Summer I started yesterday. All I can say is, "Oy vey."
Summer classes are perceived as being a wee bit easier. However, you're working on a compressed (seven-week) schedule, and the traditional amount of material still has to be covered. It can make for a hellacious schedule.
Add in a handful of students who have issues ranging from childcare -- "I don't have a sitter -- can I bring my three-year-old?" -- to "I planned three vacations and will miss four out of our seven classes; I can pass, right?" and I clearly need to lay in more headache powders.
Also, looking out over a sea of vacant faces, I have two students who, I am fairly certain, are either drinking during class, or arrived drunk.
Fuck.
Start each class with a volume-20 blast of Barbra Streisand. That should drive out the drunkards and hung-overed.
ReplyDelete(I'd recommend you bring along some ear protection.)
"Summer classes are perceived as being a wee bit easier."
ReplyDeleteOnly by people who have never actually taken college summer classes, I think. I know from experience that my six-week summer session (which starts next Monday) will be coming very close to Hell on Earth -- consuming my every waking thought and occupying my dreams too since it's an advanced biology course and there is a full semester's load to learn in just 22 instructional days.
I feel sorry for my college profs for having to deal with the whining snowflakes who are wasting everyone's time and their parents' money.
I didn't find summer classes easier, but intersession (2 weeks, 4 hrs/day) were great: they were intensive enough to keep me interested and force me to stay current on homework.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, they were easier because I worked harder. Given the chance, I'd take all of my stuff that way.
Don't envy you at all... Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteIf you're really nice to those two they might share.
ReplyDelete