Tomorrow will be a week since my last day of school. I went in on Wednesday to do final grades and of course there were some students who came in to take last-minute make-up quizzes. Normally when school is over, what I delve into with a ferocious attack is the preparation for the next semester. It always felt satisfying to have things entirely finished keeping any agenda from hanging over my head, giving me the opportunity to start the new semester with a clear head and not the stress of procrastination. It feels a strange this time; there are laborious resources researching details, no syllabus writing, no schedule planning after having to hunt down the academic calendar in addition to all the other tidbits that ate away the minutes of my ‘free’ time.
What I am doing instead, is training my Nuance Dragon Naturally Speakingspeech recognition software. I had used this program many years ago, and it was okay, but not anything near what I had hoped it would be. After many years, with many upgrades, after getting a promotion with a deep discount, I decided to try it again. The 30 day guarantee was the deciding factor. It is extremely impressive this time around; they have fixed many of the bugs in the system from the past. I’m writing this entire blog post only by speaking. This is great since I really need to type, plus it keeps my hands-free for doing other things like reaching for my coffee cup.
Without school to prepare for, one of my projects is to review and update the BudaBab Reviewblog site. There are 165 blocks or posts of information, which each and every one needed updating to some degree. Put them in chronological order, but within groupings such as tours, shopping, medical needs, etc. made the most sense. However, in order to do that I have had to change all of the dates and times. Thinking it would be easier to do each post with 15 minute increments in between; I realized it allows me to have gaps add any new posts at a later time without disturbing the order. Although this seemed like a great idea when I started, after spending two whole days working on it, I am still not finished. On the bright side, in the process there are new sites that I have found to include, many revolving around travel. I will be sharing some of those sites here in the next couple of days.
A former Fulbright scholar to Budapest, who is now a university instructor, sent this article around. Opinion: Adjunct professors are the new working poor. Shortly thereafter, she or someone else shared an article titled Death of an adjunct from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Both grabbed my attention since I taught as an adjunct in a California college for 15 years. Many times, I not only taught in the two full semesters, but in the summer semester as well when the full-time instructors chose not to do it. Often, I taught three classes a semester, the same load as a full-time instructor who had benefits. Apparently the article on the death of the one instructor has hit a national cord in academia.
These articles have been sitting on my desktop for some time now. I read them and then reread them and read them yet again. With each rereading the message doesn’t get any easier to accept. I wanted to share them, but first I needed to process why I was motivated for doing so and how much I wanted to reveal.
The dictionary defines adjunct as: “a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part” Though I haven’t had difficulty putting the pieces together, my feelings were further denigrated by an article in The Budapest Times titled Teacher pay rises not ideal but important first step. The article reads “Teachers with a university degree, combined with three years of work experience to date, will see their salaries rise from HUF 135,975 to HUF 203,330, whereas those with qualifications obtained from teacher colleges will receive an increase from HUF 126,270 to HUF 185,573.” The numbers immediately struck me. Teachers with a university degree and three years are getting 135,975 Huf a month now? This is so very close to what I earn that I couldn't afford an excellent dinner with the difference in our salaries. Yes, they have to be in the classroom five days a week, but I think any university instructor would argue we work just as diligently and reading and correcting papers is significantly more difficult. I have a doctorate degree, but as I am continually told, my position only requires a master’s degree. That still did not lessen the pain of the slap. It was another wake up call. It made me consider my future more seriously than I have in the past. More to come.
