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

• 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

• A Little Sweet Talk and Look What Can Happen

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  22 Apr 2010 /  community college, employment
  Obviously, I’m not a person who likes to say “no” or I wouldn’t be teaching for four colleges in four Michigan counties this semester. And no, this is not the first semester I can say that, either. But, I try to avoid some of the extra activities available to faculty just because of my own time constraints and the promise of more wear and tear on a car I have to make last a while longer. Therefore, I can usually come up with an excuse why I can’t attend certain ceremonies and meetings. I say I’m busy, and I am.

  Then, a month ago, the phone rang. It was someone at the main campus of a university for whom I have been an adjunct for over seven years. This is the college where I began teaching at post-secondary level, where I got my start as a freeway flyer. The woman on the other end of the phone reminded me that the investiture of the new university president was being scheduled and that there would be a ceremony marking the occasion. She said that all full-time faculty members and some adjuncts who had been with the college a number of years, like me, were being invited as well. We were not only being asked to attend, the plan was for us to dress in full academic regalia and march in as part of the ceremony.

  Already, I was formulating my refusal in my mind; it was going to be full of regret and it would be a good one. However, then she began to butter me up. She told me she was one of the people who regularly reviewed my course evaluations and that she knew how my students valued me and that I was important to the university. By this time, you might guess, my resolve to decline was fading fast. Before I knew it, I was telling her that I was in Grand Rapids, the city where the ceremony would be held, on Wednesdays anyway, and that it would be a simple matter to just go earlier that day. I said I would attend.

  The day of the investiture, I left early and traveled to the large Grand Rapids campus. The university, it appeared, was going all out for this occasion, as evidenced by the large numbers of people all over the campus and the friendly event planners on every corner. I saw people travelling in small groups and everyone seemd excited and happy to be there. For a moment, I felt a bit of the isolated feeling that creeps in every now and then as a part-time instructor. Sometimes, I compare freeway flyers to modern day “Zorros.” Who was that masked man/woman? We come, we teach and conquer, and we go.

  After an informal luncheon, I made my way to the dressing area where there were people who were experts at dressing others and making sure their hoods and everything hung correctly. I was pleased to see that there were a half dozen people I knew fairy well and I even received some hugs hello. By the time the procession began, I was feeling pretty positive about the experience. I marched behind a woman who had interviewed me for my first adjunct position; behind me, was a man, another instructor, I had also known as a friend for some time.

  I sat in the third row of the filled autorium and listened to two state representatives and several businessmen from the area speak of hope and promise for education. A student made a speech about how excited he was to be at the university and how much he looked forward to the future. Then, I listened to the new university president speak. He was energetic and focused. He was excited about the possibilities of higher education and the future of the university. And, somewhere between the talk of strategic planning and the bold, new vision, I began to feel a part of things. It is nice to be reminded why you do what you do, and more so, why you love it. I took that feeling with me when I left that day, and I even carried it into my night class.

  So, maybe, I will try not to be too quick to come up with an automatic answer of “no” the next time an opportunity presents itself. The rest of you Zorros out there might keep this in mind, too: sometimes we need to say “yes.”

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, faculty appreciation

• How to Tell if You are Doing a Good Job as an Adjunct Instructor

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  25 Mar 2010 /  employment, students
  Piss Poor Prof, also known as Burnt-Out Adjunct, describes the adjunct as being “the academic equivalent of a fry cook.” http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2009/06/15/adjunct  Then there is Dr. Burton Fletcher, who calls adjuncts “the burros of academia.” http://www.cpfa.org/burro.html. In a world where adjunct instructors have become the Rodney Dangerfield of higher education, how can you know if you’re appreciated or doing a good job? The freeway flyer needs to pay attention, because positive reinforcement can come from many sources, and often it is from your students.

