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:
- 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!
- 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.
- 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
- 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
