I've been off for a month now, and though I have not completed any projects yet, I have started numerous ones. I have my kitchen under construction, and with the help of a friend it is now painted. I have the cabinet bases to still paint, and the doors, but one step is complete, so I am very happy to have that behind me. The hinges have been spray painted (they were brass and my hardware is nickel), and I have drilled holes for the hardware I got for free from my SIL who didn't care for it. I have material to make a Roman shade for the window, but that is the last step. I am hoping that by Monday night the cabinet bases and all wood will be painted. I can take care of sanding and painting all 17 cabinet doors and 6 drawers individually, but to have all of the contents of my counters in my dining room is driving my OCD into overdrive. I can deal with it for only so long. After all our handy work is done we are going to replace the appliances and range hood with money saved from our tax return. With the little financial windfall I have coming in from work, I think we will finish up the whole kitchen by putting in new flooring, sink, facet, and counter top. Those were going to be the 2009 tax return, but if we can finish it this summer and enjoy a completed kitchen, all the better. Then the tax return can be all about the only room in our condo that hasn't been updated from all its 1980's glory, the bathroom. That one has to be a professional job. We only have one bathroom, and cannot have it torn up for more than a few days before my husband and I need counselors.
I partially read one book for my DQE group. I couldn't finish it in time. I got pulled into some meetings just before our group met. I am now developing 3 courses over the summer. I am loving the money that I will get. It is nice because this fall I will not be a graduate assistant, and with these 3 classes I have made up the money the part-time assistantship paid me all year. On top of this there is a lot of rumbling around the office of more courses to develop this coming school year! So much so that I am helping train another course developer.
I also got my doctoral program planning form approved by the graduate school on campus. This means that I have 9 credits, or 3 classes left to take in my program. I have the dreaded stats this fall, all by its little lonesome, and in the spring I have our capstone course where we work on our dissertation proposals and I will also take a history research seminar to replace an ed research course. This is all really falling into place. I feel like things are going a little too well. I appreciate the good, but I am too much of a pessimist to not stop and look for falling shoes. I am not looking for the bad, but want to catch it before it becomes a big issue.
Showing posts with label Graduate Assistant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graduate Assistant. Show all posts
12 June 2009
24 February 2009
Bad, Bad Blogger
I realize that it has been almost 2 months since my last post. This just shows how busy I have been this semester. Partly because I prefer to clear off my DVR some days than sitting and grading papers, and partly because I am just that busy. I have found it very difficult to say no when I am offered jobs on campus.
It is now week 7 of the semester, spring break is right around the corner. On a happy note, both institutions that I work with are off at the same time. I have scheduled to have a medical procedure done over break, so that I can start the second half of the semester without having to take any time off. Everyone seems to be very supportive of this surgery, which is such a relief, and work will not be an issue. I will be having the surgery on Tuesday 10 March, and should be able to work from home Wednesday and Thursday. I am hoping that I feel well enough to come to work on Friday for a little while. I have had a surgery previous to this one and felt pretty much normal within a few days.
Along with this I have to start planing for the next school year. I am debating on renewing my assistantship. The pay is consistent, but more importantly, it covers 4.5 credits a semester. The reason I am thinking about not applying is the headache I had at the start of the previous semester. I really don't want to have to deal with another faculty member who doesn't understand my needs or my schedule. If I get signed on to teach at the other college again, and continue my IT job, that is more than enough money. We survived on less my first year. This does mean that I take out more in loans for my last year. My husband doesn't mind if I do. He says it's up to me. I don't think he even has a full comprehension of my student loan debt, and I don't think that is how he views me being a student. I have 12-18 credits left to take, and should pound out at least 12 next year, leaving one or two classes to complete. I will have 30 in the bag at the end of this year, and I think that I am just getting too old to run around like this. I think that if I had a contract for teaching this fall and an assurance that I could work on more course development next spring, I would drop the assistantship in a heart beat. The monthly check would be missed, but it would be one less thing that I have to take care of. I think that the major crux of this is that I would need to know that I would either be teaching 6 credits again this fall or that I would be assigned as an assistant to the awesome faculty member that I have been working with for 2 years. I know that the latter won't likely happen, but the former is very possible.
On a happy note, I had the Dean of Faculty sit in on one of my classes. Of course he chose the morning section where the students are very quiet and non-participatory. We have been discussing Persepolis. Based on their homework, the students have been enjoying the work. In class they are almost silent. I fretted about what to do in class. I received some great advice about how to get them talking. The class went well, they were talking. The dean thought I rocked it! He told me how much fun he had had in the class, and even told this to other faculty that I work with. I was on such a high all week. Hopefully this translates into a fall contract.
It is now week 7 of the semester, spring break is right around the corner. On a happy note, both institutions that I work with are off at the same time. I have scheduled to have a medical procedure done over break, so that I can start the second half of the semester without having to take any time off. Everyone seems to be very supportive of this surgery, which is such a relief, and work will not be an issue. I will be having the surgery on Tuesday 10 March, and should be able to work from home Wednesday and Thursday. I am hoping that I feel well enough to come to work on Friday for a little while. I have had a surgery previous to this one and felt pretty much normal within a few days.