Well if that is not a misleading title if there ever was one. It is a typical bait and switch for sure. Summer was about ten weeks too short. I really don't even care about summer, but the vacation could have been extended. School started Tuesday. After they dismantled our e-learning system in November, we had no means of giving online tests during the spring semester. They finally instituted a new e-learning system in August, but of course the instructions were only in Hungarian. A memo sent to me stated that the program can translate into US English, British English, and Universal English, as well as Universal Spanish, German and Urdu. Okay, maybe not Urdu. Regardless, someone forgot to flip the switch somewhere. The damn thing would not translate into any flavor of English nor would it hablar español. After consoling me with the fact that they had saved all of my previous quizzes over 100 of them for 18 different courses, it was assuring to know they could upload them for me, since there was no option for DIY. When push came to shove to get them to show their true colors, they only uploaded quizzes for 2 classes of the 7 classes I needed quizzes for this semester. Repeated e-mails went unanswered. Finally, I had a former student who works as a computer tech to come over to guide me through so I could manually enter the quizzes yet again. While he was working, the page would suddenly refresh, appear in English giving a false sense of security. Moments later we were back to staring at Hungarian. The final solution: get a teaching assistant to put the quizzes in for me after having him sign a non-disclosure statement. Having to teach 4 classes on Tuesday and 5 on Wednesday, I try to arrange the classes so that I can use the same room each day. I have my own projector, laptop, speakers, and extension cord. Staying in one room saves time from having to breakdown the equipment and set it up again repeatedly. Up until Tuesday, the registration showed my room assignments as I had requested. After my second class, though, another instructor was at my side waiting to get into the room. One last minute check with the registration online, my room assignments had been changed. On the bright side, the student numbers are minimal. Really so much so, it just may be a good semester in the long run. Just as I get totally disgusted and ready to throw in the proverbial towel, I receive these comment, which gives me an opportunity to smile. Anna wrote "I'm teaching English in a high school and I have to tell you that you always inspire me in my work with your patience and with the way you helped us develop our own ideas about topics (to think "out of the box" :) ) My lessons are much simpler than our classes at university, but the way you were always consistent in your expectations but still let us have our own ideas is something that I particularly liked, and try to "copy" as a teacher." Árpád "On a different note, I found myself reminiscing about the Writing Program on Tuesday. This semester I am taking Stanley’s Media and Communication in the US class as an elective, and it is in Room 439, which reminded me of the Race and Ethnicity classes. I had completely forgotten what that room looked like, but the moment I entered, I was hit by a wave of nostalgia. I was also reminded of the Gilded Undergraduate Years today, when some people wanted to “have questions” in class. I said nothing out loud, but sub-vocally I murmured, “You can have as many as you wish, but you need to ASK a question if you want an answer to it.” Our teacher must have approved of the phrase because he used it himself."
Well, I did it! I finished reading the last thesis for this semester. During the semester, I have 13 students in my thesis writing class, so I was reading and editing their work all semester. After they all get turned in, we are assigned theses to read and grade.
I was actually hoping to get one or more of the theses from within my class; I was not the advisor for all 13 students. This would have cut some of my reading down a bit since I already knew their work intimately. However, Lady Luck was not to be my friend this time around. I received four BA theses and one MA thesis.
These arrived on the heels of my completing the essays for both the Race and Ethnicity class as well as the Religions Born in the US, but concurrent with the short story assignment for the Creative Writing class. This was all juggled with reading the students’ blogs and websites for the Blogging and Website class. Those in my Mystery Novel and Corpor-ocracy classes were severely neglected.
I read and read, so my eyes are red. However, I am almost finished! I am seeing the finish line up ahead and it looks spectacular. The only exercise yet to read will be one more creative writing piece and that will end the semester.
As of now, there are 11 days, 4 hours, 28 minutes until I am crossing that finish line.
I wouldn’t say that I am burned out, but hey, if you held a cigarette close to me, it would light on fire without a match. I am gaining popularity with scout troops for their camping trips when they want to start the campfire for cooking. As I write this, there are 24 days, 5 hours, and 42 minutes left before the end of my semester. There is nothing that could make me happier at this point other than finding out I have inherited a castle in Scotland, tax-free.
You will notice that I am using all numbers in digital form even 1-9, which would normally be spelled out in an academic format. They are more impressive as digits. Generally, I have to teach 9 classes a semester. This year, I was able to get by with 8 because we have a Fulbrighter teaching one of my classes. She taught one last semester also. Still, the classes that I have are teeming with writing, mostly my fault. However, if a student is getting a degree in a foreign language, shouldn’t they be able to communicate in writing? Duh!
I have four courses where the students are required to blog on a weekly basis. This adds up to over 60 blog posts to read or at least just skim over. There is no way I am going to correct their grammar on the Mystery Novel blog or the Corp-orocracy (a course name self-created), but I do pay attention to those in the Blogging and Website class as well as Race and Ethnicity 2 blogs. These are the journalism specialization students who are in the program due to some plan on getting an English speaking/writing job at some point. Having 115 students this semester if I counted them as separate students within different classes with different projects, I was overwhelmed. Consider that one class was The Methodology of Writing the Cultural Studies Thesis for BA and MA students. In this class, I had 13 students who were trying to meet the April 15th deadline for turning in their work. BA students only need to write 20 pages, but the MA students need to fill 60 pages. Each week, I had them write 3-5 pages depending on their degree for me to read and edit, making sure they were on track and their grammar was acceptable. One of my other courses this semester is Creative Writing. The 18 students in this class write a short story every week, not more than 2 pages, but add it to the pile; we are looking at a mountain of paperwork.
