Teaching starts next week, and in the first 10 week term, I'm giving 6 lectures. But trying to manage my time and get started on one or more of these is proving difficult.
'Why?', you ask.
Because although teaching starts next week, I do not yet have a contract. Not a problem for preparation, in and of itself, you might say. And you'd be right. Although it will undoubtedly mean that I am not going to get paid in October, this seems to be standard for teaching assistants now - we go to the bottom of the contracts pile - and not getting paid at the end of the first month of teaching is not new to me. It's a problem I can grumble about, and it might affect my ability to pay bills, but it doesn't actually affect my getting organised preparation.
Not having a contract does, however, mean I also cannot have a library card. This is because the university prioritises money over teaching and research, and cut me off at the end of my last 9month teaching contract. (You may not borrow books or use the e-resources off campus if you are not paying money to or being paid money by the university.) Officially, then, I can have a library card from the start of my teaching contract, but not before. So I can start preparing for teaching as long as I do it after I've started.
The very helpful lady in the library said she could bypass the systems for me (by which the library are notified by HR that I exist after I have signed and returned my contract) if I bring my contract to the library enquiry desk.
I would do this. But I don't yet have a contract. And I am unlikely to have one before the start of next week - last year I didn't have one until 2 or 3 weeks into the term. So if that's anything to go by (and if my friends hadn't today offered me space on their library cards), I could probably start preparing for my Monday lectures in week 4 and week 5 in the middle of week 4.
Helpful, eh?
Monday, 28 September 2009
Friday, 25 September 2009
Soundtrack
You know sometimes times you start singing a song to yourself, and it takes a while to work out how it got in your head - particularly if it isn't a song you've been listing to deliberately? Usually these are TV or film soundtracks, or music on an advert that have surreptitiously found their way into your head. It might take a while, but eventually you figure it out.
This week I've been wandering along, or sitting down at my desk, or having a shower and these songs have popped into my head:
'The Multi-coloured music bus'
('All aboard, the multi-coloured music bus. Its the most fantasic bus you've ever seen. The driver is a man called Sam, his brother George the ticket man...')
'Let there be peace on earth'
('Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be...') [I can give you all of the words for this, but I won't]
'Sweetheart tree'
('Won't you come with me, to the sweetheart tree; come and carve your name next to mine...')
The first two were from Junior school - we sung them in the choir. The last one was the music that my ballet class danced to in a show. We had pink 'princess' dresses. I think I was about 7.
I haven't heard these on TV recently. I haven't heard them at all recently. But for some reason, my brain is playing bits of the soundtrack to my childhood. How odd. Any suggestions why?
This week I've been wandering along, or sitting down at my desk, or having a shower and these songs have popped into my head:
'The Multi-coloured music bus'
('All aboard, the multi-coloured music bus. Its the most fantasic bus you've ever seen. The driver is a man called Sam, his brother George the ticket man...')
'Let there be peace on earth'
('Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be...') [I can give you all of the words for this, but I won't]
'Sweetheart tree'
('Won't you come with me, to the sweetheart tree; come and carve your name next to mine...')
The first two were from Junior school - we sung them in the choir. The last one was the music that my ballet class danced to in a show. We had pink 'princess' dresses. I think I was about 7.
I haven't heard these on TV recently. I haven't heard them at all recently. But for some reason, my brain is playing bits of the soundtrack to my childhood. How odd. Any suggestions why?
Friday, 11 September 2009
Time Out
The Physio and I are going on holiday together next week - a whole week of holiday rather than a long weekend snatched away from work-time. We're going to spend some time in Festival City and in the Beautiful Scottish City that I Miss. I'm quite excited to be going there with the Physio; he's already shown me a lot of his favourite places, and I'm looking forward to sharing this place that I love with him. I was very happy living there, and there are lots of places I want to show him - calm places, beautiful places, slightly quirky places. I am a little nervous though: things will have changed there since I last visited. I hope it isn't too different. I really hope he likes it too.