Along with this I have to start planing for the next school year. I am debating on renewing my assistantship. The pay is consistent, but more importantly, it covers 4.5 credits a semester. The reason I am thinking about not applying is the headache I had at the start of the previous semester. I really don't want to have to deal with another faculty member who doesn't understand my needs or my schedule. If I get signed on to teach at the other college again, and continue my IT job, that is more than enough money. We survived on less my first year. This does mean that I take out more in loans for my last year. My husband doesn't mind if I do. He says it's up to me. I don't think he even has a full comprehension of my student loan debt, and I don't think that is how he views me being a student. I have 12-18 credits left to take, and should pound out at least 12 next year, leaving one or two classes to complete. I will have 30 in the bag at the end of this year, and I think that I am just getting too old to run around like this. I think that if I had a contract for teaching this fall and an assurance that I could work on more course development next spring, I would drop the assistantship in a heart beat. The monthly check would be missed, but it would be one less thing that I have to take care of. I think that the major crux of this is that I would need to know that I would either be teaching 6 credits again this fall or that I would be assigned as an assistant to the awesome faculty member that I have been working with for 2 years. I know that the latter won't likely happen, but the former is very possible.
On a happy note, I had the Dean of Faculty sit in on one of my classes. Of course he chose the morning section where the students are very quiet and non-participatory. We have been discussing Persepolis. Based on their homework, the students have been enjoying the work. In class they are almost silent. I fretted about what to do in class. I received some great advice about how to get them talking. The class went well, they were talking. The dean thought I rocked it! He told me how much fun he had had in the class, and even told this to other faculty that I work with. I was on such a high all week. Hopefully this translates into a fall contract.
16 January 2009
Semester Three
I don't even know where to begin other than to say that I have one week of this semester in the bag. I think that I may have bitten off more than I can chew. For me even to admit that, is a big step. At this time last month my teaching load had dropped from 2 courses to 1 so I was kind of scrambling to find a little work to act as a filler. I have one position on campus that I work 20 hours at, and 10 hour graduate assistantship. I only registered for 6 credits, so I was waffling between added another 3 credits or just taking it a little easy with the one course.
I mentioned the cancellation of this course to one of my supervisors, who then and there offered me a great opportunity to become an online course developer. I would work with a faculty member on campus, take their existing face-to-face course and make it 100% online with the help of all of the university's resources at my disposal. Great! I'll do it. I watched them do this last year with 6 courses and it looked like a great opportunity. On top of all of this, I could work on a course that I have a good comprehension of, Western Civ. Things are really looking up. On top of this, the course developer position pay is more than the pay for the course that got dropped from my teaching load. Great, I will be ahead of the monetary game this semester.
So then last Friday rolls around, and my supervisor for the course development comes to me and offers me a second course to develop. Sweet! And it is another history course, though this time not in an area I am familiar with, Africa, but one that looks to be very interesting. At this point all I can see is dollar signs flashing and a few bills that I have showing a $0 balance. Things really seem to be looking up for me.
So I go into the weekend happy, but a little busy, trying to finish prepping as much as I can for the class that I am teaching. I also wanted to give the house a thorough cleaning and take down the Christmas decorations. The domestic goddess in me goes on hiatus when the semester starts and won't return for a few months. On Saturday morning, as I am taking lights off the tree, I get a phone call from the college that I teach at. It is the Dean of Faculty. He tells me that the section I had dropped was reopened the night before due to enrollment being too large in another section. How would you like to have this course back on you teaching assignment? Silly me, thinking only about the money that I would be making, said yes. Now, I would be teaching a course that I just finished teaching two sections of last semester. I can very easily prep for the course. But it does require me to do all of the grading.
So now I am taking 6 credits, teaching 6 credits, developing 6 credits, working 10 hours a week as a graduate assistant, and 20 hours a week in IT. This really isn't too different from last semester, but it just feels overwhelming. This on top of the idea that in both of my classes I am the only doc student, so the professor for each has assigned me an extra paper. I expected that, but it still doesn't help matters. On the bright side, this semester I only have one faculty member that I am working for as a graduate assistant.
I mentioned the cancellation of this course to one of my supervisors, who then and there offered me a great opportunity to become an online course developer. I would work with a faculty member on campus, take their existing face-to-face course and make it 100% online with the help of all of the university's resources at my disposal. Great! I'll do it. I watched them do this last year with 6 courses and it looked like a great opportunity. On top of all of this, I could work on a course that I have a good comprehension of, Western Civ. Things are really looking up. On top of this, the course developer position pay is more than the pay for the course that got dropped from my teaching load. Great, I will be ahead of the monetary game this semester.
So then last Friday rolls around, and my supervisor for the course development comes to me and offers me a second course to develop. Sweet! And it is another history course, though this time not in an area I am familiar with, Africa, but one that looks to be very interesting. At this point all I can see is dollar signs flashing and a few bills that I have showing a $0 balance. Things really seem to be looking up for me.
So I go into the weekend happy, but a little busy, trying to finish prepping as much as I can for the class that I am teaching. I also wanted to give the house a thorough cleaning and take down the Christmas decorations. The domestic goddess in me goes on hiatus when the semester starts and won't return for a few months. On Saturday morning, as I am taking lights off the tree, I get a phone call from the college that I teach at. It is the Dean of Faculty. He tells me that the section I had dropped was reopened the night before due to enrollment being too large in another section. How would you like to have this course back on you teaching assignment? Silly me, thinking only about the money that I would be making, said yes. Now, I would be teaching a course that I just finished teaching two sections of last semester. I can very easily prep for the course. But it does require me to do all of the grading.
So now I am taking 6 credits, teaching 6 credits, developing 6 credits, working 10 hours a week as a graduate assistant, and 20 hours a week in IT. This really isn't too different from last semester, but it just feels overwhelming. This on top of the idea that in both of my classes I am the only doc student, so the professor for each has assigned me an extra paper. I expected that, but it still doesn't help matters. On the bright side, this semester I only have one faculty member that I am working for as a graduate assistant.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)