All of this work comes flooding into my e-mail as an attachment. This gives me the opportunity to check it in Word using Track Changes. However, I have gotten smarter over the years. When I return the assignment, I change the format to PDF. For those who need to use my comments for a revision, like the thesis writers, they cannot do Accept Changes and make short work of it. They have to look at my notes and comments, with a bit of hope, think about them, and then make the changes on their own. For others, it blocks them from making any changes and then resubmitting it to tell me I made a mistake, so the grade should be inflated. It has happened. Then there are the students who are enrolled in multiple classes that I am responsible for who send in an assignment as an attachment sans a name on the document, nothing in the subject line, the body of the e-mail or on the document itself to give me any clue as to what class to assign the grade. Perhaps, knowing how much I enjoy mystery novels, they are trying to infect me with their affliction of amenomania. Not! It is a waste of my time.
I am not alone among the faculty, who are increasingly realizing students are lacking the satisfaction taken in an achievement well done. This semester, I warned that the semester essays would be run through 2 different plagiarism checkers making it a wise choice for them to do the same before their submission. The bonus suggestion was added that they should seriously consider using multiple grammar checkers in addition. If you write well, this will take minutes. If you cannot execute a document at a scholarly level, this will give you pause for thinking about editing.
The problem here for most students is that the last minute to turn in an assignment are the precious moments when they are finishing the works cited page. They haven’t a moment to spare to use superfluous (in their minds) outside aids when they have a pushover instructor who will do it for them. Oh, how they rage when they find that the instructor is no longer willing to be their full-time editor and requires their attention to detail. This is when the revolt begins.
Today was the first day of school. Yipee! Summer is officially over as holidays go. There are only 45 days until fall break, but who is counting? I am. I am feeling overwhelmed and each time some American university instructor tells me "Full-time in the US would be three classes" I feel even worse. No, not worse enough to return to the US, but then again, I would never get a position here. Today, I had five classes in a row. This is mostly my fault since I create my own schedule, but I do it this way to have long weekends; weekends are 5 days long. I only teach 2 very brutal days a week. Tuesday is five classes and Wednesday is four. This doesn't mean I sit around eating Bon-Bons the rest of the time. There are tons of papers to read, students to advise for their thesis, student problems to solve and so on. This semester it is not nearly as bad as it could be. I decided to teach 2 classes online. Today was the orientation for one and the other will be tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, when I would generally be teaching Academic Writing, I have a Fulbright student to do that for me this semester. After I do the initial class tomorrow, she will take over for the rest of the semester. Here is where they are after me though. I have been e-mail chased after by another college. They want me to come teach there too. After exchanging a couple of e-mails. I said I would meet with them at least. They are going to have to make a really appealing offer, but they have aroused my curiosity. What I really want to do is start up my private practice once again. I maintain my CA clinical license and have done some life coaching. This is where it is at. I need a professional change of pace to balance my life out. I have the office ready to go. Now I just need to start the marketing.
Yesterday was the last day of my semester. Other than going in on Monday to sign grade books, and then two different Wednesdays to administer thesis defenses, I am free to do what I want until September. That is the luxury of being a university instructor. Of course after having to be responsible for ten classes this semester, this is a welcomed break.
As the Coordinator of the Journalism and Writing Program, one that I created, I have been overwhelmed with the creativity that students exhibit. Each year, students seem to raise the bar one peg higher than the class before them. Although, they are not always performing to my expectations in all of their classes, the Creative Writing and the Blogging/Website classes are two where they shine.
I want to share some of their blogs and websites that they created this semester. You have to remember, these students take an extraordinary number of classes, where fifteen a semester is just part of the norm. Some take more and some are enrolled in two universities at the same time. These are in the order that they sent them to me. There were other students as well, but they did not get their projects in by the deadline.
For the last few days, my computer has been making noises like someone was trying to puree nuts and bolts in a food processor. Of course, things like this happen when I am doing something crucial like finishing grades for the semester, creating courses for a new semester, or very importantly, hunting down my favorite television shows.
