Argh! Right now I'm so freaking annoyed and I have to vent.
So I get an email last night saying my book order for fall is due. Yeah, it's through the book order person that I find out I'm teaching an upper division, brand new to me, course in the fall. Nice. And the book order was due yesterday.
My boss had not discussed this possibility with me... EVER!
Oh, and my boss has been sitting on the fall schedule for over a month now.
Oh, and the book order, by federal mandate, was actually due yesterday.
So I have to basically make a snap decision NOW about what I want to teach for a class I've never taught, don't know the scope of beyond the course description which is one vague and confusing line, and I have to have this locked in for something I'm teaching in six months.
You know, a fucking month to think about this would have been much more helpful than, oh, I don't know, 24 fucking hours!!
I don't know about you, but for a course that I've never taught before, I have to think about the scope of the course, what I want to do BEFORE I settle on the books. There's a shit ton of stuff that I'd like to do, and I can't do all of it in a quarter, so this takes more than 24 hours, for me at least. So again, I've got to make a snap fucking decision about what I want to teach six months from now.
And the two people who probably have taught this course already are unavailable at this particular time. I'm hoping that changes before my office hours are over.
Half the shit that I want to teach, that are in my field, were already taught last quarter, and as it's upper division, I don't want half the class to be stuff that they've all already read.
I'm so freaking incensed right now that I have a headache. I feel like I might blow a gasket. Seriously.
It's times like this I wish I had a heavy bag.
And since there has been no consultation of the schedule, I am worried this means I will be stuck with fucking 8 am classes and huge gaps again in the fall. Fuck me. I guess I'll find out on Thursday when I have my yearly eval meeting.
I seriously want to punch someone in the face right now.
I feel like it feels that I'm overreacting, but I can't help it. This really has me very mad. I love the person who's my boss to death--as a person, ze is great. As a boss, ze is horrific. Thank goodness it's temporary. I know that's terrible, but argh. I'm cranky today. And my hair sucks today, too. That's just like insult to injury man.
Now to go see if I can get any clarity on what this damn course I'm teaching in the fall actually is.
AAaaargh! Much sympathy - I HATE this sort of thing. Yet it KEEPS HAPPENING.
ReplyDelete(I would like my boss so much more if zie was either NOT my boss or boss of ANOTHER FREAKING DEPARTMENT).
Ugh. That is so ridiculous!!
ReplyDeleteOur classes regularly get canceled the day before or day of the start of the term. We are required to teach 5 sections no matter what, so they force us to take classes from the adjuncts (at the last minute)... um, what about preparation? Books? Fuck that! Who cares about planning?!
OMG! CBN--that sounds absolutely horrendous! Wow. Yeah, who needs planning, right?
ReplyDeleteJane B--fortunately my boss is only the interim boss while they are searching for a new one because person who was to be my became dean and by all account ze was supposedly this amazing boss. And I know ze is in over hir head, and this is precisely why I NEVER want to be an administrator. I feel sorta bad because I kinda inadvertently outed hir lack of communication?planning? I don't want to say incompetence, but in this case, I guess it works. When I finally went to a senior prof's office to ask hir opinion on the class, ze asked "How did boss describe the class to you?" Me: "Ze hasn't even given me my schedule yet. I didn't get it from Boss. I got it from the Book Order person." Colleague: "Hmmmm..." Me: Internal monologue: oops. Sigh.
It's great to see you both over here, too. :) Thanks for making the journey to the new digs. :)