tedious and quotidian to be blessings. Days filled with calm and dependability are rare in my life, and should NOT be taken for granted :)

My new Monday/Humpday Combo = success!

Last night:

I am SO tired... and my feet hurt... BUT...

I had a visit from the chair today; he wants to talk with my disruptive student (we had another rough class today - that makes 3 out 4 where I've left class frustrated & lost over 25% of my class time lost due to whining or "explaining" why he "can't" perform a task)... 

AND, even after my telling him about my ONE concern (that's not bad for a new job, right?), he still asked me what he came up my office to ask: if I would teach a mini-mester humanities "American Women's Studies" course beginning in October!

This morning:

The meeting between my challenging student and the chair seemed to go swimmingly! While they were talking in the chair's office, I took the opportunity to tell my remaining students (of which there are 17 students between the ages of 13 & 16!) that I had made an executive decision. I said, "Consider this your final warning. We waste way too much of our class time trying to get the room quiet. Every time you begin to chatter, I have to spend time when you should be learning English to ask you to stop talking. So. From now on, if I have to stop my instruction to ask students to be quiet, I will also, in the same breath, ask you to leave the room. No tolerance policy goes into effect now."

And the class was transformed. My older student returned to a room filled with engaged students, all working on different levels and different projects, and he had a few minutes of one-on-one time with me where he learned how to make an appointment via Gmail and is visiting my office hours on Thursday, yes! He has also asked me to write a referral for him to receive free tutoring in technology, so he isn't so frustrated during class time. WHEW!

I met my night class for the 1st time last night, too. It is my smallest class, with 11 students, all of whom work full time day jobs, so I have an even more diverse dynamic between my classrooms than before. I am so glad that I found a career that is NEVER boring and ALWAYS challenging me to improve myself, my work ethic, my instructional practices, and my students' engagement. 

UPDATE:

I just finished an extremely productive meeting with my challenging student! He heard me... REALLY heard me... and we have a plan for working together to make sure that he has a successful term in my course. I love my job :)

the end.

And so it begins... again!

I am copying a message I sent to a friend on FB, explaining how I got to enjoy my present adventure. *I have changed the names of places & people for security/privacy reasons:

3 Mondays ago (July 22) I was called in for an interview at NC* Community College. It was for an English Instructor position. I drove for 9 hrs that day because it was just over 4hrs from Columbia. The following Monday (July 29), I hadn't heard anything, so I phoned (because the original start date for this job was a week ago (Aug 1)!) They told me the job had been offered to someone else. So I got out my lists, phoned and arranged an interview for the next day, texted my family to tell them the sad news, phoned my grandpa and he was heartbroken, went downstairs to make myself a protein shake & told my roommate.

20min after the original phone call, HR phoned back saying the person who received the original offer had withdrawn his application, and asked if I would still be interested... umm... YES, PLEASE! Since the start date was supposed to be 3 days later, they extended my start date to this past Monday (Aug 5). And I went back and told everyone about the change in plans!

My niece arrived a couple hours later to help me move. We drove for 13.5hrs on Tuesday up to RR* to find a place for me to live. I FELL IN LOVE with a farm house just outside the city because I could see the horizon, but it wouldn't be available until Wed (6 Aug) at the earliest and they were still renovating the floors & counters. Wednesday, Niece & I packed up my entire house & brought all of my belongings, except what I would need for the next couple weeks, downstairs & Niece went home.

I spent Thursday sleeping in & phoning moving companies, but I decided not to go that route because my family offered to drive down to Columbia and pick up car loads of my belongings and come visit me to see my new place and get a feel for RR. (It feels almost exactly like Saskatoon, except with African Americans instead of Natives). And Thursday evening, I had a goodbye supper with some of my close friends in SC.

Friday morning, I packed up my car and drove to Charlotte to visit my family & celebrate my Grandpa's bday on Sunday before I moved. Sunday night, I stayed in a really sketchy motel and didn't sleep a wink because my entire life was packed in my car & I was terrified someone would break into it. Monday, I worked in the morning, but since I was still homeless, they let me take the rest of the day off to get settled.

The crazy part is that on my way to the sketchy motel, my GPS took me out of the way and I passed by apartments I hadn't seen before that were about 2miles from the college. I had been stressing about my budget for 3 days by then, so I figured that, since I hadn't signed a lease, I should go check them out. No one was in the office, so I ordered some rental furniture and went to check on the progress at the farm house... and what I found was DISGUSTING. The bathtub had a black crust and a thick layer of dead insects in it and there were piles of matted hair in most of the closets & medicine cabinet. I was so grossed out. So I went back to those apartments. And they were PERFECT! I was able to get the keys to a 1-bedroom newly renovated apartment for $500/mo with 1 free month's rent within 30min. The previous renter had only lived there for 3months before breaking his lease with no notice the weekend before I arrived. Talk about TIMING!?!

Then I went out and bought a new mattress set. Best Decision Ever.

On Tuesday, Niece & her boyfriend brought me a truckload of boxes, the furniture arrived, and we had supper together before they returned to Charlotte. And yesterday, my grandpa made the trip. He is very happy with my decision to choose the apartment over the farm house. There is even a little field right beside my bldg, so I still get to breathe in a tiny bit of horizon-line oxygen

I got my course schedule yesterday afternoon: Developmental English M-F 8-8:50am + MW 9-9:50am; Expository Writing TR 10-11:20am; Professional Writing Tuesdays 6-9:20pm; and 3 online courses (2 sections of Expository Writing + 1 American Lit course).

I get paid way more than I expected - they gave me credit for the past 2 yrs teaching at the U of SC!

So, as usual, God's timing is perfect. My mom reminded me that, just because I wasn't the college's 1st choice, I was GOD's 1st choice, and HE made it happen

If I hadn't planned on moving into the farmhouse, I wouldn't have gone to the motel & I wouldn't have seen these apartments. And if I had found the apartments on Tuesday when Niece & I drove up to look for places, it wouldn't have been available because the guy was still living here! AND I had been looking at rental furniture for the first month or 2 and beds were about $80, but the morning that I moved, an ad popped up on one of the furniture stores' websites offering a 5-pc bedroom set, a 7-pc living room set, and a tv, all for $140+tax!

The CC is a 2-yr college that offers both technical and pre-university programs. Its population is over 50% african-american and the poverty level is pretty high, so I feel like I can actually change the world, one person at a time, here

So far, I like everything about this experience, except a couple minor stories I'll eventually post on here. But for now, I just wanted to get the ball rolling with a foundational piece on how I wound up back in NC!