Freeway Flyer

• Summer: The Hot Semester

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  16 Aug 2010 /  employment, job security, teaching, time management
  There is often no such thing as the traditional summer off for adjunct instructors who are paid per class. Many adjuncts who need income during the summer need to line up as many summer classes as they can get. This can be a challenge, because colleges often offer fewer classes during the spring and summer semester, so there are fewer classes to go around for instructors.

  But, say you have been lucky enough to be assigned some courses to teach. Congratulations! Now, how can you have a successful, productive teaching experience without totally missing out on the summer season? The Freeway flyer, who has not taken a summer off since 2005, has some pointers.

  • Purchase an extra long extension cord. Use this to power your lap top computer so that you can take it onto your patio or deck. A table with umbrella will make a nice desk for you. You needn’t slave away inside; papers can be graded outdoors almost as well as indoors. Perhaps, even better.
  • Take advantage of the longer daylight hours. You can weed a flower bed at nine o’clock at night, or take a late walk with your dog. You are not bound by short daylight hours; you have more flexibility.
  • Keep some comfortable sandals in the car for driving. You can pop on the closed toe, professional-looking shoes when you get to campus.
  • Follow the European’s lead and learn to value “mini breaks.” If you are teaching Monday through Thursday, you can leave right from school Thursday night and drive to some place wonderful. For example, I am often fortunate enough to be invited to my sister’s lake cabin during the summer. A three or four day stay at the lake is great for relaxing; when I return, I am fresh and ready to teach.
  • Try to squeeze in some traditional summer fun, such as summer reading. Some light “beach” books can be good recreation, something you can pick up and read a chapter at a time.
  • Plant lots of perennials, the type of plants that need little attention after they are established. You can enjoy the beauty with less work. Then, when you look up from those papers at your outdoor desk, you’ll have something lovely upon which to gaze.
  • You can use some time to get a head start on planning for fall semester; for example, if the school is adapting a new textbook, you can read it and become familiar with it. Or not, after all, you are already working hard and should be kind to yourself.
  • Some of your friends and relatives are fortunate enough to have the summer off, and may be able to come visit you. They have more time than you do right now, so let them make an effort.
  • If you have children who are home for the summer, be sure to set aside time for traditional summer activities. Plan some day trips to the beach or a nice, cool museum. With older children, now is a good time to let them demonstrate that they are able to help out and share responsibility around the house. This is also a good time for them to practice cooking and baking; it’s fun for them and everyone gets real food to eat. Good things can come to those who sort laundry and wash dishes.

  Henry James said that the words “summer afternoon” were the two “most beautiful words in the English language.” If you play your cards right, you can have those summer afternoons, evenings, and mornings, too.

  Have a great summer.

  Tags: adjuncts, Carol Weatherford, Henry James, summer semester, teaching

• Improving as an Instructor: Enhancing Your Own Educational Experience

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  16 May 2010 /  Uncategorized, organization, students, teaching, technology, time management
  This is it. This is the summer you will brush up on your teaching skills or your organization techniques. You know it will make your life easier and will improve the learning experiences of your students. But, where to start? If you prefer to go it alone with a good book or two on teaching, there are a myriad of books available. For example, the Adjunct Book Store web site http://www.adjunctprofessoronline.com/amazon_store?Keywords=adjunct%20faculty&SearchIndex=Books has handbooks for adjuncts and part-time instructors, books on teaching strategies and techniques, and guides for adjuncts who teach online. This web site has eight pages of books such as these.

  Perhaps, you would like to participate in an online seminar or course. A web site called Adjunctopia has many training opportunities http://www.adjunctopia.com/training/ Offerings in the near future have such titles as “Approaches to Managing Communications Effectively in an Online course” and “Creating a Syllabus and Beyond,” with prices ranging from $45 to $99.

  As a freeway flyer, you may have access to professional development offered through your different colleges. During the school year, you might have been too busy to pay much attention to this, let alone actually attend the classes or workshops, but you might have an easier schedule now. I have been tempted this week by some upcoming software classes in Dreamweaver and Moodle. There is a workshop called “Becoming a Champion of Change;” I don’t know exactly what that means in this case, but it sounds intriguing! Also, a couple of the colleges have fitness classes. This might be my chance, finally, to learn how to “Zumba.” Another college has everything from “Twitter Basics” to “Sexual Harassment Awareness Training.” If I have Saturdays free, I can attend classes at yet another college on “The Adult Learner,” “Active Teaching,” or “Plagiarism.” The nice part about using the facilities and opportunities offered by the schools at which you teach is that the price is usually right: free. Free is good, especially is you are in the process of paying for and squeezing in an occasional graduate course toward that terminal degree. Those classes are not cheap.

  And, speaking of cheap, be wary of spending a lot on money on teaching manuals and seminars about which you know nothing other than what you have read online. You owe it to yourself (and your wallet) to check into them before you lay out that very hard earned cash.