I'm also looking forward to taking a week off work. The last two weeks at my admin job have been quite difficult. The admin manager has changed the programmes for which some of us are responsible so that now, in the last 3 weeks of my position there, I'm learning new processes and getting to grips with new courses. One is only new to me, the other is new to the Faculty. For the second, no one in the office knows how it works. The transfer from the other Faculty was poorly organised, and there has been no sensible hand over from office to office - at least not to those actually doing the administration. I discovered after a few days of frantically trying to track down information that my manager (and his manager) knew where some of that information was, they had just failed to pass that information on to me.
Added to this, the rearrangement of responsibilities has led to some ill-feeling in the office amongst my fellow administrators (not aimed at me, because I am temporary). This is largely due to very poor management. I would suggest that inventing a meeting to go to, and saying "sort this out amongst yourselves" is not really the best management plan when you already know the issue is contentious. No one wants to make difficult or unpopular decisions, but doing that - "sorting it out" - is why the manager is paid significantly more than we are. This ill-feeling is taking over the office. The team-work and co-operation of getting through the Exam Boards seems to be falling away. It is not a happy office any more.
I find dealing with stressful atmospheres - especially over things which need not be stressful - very difficult. I like my world to be a calmer place. At lunchtime yesterday I had planned to do some research related reading, but after a very busy morning combined with the tension in the office I couldn't focus through the brain-fog. Instead I sat staring into space, not really thinking about anything. I used to have that kind of calm time out at yoga classes (I must find some more!), where I could just focus on stretching and breathing to relax. It was quite odd to find that I could create that 'time out' space without the yoga class - and without actually trying. And I went back to the office feeling much calmer and managed to get a lot done in the afternoon. Still, I am looking forward to not being there next week. Hopefully, by the time I get back the busy-ness of the start of term will force harmony upon my colleagues.
Term is soon starting at the University in the City where the Castle is also a Prison, too, and I have been given a lot of teaching (for which I am very grateful - I shouldn't have to do admin on top of teaching to pay my bills this year). It is going to be another busy year, and before it starts taking time out to spend with the Physio in a place that I love seems like an ideal way to charge my batteries.
I'm also looking forward to taking a week off work. The last two weeks at my admin job have been quite difficult. The admin manager has changed the programmes for which some of us are responsible so that now, in the last 3 weeks of my position there, I'm learning new processes and getting to grips with new courses. One is only new to me, the other is new to the Faculty. For the second, no one in the office knows how it works. The transfer from the other Faculty was poorly organised, and there has been no sensible hand over from office to office - at least not to those actually doing the administration. I discovered after a few days of frantically trying to track down information that my manager (and his manager) knew where some of that information was, they had just failed to pass that information on to me.
Added to this, the rearrangement of responsibilities has led to some ill-feeling in the office amongst my fellow administrators (not aimed at me, because I am temporary). This is largely due to very poor management. I would suggest that inventing a meeting to go to, and saying "sort this out amongst yourselves" is not really the best management plan when you already know the issue is contentious. No one wants to make difficult or unpopular decisions, but doing that - "sorting it out" - is why the manager is paid significantly more than we are. This ill-feeling is taking over the office. The team-work and co-operation of getting through the Exam Boards seems to be falling away. It is not a happy office any more.
I find dealing with stressful atmospheres - especially over things which need not be stressful - very difficult. I like my world to be a calmer place. At lunchtime yesterday I had planned to do some research related reading, but after a very busy morning combined with the tension in the office I couldn't focus through the brain-fog. Instead I sat staring into space, not really thinking about anything. I used to have that kind of calm time out at yoga classes (I must find some more!), where I could just focus on stretching and breathing to relax. It was quite odd to find that I could create that 'time out' space without the yoga class - and without actually trying. And I went back to the office feeling much calmer and managed to get a lot done in the afternoon. Still, I am looking forward to not being there next week. Hopefully, by the time I get back the busy-ness of the start of term will force harmony upon my colleagues.
Term is soon starting at the University in the City where the Castle is also a Prison, too, and I have been given a lot of teaching (for which I am very grateful - I shouldn't have to do admin on top of teaching to pay my bills this year). It is going to be another busy year, and before it starts taking time out to spend with the Physio in a place that I love seems like an ideal way to charge my batteries.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Sillyness.
I just read this.
It strikes me as odd that those in authority have suspended the Doctors concerned. Why? They say that it did not involve patients, and patient care was never compromised during this sillyness. If this is true, then sillyness is all it was - no harm done to anyone. But now, a presumably busy A&E is even shorter on staff because these doctors and nurses have been suspended.