As I was working away, Ron reached over me to grab the calendar above my desk and as he walked away, the screen went blank after showing "No Signal" as a fast splashing teaser of what was to come. After making sure the computer was still on, I had to manually shut it off and start it up again. All was fine for a whole 10 minutes before darkness prevailed once again. Repeating "let there be light or a screen" had not produced any results. It was time to use some critical thinking.
Fortunately for me, I had offered this course this semester, so the skills were still fresh in my mind. I had done a disk diagnostic just the day before; I knew the disk was in a healthy state. Rule that out. Unplug everything and remove the side panel. This is where I get squeamish. I can play around with software for days on end, but expose a piece of hardware in front of me and I become a pansy for sure. Buck up and be a man! I cleaned the innards, though not nearly as dusty as I would have thought. The back of the computer is a breeding farm for dust bunnies and everyone knows how any type of bunny can multiply.
I unplugged the fan, turned the computer on only to hear GRRRRAHHH, GRRRRAHHH, just as before. Okay, not the fan. Shouldn't be the hard drive unless the diagnostic is a lying... Choice 3, it had to be the video card. Where is the video card? Why would it make noise? Google helped narrow it down to conclude my conclusion, but no one mentioned why? Time to call in the experts, but most of them wanted me to drag the computer to them. I have 4 drives in this thing, making it too heavy to move without a professional company at the helm. No, I needed someone to come here.
By chance, the computer store around the corner recommended a company. The young man speaks enough English to be of service. He arrived at 8pm as he said he could and would if I so wanted. I so wanted very badly.
Within minutes he diagnosed the problem. On top of this box is another smaller fan. The fan stopped working because there are ball bearings inside it and they are now stuck or corroded. The heat is turning off the monitor. He took it with him and was to replace it the next day, which would have been Tuesday.
By the end of the day Tuesday, he still had not been able to fix it. He couldn't unscrew one of the screws to get the fan off. Another words, he didn't have a screw loose. He called a friend for a special tool, but that didn't work either. Finally, he had to get some specialized liquid to loosen the screw, which he did and was successful in replacing the fan. This morning at 8 am, he was here getting my machine back in order all for less cost than I would have ever anticipated. He is on my list of angels. While he was here with Ron, I was getting my vacation haircut, teaching my sole private student, and picking up the last things for vacation.
Hence, I have not been able to get much done without using other computers here and there and then making sure I had the latest of everything in Dropbox, so I could keep working as I kept moving around.
To be or not to be their substitute parent, that is the question. This certainly must be a question that every teacher asks themselves at least occasionally. However, is this something a university instructor should have to wrestle with?
I have the same group for multiple classes: Introduction to Journalism, Race and Ethnicity in Journalism I, Academic Writing, and Critical Thinking. Let it be known that I have other classes where these darlings are not in attendance, so I am not limited to their lives only. Add to the list the BA and MA students for whom I am the thesis adviser. Hence, I have a full plate.
To make everyone's life easier, I put all of the syllabi, readings, and attendance records into Dropbox, an online storage shed. Every student had to install the program and then I share the folders I want them to access. During my first classes of the semester, I give a thorough demonstration of everything there and how to access it. There is a stern warning about missing more than 3 classes a semester; our longest semester is only 14 classes for 1 1/2 hours as it is, but less if there are too many holidays. As I am a bit atypical, I bring their attention to the fact that my home and mobile numbers are on the syllabi in addition to my office and upon request, they can have my address where they are welcome.
Each fall semester, we go through this honeymoon period where everything is glorious. We are communicating, there is give and take, everything is sickening sweet. By October, the frosting on the wedding cake is turning sour. By November the signs of further deterioration become apparent as the cake crumbles.
There is a fine line between being a cheerleader and their boss. Everyone needs to feel validated; I try pouring on the gratuitous remarks as they are earned. However, this has a nasty way of turning into childlike, parent me behavior. "I didn't realize there was a quiz today"; "I didn't know this was my third absence"; "I didn't know you meant it when you said the essay was due on November 1st at 8pm sharp and no excuses." Apparently, these are only comprehended as suggestions and not mandates.
