Teaching and Burning Torches in a Medieval Village

OK, I'm in my cool European village.  From my (dorm) room bed, I can watch the sun rise over mountains and a castle tower.  I'm across from an old church, the steeple clock of which I can also see from my window while lying in bed--the clock is perfectly framed through a funky triangular window high on my wall.  And it first chimes at 6:30AM, a very reasonable hour.

I'm recovering from my 24-hr trip getting here (door to door; I got to the airport early for once, and found out the flight was delayed 3+ hrs. Grrrr.).  This time around, I tried to sleep every chance I got (in the airport, in the flights, in the 90minute taxi).  Though I did watch 2.5 movies over the Atlantic.  I should have slept more--but I'm too busy to watch movies at home, especially non-kid movies!  (I watched Date Night--love that Tina Fey!)

This teaching gig is no picnic.  Changes in funding have meant fewer students from the developing world and more from wealthier countries.  I'm paid about $1,200 U.S. for a week of teaching (15 hrs teaching, plus the travel time, prep, student discussions outside of class, grading...).  Plus I now have European taxes taken out!  So I'm receiving less than last year, and it is harder to justify (given most students are from relatively privileged backgrounds now).  But I should withhold judgment until the end of the week.

I observed a ceremony on the church grounds this evening.  It involved tubas and priests.  But also a large group of military-uniformed youth carrying burning torches.  It confused and disturbed me a bit. (I speak two languages--but not the one that these folks do). Was this about All Saint's Day?  But then how does that fit with the military uniforms?  And frankly, in this formerly fascist country, youth in military-looking uniforms with burning torches? Yikes?!

Turns out, the uniforms were for the volunteer fire department! (Though seriously, they look military--with medals, etc).  And the priests were talking about peace!  Sheeeez! Me, thinking the worst. 

Hours of prep, or Am I a teacher or a researcher?

I just read a post on Academic Jungle on how much time it takes the blogger prof. (tenured female) to prep a 1-hour lecture.  She is in a STEM discipline (science, tech, engineering, math).  Wow, those STEM folks live in a very different world.  Entry-level undergrad that she's taught before--30 minutes prep.  Yes.  That's what she wrote.  Same for entry-level grad course--30 minutes (or up to 1 hr for upper level grad)!  

In my world, we don't use textbooks.  We use books and articles, even for lower-division courses.  And I have to skim (or even re-read) those readings before class.  Then I go over my powerpoints and notes.  I am a much more effective teacher if I put in this time (average of 1.5 - 2 hrs per hour of class for a class I've taught before).  I brush up on my facts plus think about how to explain and expand upon concepts and theories. Plus, mine is a rapidly moving field and I need to significantly update my lectures every time I teach.

So let's see: 1.5 hrs x 3 hrs/wk x 2 classes x 15 wks = 135 hrs per semester!!!  90 to 135 more hours per semester for my course prep compared to what I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) is fairly typical in the STEM disciplines.  Interesting.  And of course, I'm comparing in terms of a 2-course per semester load, so comparing across research universities (if those in the STEM world do teach 2 classes--my neighbor in engineering teaches one course/semester). 

135 hours--that's a lot of hours.  Teaching prep clearly varies significantly across disciplines within my university.  But no one ever talks about it. 

Chairs and Phones

We had our first department meeting today.  Yes, school has been in session about 3 weeks, but we're just now getting around to having a meeting.  This, in the midst of budget cuts, etc.

Par for the course, unfortunately.  Our chair is practically phoning it in. 

So the rest of the department has started to decide everything in subcommittees, in which we all meet and make real decisions and then inform the chair (or just implement the decision).  We've made the delightful innovation lately of doing this over an early dinner.  Sure makes the extra meetings more pleasant.

At the end of last year, I conducted exit interviews with majors, as I've done the last several years. This year I added questions about our two untenured faculty who will soon come up for comprehensive review.  The bright idea was that we could include the results in those faculties' teaching files, to make them all the stronger.  Extra measures = extra good. 

Last spring the chair thought this was a great idea and gave me the go-ahead.  This year, today, in meeting, she claims that it can't be used.  She had some long-winded, tortuous explanation in which she rehearsed the bureaucracy and then gave some seemingly unrelated bits of anecdotal evidence.  We don't know what is wrong with her. But I do know that I reeeeaaaaalllyyyy don't like having my time wasted.

One of the tenure-track faculty was very disappointed.  She is an exceptionally tough professor in the classroom, and at first students resent her for it, but ultimately, by the time they are graduating and doing the exit interviews, they LOVE her for it and practically fall all over themselves about how amazingly brilliant she is and how much they learned from her.  Plus, their mention of how tough she is helps account for why some students give her low scores on her end of semester evaluations.  Well, I am glad that at least now she can be sure she's doing something right in her teaching.  It is hard being a hard teacher (but it sure looks easy being a lame chair).