  • You overhear someone. I heard a student describe a conversation with another student who took the same class with a different instructor. He evidently had commented on some of the assignments being done in this class. “He said they didn’t have to do a lot of these assignments. I told him that’s why they say this instructor’s so good.” This came at the end of a very long day which made it even nicer to hear.
  • Your student evaluations are good. For example, if my numbers are consistently as good or better than the course mean, i.e., my numbers compared to everyone else’s who teach the same class, I know I am doing well.
  • You get good “word of mouth.” Students advise their friends to sign up for your sections. I figured this out one year when it seemed I was getting a disproportionately large number of hockey players in my classes.
  • You get repeat customers. Students who begin with your remedial class sign up for sections of your subsequent classes. They say, “I was dreading this class, but I knew you would get me through it.”
  • They remember you after the fact. You might get an email one or more semesters later, asking you how you are doing or thanking you for the class.
  • Your work becomes part of the course. Some assignments you developed are put onto a drive accessible to other instructors who will teach the course. By the way, remember to add these to your personal portfolio.
  • You witness success stories. I’m thinking of a student who dreaded taking the required composition class so much, he waited to take it until the last semester before he was to graduate. That semester he was surprised to discover he liked the weekly journal writing and the essay writing; in fact, an essay of his received an honorable mention in the college’s annual essay contest.

  These small instances of success may not translate to increased income or even accolades (at least not immediately), but they can increase personal satisfaction. You are good at what you do and what you do matters. Realizing this is the beginning of receiving the respect you are due and will help you to continue to teach with the confidence you should have.

  Leave a comment and tell me of some of your “small successes.” I would welcome hearing about them.

  Tags: Burnt-Out Adjunct, Carol Weatherford, Dr. Burton Fletcher

• How Not to Burn Bridges (Hey, what is that smoky smell?)

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  22 Jan 2010 /  employment
  I had planned to write this week about how to avoid burning bridges with colleges if someone has to turn down a class. Then, the phone rang at 8:30 this morning and shortly after, I began to smell smoke.

  First, some background. This semester was going to be my biggest yet in terms of number of schools and number of classes. I would have some new preps, but they were for some classes I looked forward to teaching at some schools where I wanted to teach. I was offered a class at one of the new schools for Fall semester, but when I went to adjunct orientation, I was told I would not be needed that semester after all. This happens sometimes: occasionally a class won’t have enough people sign up and it does not run. Another time, for example, a department chair bumped me from one of my classes because enough students did not register for one of hers and she had a required number of hours to teach.

  Colleges make decisions that are best for the students and for the schools thenselves. I know not to take these things personally. I was pleased, then, when the director told me that I would be on the schedule for the Winter semester. By the middle of Fall semester, he emailed me and said he would put me down for one class and would have another instructor contact me about curriculum and materials.

  By the end of Fall semester, I hadn’t heard anything, so I emailed the director and asked if the class was a go because I wanted to begin preparing to teach it. A week later, I had a reply that the class looked like a go but he was waiting to assign instructors until the full-time faculty made their teaching load.

  Keep in mind that although I love teaching, I do this for a living. My living can vary substantially from semester-to-semester; sometimes I have a full semester, then there are semesters, like last summer, during which I ended up teaching one class and worring about starving. One class falling through can mean the difference between gourmet pasta and macaroni and cheese from a box. I, like a lot of other adjuncts, depend on teaching to support  myself and my family.

  A week later, I still hadn’t heard from the director. I did, however, receive a phone call from another school’s department chair who said they had a scheduling snafu and needed someone to teach a class that started the next day. It was a class I hadn’t had the opportunity to teach before and I was excited about it. I don’t think of myself as superstitious, but maybe it was meant to be! I took the class, whipped up a syllabus and course schedule and made plans to teach the class. I also immediately fired off an email to the director at the other college from whom I had been waiting to hear. I told him I had been offered another class and had accepted it, so he needn’t worry about giving me a class for the upcoming semester. I said perhaps it would work out for another semester and that I would still like to teach for him in the future.

  The phone rang at 8:30 the following morning. The director said he’d received my email and stated he was prepared to offer me the original class. I told him I would be unable to accept it because of the class for which I had just signed a contract. He then asked about my teaching a Wednesday morning class. I had to think for a moment: I was free Wednesday mornings, could I handle another class? I already had three new preps and a full schedule of four colleges in four counties.

  I told him no. I said again I would still like to teach for him, perhaps the next semester. He was noncommittal and, I think, none too pleased. I have this feeling I may not hear from him again and I felt bad all week about how things went. Even when we make concerted efforts to be flexible and acquiescent, things still don’t always work out. Not burning bridges is an excellent goal, but that doesn’t mean it will be simple.

  I will keep my fingers crossed and my guard up for next semester. The juggling game begins again and I must keep working on my communication skills and hoping for the best.

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, employment, teaching, workloads

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