A week ago, one of my students came to the Critical Thinking class where he was to lead the class in a discussion of a reading. After we finish the textbook, I end the semester with mystery novel. I find mystery novels excellent ways to practice critical thinking and reasoning. This particular book used is The Magyar Venus by Lyn Hamilton, a Canadian author who I greatly admired, corresponded with, and was greatly saddened to find she passed away. So, this student comes into class and immediately announces that he has not prepared a thing since he had no clue what was expected of him, being this was a novel.
This ignited the internal flares, but I was able to keep them under control for a good thirty minutes. However, when it became apparent that not only had he not prepared, but had not reached out to me for clarification, my temper approached the surface. When it became equally apparent that none of his classmates had even read, I blew like Mount St. Helens.
What students do not realize and I had to make it clear is that university is like job training. You must go to work, be there on time and be prepared to work. No employer is going to tell you what to do every day. Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility! I had to dismiss them early; I was bordering on being livid.
An hour after the class, four of them came to my office to apologize "for the entire class". Two days later, one of the group did this video. I wish I could say things have changed this last week, but they haven't. Two more weeks and we'll have a break from each other for over a month. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder once again. If nothing else, the video gave me a chuckle, but Hitler?
If only I had thought of this while in school, I could have been a millionaire by 25 years old. Every American who has gone to an institute of higher education knows the cost of textbooks.
It is not uncommon for one textbook to cost $50 to $150 and most courses require multiple books. When I taught in CA, I would try to choose the required texts bearing in mind the cost of the books, knowing the financial pressures of being a student. It was not always possible. When students sell their books back at the end of the semester, they only get nickels on the dollar. This is a fantastic alternative. It still seems pricey to me, but then again, in comparison with new books, there is some savings.
Rent your college texts from Book Renter for 30 day increments or a semester. For example, the book I will be using in the fall semester for a new Masters class is called Social Problems. To purchase the book new is $118.40. However, a rental is $46.16 for a full semester. Not sure if you want to stay in the class? Then rent it for 30 days for $33.47.
The semester is over. Yahoo!! Yesterday when I entered the grades into the computer system, marked my last day for this semester. My only summer obligation is to be on the committee for Masters Thesis defenses on June 14th. Other than this, I am free until September.
I am publicly stating my goals for the summer to try to keep me accountable for accomplishing them. I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, because we are usually on vacation at that time, so who in their right mind wants to resolve anything while having fun?
Here are some of my goals:
Move our second website to a new provider (boring)
Rewrite my book on our travels since leaving CA (demanding)
Re-title all of my photos that have 200099392.jpg on them to make them more identifiable (mind numbing)
Visit every museum in Budapest and write a summary of it, whether or not it is appealing to me (challenging)
Read two novels a week (easy to do)
Blog, blog, blog (loving)
Prepare three new classes for the fall (invigorating)
Summer is so anticipatory in April, but when it actually rolls around, I miss my students. One class has been with me for four semesters; it is emotional saying good-bye to them. They become part of my extended family, having spent hours with many of them outside of the classroom as within. Many contact me over the summer months to meet for a coffee or beer; contact with them will not be totally absent. I always want to do the group hug thing, but Hungarians are not huggers. Darn them!
Yesterday, John and Mike left for the States. John was the former Fulbright Scholar who returned for a Hospice Conference. He has made inroads with the Ministry of Health by showing them money saving options for in-patient care. His partner Mike is a pleasure to share time with. We will miss them both.
In another ten days, Beth the Nursing Professor and her husband Bob will be returning to the States also. They have been exceptional company and mentally stimulating.
Our adopted nephew will be leaving in August for a year in the States. As happy as we are for him, he is closer to us than my own nephews. It will be a major void in our life not having him around. He is such a high-quality human being; he deserves the honor and scholarship he received. I will be at a loss without his assistance at the university next year. He has been indispensable with the new students, getting them oriented to university life.
In August, we will have to start our cycle all over again with meeting new Fulbright Scholars and creating a social network all over again. And life goes on.
I was born in Long Branch, NJ on the Jersey shore and lived there until I was a junior in high school. From there, I moved to New Lothrop, Michigan to finish my last two years of high school. I returned to Michigan for one disasterous semester of college, but moved to Florida. I have owned a restaurant in PA, drove taxi in Jamestown, NY, and lived in Philadelphia before CA. I have a BA in Psychology/Sociology from Thomas A. Edison State College, a MSW (Temple University), and my Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco.
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