That's not sillyness. That's madness.
It strikes me as odd that those in authority have suspended the Doctors concerned. Why? They say that it did not involve patients, and patient care was never compromised during this sillyness. If this is true, then sillyness is all it was - no harm done to anyone. But now, a presumably busy A&E is even shorter on staff because these doctors and nurses have been suspended.
That's not sillyness. That's madness.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Writing
I like writing.
I'm not talking about the process of academic writing, although I do like the sense of achievement when a chapter, paper, article or lecture is finished (this does not happen often enough - especially the personal research related ideas there!). I enjoyed writing my PhD thesis, although the final deadline and the re-writing processes immediately before that were not too much fun. What I'm talking about here is actually writing. By hand. With a pen.
On my way to my admin job the other day - I know this sounds strange - I felt an almost overwhelming need to write something. Anything. And I realised how much time I have spent at a computer, or shuffling papers, scribbling quick, untidy, notes or using mini post-its to mark pages relevant to lectures. It's been AGES since I have sat down and written by hand anything longer than a sentence or two, a 'happy birthday, love from me' in a card or a brief phone message scribble. And at work I had to go straight back into scribbling notes, emailing, filing etc.
Today I addressed an envelope in my very best joined up handwriting and I felt strangely pleased. I like how my careful handwriting looks (not wanting to boast too much, it is quite pretty) and it is much more satisfying than typing a letter or an envelope.
Marking undergraduate exam scripts earlier in the summer, I realised how few of them hand-write anything (either that, or the teaching of handwriting in schools has declined since I was taught 'joined up writing' and then allowed to use a fountain pen). I know no one does their best writing under the time-pressured conditions of exams, but still, some were barely legible.
I think the decline of handwriting is very sad. Not that I would do away with the wonders of word processing packages for my academic writing - cut, copy, paste makes drafting so much easier (even if sometimes starting to draft is actually easier for me with a pen and paper). But I am going to start doing more handwriting - letters to friends for example. I think - even in the increasingly computerised world where communication is almost instant through emails and social networking sites - people like to get mail. I know I do. And perhaps that is precisely because it is so rare for people to take time to actually write anything these high-tech, high-speed days.
I'm not talking about the process of academic writing, although I do like the sense of achievement when a chapter, paper, article or lecture is finished (this does not happen often enough - especially the personal research related ideas there!). I enjoyed writing my PhD thesis, although the final deadline and the re-writing processes immediately before that were not too much fun. What I'm talking about here is actually writing. By hand. With a pen.
On my way to my admin job the other day - I know this sounds strange - I felt an almost overwhelming need to write something. Anything. And I realised how much time I have spent at a computer, or shuffling papers, scribbling quick, untidy, notes or using mini post-its to mark pages relevant to lectures. It's been AGES since I have sat down and written by hand anything longer than a sentence or two, a 'happy birthday, love from me' in a card or a brief phone message scribble. And at work I had to go straight back into scribbling notes, emailing, filing etc.
Today I addressed an envelope in my very best joined up handwriting and I felt strangely pleased. I like how my careful handwriting looks (not wanting to boast too much, it is quite pretty) and it is much more satisfying than typing a letter or an envelope.
Marking undergraduate exam scripts earlier in the summer, I realised how few of them hand-write anything (either that, or the teaching of handwriting in schools has declined since I was taught 'joined up writing' and then allowed to use a fountain pen). I know no one does their best writing under the time-pressured conditions of exams, but still, some were barely legible.
I think the decline of handwriting is very sad. Not that I would do away with the wonders of word processing packages for my academic writing - cut, copy, paste makes drafting so much easier (even if sometimes starting to draft is actually easier for me with a pen and paper). But I am going to start doing more handwriting - letters to friends for example. I think - even in the increasingly computerised world where communication is almost instant through emails and social networking sites - people like to get mail. I know I do. And perhaps that is precisely because it is so rare for people to take time to actually write anything these high-tech, high-speed days.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
I find this article extremely worrying.
I may save it for the next time any of my students tell me feminism is an old-fashioned out-dated concept.
I may save it for the next time any of my students tell me feminism is an old-fashioned out-dated concept.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)