| Subject: This is unbelievable. |
Author:
Kiersten
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 12:24:34 09/19/05 Mon
Check out this message that the teacher for my online class posted.
"All--
"I'm going to be a mean teacher and say that I can't preview any rough drafts. (That being said, Melissa, I glanced at yours for about two seconds and it looks OK.)
"I'm having a hard time managing my time with teaching online this semester, so I'm having to follow the schedule I created pretty strictly. That schedule doesn't allow for me to preview everyone's hypertext in advance of the due date.
"However, as I believe all grad classes should be run, I will give you comments based on my reading of your text after you turn it in, and you have the option of revising it during the semester if you want. But you don't have to revise it. You can always take my comments and apply them to the next assignment (which is also a hypertext but it is a review genre rather than a creative one).
"I hope y'all understand about my not being able to preview texts. So that you can see where I'm coming from, let me disclose some information that might help you understand.
"In talking with other teachers who teach online classes, I've found that the really good teachers spend WAY more than the alloted 10 hours per week on their classes, but that's not something that I can do, being a very junior, untenured professor.
"Teaching is only 50 percent of my contract. Research is 40 percent. Service is 10 percent. However, those percentages are false because most of us end up working closer to 150 or 200 percent. Theoretically 100 percent = 40 hours per week. But last week, for instance, I worked 78 hours on teaching/research/service. (Those of you working in tech comm fields probably make more per hour than I do.)
"I *have* to cut back on teaching if I'm going to get tenure (and not have a stroke in the meanwhile). And tenure isn't about being able to do whatever I want (that's what the undergrads think, anyways); it's about job security. Assistant professors have essentially no job security until they get tenure. And tenure is based on two things -- how much quality research I publish and how good my teaching
evaluations are -- even though we are required to do more than just teach and research.
"I am excited that the online classes now have online evaluations. This is a great thing, and I have much to learn from all of you about how to teach an online class. But evaluations, unless they are so bad that the university has to fire me (i.e., like I fail to show up to class or I never respond or post or have a presence in an online class), count little compared to my research agenda. [KIERSTEN SAYS: Well, you might want to start worrying about those evaluations.]
"Thus, I have to spend an equivalent amount of time on researching as I do on teaching. And that means not being online and able to respond but for about 5 hours a week. (The other 5 hours I spend prepping for class, responding to individual emails from students, writing the assignments, reading, and grading.) Times two for the other class I teach. [KIERSTEN SAYS: Yeah, except you don't respond to individual emails in any kind of a timely manner, and you don't post when you say you will. You have yet to post a real response to ANY discussion, and you've not actually TAUGHT a single thing.]
"I hate saying all of this because I love teaching. That's why I got into this field. But the world turns on without me and the old saying Publish or Perish is really at the heart of academia. I love teaching as much as I love research, so I have to manage my time better so that I can do both successfully. [KIERSTEN SAYS: How'd you get THIS far without time management skills? Because I have yet to see any evidence of them.]
What this also means is that you all should only be spending about 10-15 hours a week on this class as well. I know that shifts according to reading schedules, homework assignments, and whether or not you're catching up with the technology. That's where you have to decide how to read and what limits to place on your assignments (i.e., deciding to simplify
your remediation project when you'd rather perform miracles ;) [KIERSTEN SAYS: So we can do a crappy job? You obviously aren't putting any time into this class, and you're not really teaching. And most likely people will evaluate you through the roof because they feel bad for you trying to get tenure. So can I choose to do a really crappy job on my work, and never post on time, and not really fulfill the
expectations, and still get an A?]
"And if any of you want to go into academia and want to talk with me more about time management and what it means to be a faculty member, I'd be happy to. I never expected it to be quite so different from being a gung-ho grad student, but boy is it. :)
"So, thank you for being patient with me. And look for my responses to discussion forums typically on Tuesday or Wednesday (for assignments) and Friday (for the week's reading). [KIERSTEN SAYS: She hasn't done any of this.]
"--Cheryl."
Stupid, huh. Like, REALLY stupid. It frustrates me to no end. Just when I think the program up here can't get any worse, something like this comes along. Amazing.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 