Finally, a chance to breathe!

This semester has really been a doozy.

I taught 14 credit hours (2 more than regular load), but in a front-loaded manner.  We had a new course this year for Freshmen, boringly entitled College Life.  It was only 1 credit, but we met 3 times a week for the first 10 weeks.  That made it a double-contact class, as 30 hours of class meetings would normally equate to a 2 credit course.  But we still only got paid for 1 credit.

This meant that for the first 10 weeks of the semester (through 11/1), I was literally in the classroom teaching for 18 hours of each week.  The rest of my job takes way more than the remaining 22 hours of "full time," so I worked a lot of evenings and weekends.  Mock trial is also front loaded, so it wrapped up regular classes at the same time.  So after 10 weeks of 18-hour-teaching weeks I suddenly dropped to 9-hour-teaching weeks.

But 11/1 was a long time ago, right?  Why am I still complaining?  Well, the registration period of spring semester kicked in on 11/4 and ran for the next two weeks.  We have the most antiquated system ever - advisors have to physically enter a students courses for them.  The few students who come completely prepared take 10-15 minutes, but the majority haven't bothered to choose classes before they show up.  Plus, we're supposed to talk with them about how everything is going, etc., etc., as well.  I'm wordy (go ahead and chuckle at that understatement), and my appointments tend to take about 30 minutes.  I had 43 advising appointments during those 2 weeks, which meant around 10-11 hours of advising in place of those 9 hours I was suddenly freed from the classroom.

On top of that, once Mock Trial wraps up regular class, we go into presentation season.  I had a big class this year, which meant we staged 3 separate mock trials this semester.  For me, that includes finding a judge and jury and attending each trial to grade.

Did I mention that my continued employment portfolio was also due within that timeframe?  I handed it to our division chair late and asked him to please fire me immediately.  He said not a chance.  Oh, and I still teach institute 1 night a week.

So this week was the last mock trial, handling some registration stragglers, and doing a mock class presentation for a recruiting day visit.  I also got to cover Paul's classes while he was trapped in a 3-day "retreat" held right on campus.  (Two thoughts there - I'd much rather fill in for a few classes than go to a 3 day meeting.  And, if you call it a retreat, shouldn't you actually get to retreat somewhere off campus?  What's neat about using the regular conference room and eating the regular cafeteria food?)

And now?  All of that is done, completely done!  Aside from 6 students that still haven't come in to register for classes, I am down to 9 hours of teaching each week and 31 blessed hours to grade, do the administrative stuff I suck at and hate, write finals, and so forth.  Plus most of next week off.  And it's marvelous.  I can feel my shoulders de-tensing as I type!

Happy Thanksgiving!