Frustrations with the new
Well, as I mentioned before, I have two new jobs, both with smaller schools than I'm accustomed to -- much smaller. I'm ready to pull out my hair, and I really have to think long and hard about my job search for next year.
There are advantages to smaller schools: people know each other, red tape is significantly less, we can teach a more varied course load, and then there is the lack of game-day headaches.
But big universities work like big companies, and there are advantages to this. Systems are in place to catch mistakes; there are entire departments dedicated to things like IT, email, WebCT, and Human Resources. Websites are updated promptly because a big university has people whose job it is to update everything.
I'm losing my hair here. These small schools still have final exam schedules online for last spring, and I can't find one for the fall (so that I can put the dates on my syllabus). I can't get an email account at one school because the single person that is in charge of getting my information into the computer system has "misplaced" or "hasn't received" my transcripts which both schools mailed on August 1st. So, I can't put an email address on my syllabus for that class.
I went to an "In-Service" meeting last night for the community college, and I had to sit in a room with other "newbies" and be told that it is my job to plan the class, teach the class, give tests, and grade the students. I kept wondering, what teacher in this room needs to be told that this is his/her job?
Wow. There were lots of things about Auburn that made me crazy: mainly the bureaucracy of paperwork required to do anything, and the stringent rules that made any slight changes nearly impossible. Now I see that there are reasons.
I also think that being "adjunct" puts me in a category that no one cares about helping. I mean, I think most adjunct teachers don't even try to use WebCT for their classes, so why would anyone bother to help me get a password?
Argggh.
The students will be a happy change from this.
There are advantages to smaller schools: people know each other, red tape is significantly less, we can teach a more varied course load, and then there is the lack of game-day headaches.
But big universities work like big companies, and there are advantages to this. Systems are in place to catch mistakes; there are entire departments dedicated to things like IT, email, WebCT, and Human Resources. Websites are updated promptly because a big university has people whose job it is to update everything.
I'm losing my hair here. These small schools still have final exam schedules online for last spring, and I can't find one for the fall (so that I can put the dates on my syllabus). I can't get an email account at one school because the single person that is in charge of getting my information into the computer system has "misplaced" or "hasn't received" my transcripts which both schools mailed on August 1st. So, I can't put an email address on my syllabus for that class.
I went to an "In-Service" meeting last night for the community college, and I had to sit in a room with other "newbies" and be told that it is my job to plan the class, teach the class, give tests, and grade the students. I kept wondering, what teacher in this room needs to be told that this is his/her job?
Wow. There were lots of things about Auburn that made me crazy: mainly the bureaucracy of paperwork required to do anything, and the stringent rules that made any slight changes nearly impossible. Now I see that there are reasons.
I also think that being "adjunct" puts me in a category that no one cares about helping. I mean, I think most adjunct teachers don't even try to use WebCT for their classes, so why would anyone bother to help me get a password?
Argggh.
The students will be a happy change from this.
posted by perrykat at
3:07 PM
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