Busy, busy

Wow, has it been a week since I posted? Things have been and will continue to be busy for the next little while. This past week I was grading final exams, tallying final grades, and turning in paperwork for both of the classes I teach. One more semester in the books, but little time to rest because summer session starts in a week and I've got two classes to get prepped. I've been an adjunct for about nine years now. I've been teaching exclusively online courses for the past five years or so. I sometimes miss being in the classroom, but that isn't really feasible for me these days. Online classes offer me a lot of freedom, but lately I've been in a rut. I used to teach US History I, US History II, and World Civilization I; however, for the past two and a half years I've done nothing but US History II. I am bored and burned out. I have asked to be assigned US History I (which is my favorite) but so far, nothing. Yet again this summer it will be US History II. I'm hoping fall semester will bring some relief.

The other problem is that I teach at two different schools. A few years ago, I was teaching five or six classes a semester. I had to cut back when I was promoted to my current job in October 2006, but I still have the ability to do three or maybe four classes. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the rut of getting one class from each school. We've grown accustomed to this financially, so I don't want to decrease the load, but I am thinking about trying to work exclusively for one school. It would make things much easier to keep up with. The two schools have slightly different calendars (which is always confusing), and one school forces me to do much more administrative paperwork and other things that I frankly don't feel are necessary and I hate to spend my time doing them. So, I plan to talk to my supervisor at the one school and see if he will commit to giving me two classes per semester; if he will, I'll teach exclusively for them and cut the other one, and all their crazy administrative requirements loose for now. I'd really love it if one of these colleges would allow me to develop a North Carolina History course or even a Civil War History course, but it would almost certainly have to be done in a seated setting, rather than online. I need a change, and that would certainly provide it.

Otherwise, lots going on at work recently. I'll be in Raleigh this Tuesday, Fort Fisher on Thursday, and Bentonville Battlefield on Saturday. Should be a fun week!