  Lastly, there are some excellent programs sponsored by colleges other than the ones where you are employed. Honolulu Community College has a list in their “Teaching Tips Index” that has dozens of interesting links: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm It is a delight. Then, there is Lower Columbia College with another impressive list called “Tips to Improve Your Teaching: http://lowercolumbia.edu/internal/faculty-resources/professional-development/tips_to_improve.htm This seems to demonstrate that there is a multitude of riches available for anyone with the desire to improve. It’s all there for you; you just need to take the time to check it out.

  Tags: Adjunctopia, Carol Weatherford, professional development, teaching

• Having the Dream Office (Or the Dream of Having an Office)

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  29 Apr 2010 /  Uncategorized, community college, employment, students, teaching, technology
  Offices are important. An office is the college instructor’s home away from home; in fact, the instructor often spends more time at the office than at home. Offices can indicate the status of the owner, in terms of size, location, windows, and amenities. The adjunct faculty dream office has windows which open onto a calming, attractive view. There is a desk large enough to spread out the papers, materials, and books for one entire class at a time. The office is well-lit and the temperature is neither too warm nor too chilly. There are shelves and file cabinets for storage, and a bulletin board for posting important notices. There is a door which locks and keeps the instructor’s belongings safe. Someone empties the garbage and recycling bins on a regular basis and the office itself is clean looking and fresh smelling. There is a speedy computer with internet access, the latest software, a printer, and a phone for use. The room itself is large enough to meet with a small group of students or with other faculty members.

  I have not seen this office; bu remember, this is the adjunct faculty dream office. As the Freeway Flyer, I have had or have shared quite a few offices. All of them have had some of the features listed here; none of them have had everything. Most of them have been memorable in one way or another:

  1. My office at a large state university was a modular cubicle which had six foot walls but no door. The cubicle opened onto a hallway which was open during the day. There was a phone and a computer hook-up for a lap top computer. It was fine for my office hours and for general purposes, but when I left at night, I had to put everything into locked cabinets, including the phone.
  2. My office at a private university consists of a slot for mail and a file cabinet drawer. There is a computer in the room which is shared by aa part-time faculty, and a few desks which are claimed by the regular adjuncts, those who teach there each semester.
  3. At a community college, the adjunct office is a nine foot by ten foot room with no windows. It is taken up by a large mail box system and two desks. There is no phone or computer. It does have a large shelving system packed with supplies, saving the instructor the problem of tracking down file folders or dry erase markers.
  4. At another community college, I share a medium office with nine other instructors. There are four desks and two computers. So far this semester, I have shared this office with no more than two other instructors at once. If we all showed up at the same time, it would be comical. This is an interior office so it has no windows, but there is a door which locks.
  5. Another, larger community college where I teach has, appropriately, a very large adjunct faculty office. This office has multiple telephones, file cabinets which are claimed a drawer at a time by instructors, several computers, and some tables and chairs in the middle with which to meet students and others. This office does feel spacious and although it is an interior office, there are windows which open onto the floor’s hallways. The only slight drawback this office has is that there are no printers to go with the computers, mainly in an effort to restrict the amount of printing that goes on in an effort to control costs.

  Offices are not the most important things; they are certainly not as important as salary, job security, or even respect, but they are a concern. Recently, the Saint Francis College adjunct faculty voted for an adjunct faculty union for access to health care, regular pay increases, and “other benefits that full-time colleagues enjoy, including office and storage space.” http://www.aftface.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=652 Adjunct faculty are not greedy; they are not driven by status, they would just like to be able to comfortably do their work and to know that if they leave something at the office, it will be there when they return. This seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, office space, Saint Francis College, teaching

• Keeping a Sense of Humor: Yes, You Can (and must)

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  12 Feb 2010 /  teaching, time management
  The early weeks of a new semester can be a challenge to smile through when an instructor is on a different campus or college each day. At one college, the books for a new class are coming in to the bookstore, but seemingly, only three at a time. At another college, the parking pass is not working and you can’t get into the parking lot. At still another college, someone with whom you were to meet left a little early; can you come back tomorrow? All of these problems would be minor if you worked at the same college every day and were there to take care of these annoyances, but you don’t work at the same college every day: you’re the Freeway Flyer.

  Fortunately, there is a technique that can work in many cases to help you deal with frustration. With practice (and it takes practice), you can de-stress your life and impress your peers. Attempt to look for the humor in a situation and appreciate it. Almost any state of affairs has something funny about it; challenge yourself to find it. Emily Dickinson’s dear friend, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, said “There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.” Make it a habit to look for the amusing aspects of a situation.

