Back At It

These last few weeks have been absolutely insane. So much has happened that I don’t quite remember the whole timeline but I’ll do my best. Back when I was still in California, I officially was asked to teach a Friday morning, one-a-week class at CWI. The only thing was that it was HUMA 101, not 102, meaning that I would have to pick up the other book when I was back in town. I made an arrangement to do so and picked up the first volume, which is Pre-history to the Renaissance. I also got a few copies of some syllabi and spent the weekend looking everything over and trying to get a handle on it all.

I decided that I wanted to meet with Brenda, my department chair, just to walk through some things with her and ask some questions. The morning of our meeting, I was at the Godwins so took Addy out for a run. When I got back, there was a message on my phone from Brenda asking if I wanted to take on two more sections on Tuesday and Thursday. I got breakfast with Abbey and then headed over to CWI to give her my answer. I wasn’t worried about teaching more classes, but it did mean that I had to be prepared by Tuesday the 26^th instead of Friday the 29^th. Those three days seemed like a huge amount of time. She also gave me more examples of syllabi and we talked through some questions that I had. Over the next few days, I agonized over the calendar and the syllabus, and then struggled through posting the things that I needed to on Blackboard. Because I didn’t ever have an official orientation, I still feel like there are a lot of things that I’m not prepared for or that I’m missing. I’ve had to email the poor administrative assistant for the department so many times. In my defense, a few of the questions that I had when I couldn’t find things were not because I was just an idiot: they weren’t actually accessible to me at the time that at least that makes me feel like I have a slight bit of competence. I’e also been working on putting together my power points, adding questions to the online discussion board. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but man, am I mentally exhausted. I haven’t looked at some of this stuff in years and I certainly haven’t studied in depth the humanities (culture, music, art, drama, literature, etc.) side of things so it’s a bit overhwleming but also fascinating and a nice challenge.

Meanwhile, I also am doing a lot of different work at C of I. I only have one class but it’s got 21 kids in it. Way too many. We barely fit into the classroom. It’s awesome. Please read that with heavy sarcasm. Meanwhile, instead of a class, I’m going to have open office hours for students to drop by and get learning support help. I also have planned these mini seminars over the first six weeks for small groups to talk about various study skills issues. I’ve created fliers and mini-fliers, talked to the faculty, reached out to the coaches, talked to Mark who is working with the at-risk athletes, talked to the basketball teams, attended meetings with the PEAK center, a new, rebranded group at the college that covers any type of student support, be it academic, professional, learning or disability support, student affairs issues, etc.  I feel fine about the class since I’ve done it so many times- although never with this many students- but all the other stuff has been a lot of work and to be honest, a lot of stress about whether or not kids will actually show up. Part of me has given up- not on the students and not on my job- but given up that things will be any different and that the administration will actually realize that I know what I’m doing and that the students deserve to have the attention they need. So basically, I’m going to work as hard as I can for my students and for whoever comes to my seminars, do the advertising that I need, keep detailed records on who shows up and who doesn’t and go from there.

Needless to say, it’s been an exhausting few weeks. I also have been working with the campus ministries worship team, meeting with al the students, having an initial practice session and preparing for a retreat this Sunday. That’s been a lot of work as well, especially since they’re in need of a leader and that’s what my role is going to be. I’ve put together worship packets and written up a list of expectations. None of this is necessarily HARD work, but it just feels non-stop. Add to that the regular life things of errands, cooking, working out, actually wanting to see friends every once in a while, life, to say the least, has been exhilarating and exhausting.