Back To Work!

I am semi-excited and scared to be back at work this week. The first week of work is Inservice. It involves a State of the College Address, various faculty development meetings, department meetings, advising, as well as an ice cream social.

Amidst all this there is generally a fevered rush to get classes prepped. Syllabi need to be updated. Online courses need to be revamped. Assignments need to be reconsidered.

Most of this can fit in fairly well, except when you have a new textbook. This can add upwards of 700 pages of reading as well as a complete overhaul of the courses. Soon you are making decisions about what is most important to get done for the students and what would just be nice. It is what I'm going through right now.

I generally enjoy this week as everyone comes back and there are plenty of people to talk to. It's how I get my social fix. However, being social is also distracting. A simple question can lead into a full-fledged conversation and soon I've prevented myself and several other people from accomplishing work.

The other major obstacle I have to getting ready for the new semester will be my CPR/AED training. I'm getting certified. The college would like all their faculty and staff to be certified and I support that goal. I feel that it does little good to have life-saving technology spotting the hallways if you don't know how to use it. I pray that I never have cause to use it, but I'm glad that I'll know what to do should the need arise.

Still, that good thing is four hours taken away from other good things that could be done. Fortunately, advising usually makes up for the lack of time other meetings create. During advising time we have nothing to do but sit in our offices and wait for students to show up. It is generally a five hour block of time. Guess what? Students rarely show up for advising (though many of them should). The students that are mostly likely to show up are often the ones that need the least advisement. I attribute that to student denial and unwillingness to do school related work until school starts next week. Their procrastination is my gain. I use that time where I can't leave the office as the time I get most of my work done.

So work started Monday and I'm working like a busy bee to get everything ready for next week. I have gotten a good portion of it done. I'm at that point where I need to give my documents a day or two away so I can look at them with fresh eyes. There are errors in there somewhere, but I'm so tired of looking at syllabi that it has become hard to find them. That gives me the rest of today and Thursday to work on those "would be nice, but not necessary" projects for beginning the semester.

For example, one of my colleagues and I are planning a little experiment where we switch places at the beginning of class to see if anyone will notice. It should be fun. After that, it's all downhill. The routine is set, the lectures are well practiced. If I can only survive in-service week it will be a great semester.