  In the Seventies, I had a crush on the Mash television show character, Hawkeye Pierce. It was not only Alan Alda’s good looks; it was his knack at finding something funny in every situation. It occurred to the young me that humor gave one a sense of self-control. Also, if you can throw out one-liners, you may not come across as vulnerable as you feel. Humor is right up there with spring breaks as a way to stay sane and keep from hurting yourself. Comedian Bill Cosby says, “If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it.” Finding the humor may just take practice.

  Now that you’re a comic genius, you can share the humor with your classes. After all, studies have shown that students shown cartoons and jokes related to the concepts taught received higher scores on multiple choice exams than students who were not taught with humor (Ziv, 1988). For fun, check out “Fifty fun things for professors to do on the first day of class” http://www.ahajokes.com/profun.html and then don’t actually do most of them. But, reading about them will give you a laugh.

  Of course, this doesn’t work for everyone and humor should only be used by instructors who are comfortable doing so and are good at it. Avoid the use of sarcasm: it can have a negative effect. Be careful, too; there have been times in the past when I have been accused of being sarcastic when I thought I was only being exceedingly clever. Humor, like most things, is in the eye of the beholder. Know your audience; in fact, what’s sauce for the goose at one college isn’t necessarily sauce for the gander at another. Once I received a humorous email at College A, which got a major laugh at College B, but received dead silence at College C. Different reaction, different day.

  Share the joy if you like, but remember that laughter is good for your own mental health. Try to find the humor in day to day situations and see if your stress level goes lower as a result. Also, try to end your days with a laugh. There is a good reason to watch late night television. For example, tune in and watch David Letterman’s nightly Top Ten List. If you can’t stay up that late, check out the web archives. http://www.cbs.com/late_night_show/top_ten Or, have fun keeping your spouse awake while you are busy laughing at a Janet Evanovich novel. And, finally, try not to take it all too seriously; after all, today’s fiasco will be forgotten tomorrow and you will have new challenges to put into perspective.

  Ziv, A. Teaching and Learning with Humor: Experiment and Replication. Journal of Experimental Education, 57, 1988.

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, freeway flyer, stress

• Identifying Student Populations: A Guide for the Non Sociologist Freeway Flyer

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  04 Feb 2010 /  students, teaching
  Working at multiple colleges and campuses provides opportunities to teach students of many different backgrounds, needs, and interests. Here are some of the student population types you may encounter:

  • The Dual Enrollment Students. These students are easy to identify because they travel in packs; in fact, you can often hear them coming before you see them. It is almost unheard of for a high school student to go anywhere alone. This population often makes a complete turnaround: by the following fall when they are officially new college students, they enter the room timidly, quietly, and alone.
  • The New College Students. These students are harder to spot than they used to be, although they may still look shiny and new. They may be the traditional recent high school graduates, high school graduates who took some time off after graduation, or high school graduates who took a lot of time off after graduation.
  • The Viet Nam Era Veterans. If your class is held in a computer lab, these students will be the only ones who do not turn on the computer the minute they sit down. The last time they typed was on an IBM Selectric. Not only will you have to show them how to use Word 2007, you will have to teach them keyboarding. They are not afraid to ask questions, though, and are excited about new accomplishments.
  • The Auditing Students. Be careful: they may know as much as you do. The best way to handle these students is to use their expertise. However, if they raise their hands at every question, say something like, “Good, let’s hear what (insert Genius’s name here) has to say, then we’ll take comments from some other students.
  • The Husband and Wife Team, or Boyfriend and Girlfriend Team. The couple that studies together, stays together (and leaves together and misses class together). After all, they are a package deal.
  • The Overbooked Students. These students are carrying 18 or more credit hours and are working one or more jobs. They may have families of their own, or even two families. Be glad this student shows up at all, and be prepared for a lot of communication by email.
  • The Pretty Princesses. There will be  pink, jeweled cell phones lying within their reach on the table in the classroom. The surprise is that even after the discussion of classroom rules on the first day, the phone will still appear on the table each class. If you ask them to put the phones away, they will look at you as though you had requested that they remove their thumbs. You may need to warn student that any phone that rings during class will be answered by you; and, then if one rings, you need to actually do it. A department chair of mine does this; obviously, she is my idol.
  • The Laptop Kings. Under the guise of taking notes in class, these students are actually trying to make big bucks in online poker. Once when I was “working the room” during a class, I casually closed a student’s laptop computer as I went by his table. I hope he didn’t have a full house. On second thought, that would make an even bigger impression, wouldn’t it?
  • The Nontraditional Students. These students often work days and come to class at night. Be careful: these students are usually tired and hungry. These students are hard workers and will appreciate it if you get right to the content with no messing around. You may hear grumbling from these students if you ask the class to work in small groups or with partners. Just the facts, please.

  These students are what define a class and make one section of a class memorable against the dozens of other sections you teach over the semesters. Enjoy the many mixes of personalities, levels of abilities, and types of students. They are all unique and make the classes unique rather than all blended together.

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, students, teaching

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