I have taught at the Community College for about three years now and have only taught in two different buildings. At both my undergrad and grad institutions, buildings are mostly named for really rich dudes who donated lots of money. Or they are called State Hall. Both universities have a State Hall. Anyways, this is the first school I've seen that has a building just called Science and guess what kinds of classes are taught there? You guessed right!
The building I usually teach in, aptly named Liberal Humanities, is undergoing a face lift this summer so my class was moved to a building I have never been in. The building is called something like Health or Nursing, and the classrooms are a bit more like labs than the rooms I am used to. I'm actually sitting in the class right now (or when I started writing this) and wow, what a difference. First of all, the room is huge! I have less than 25 students and more than 50 seats and still plenty of space! The rooms in L.H. are tiny rooms, wider than they are long, with three rows of long tables and only one walkway. It gets really cramped quickly, and it is difficult for me to get to individual students. But today I've been all over the room! Of course, when I walked in most students were sitting in the back half of the room, but that is to be expected.
What I was not so happy about is my seating. In L.H. we usually have a podium, a low desk with a computer, an overhead thingamadoo, and a nice comfy chair. Here is a real flippin' science room with the tall blacktop table with a sink, loads of drawers, a much more fancy overhead thingamadoo, a flat computer that I'm confused about...and a stool. I was a bit hesitant at first because I'm in a skirt today and am giving an in-class essay, so I will be sitting most of the period. However, to my surprise this stool is strangely comfy and the view is blocked.
Then there are the walls that only have three decorations: a huge Periodic Elements chart, a poster of Muhammad Ali, and what looks to be a screwdriver advertisement. Mmmkay.
What is really different is the mess on this desk. There are a ton of drawers filled with what looks like garbage. Lots of old powerpoint handouts, scantrons, little atom models, binders...just a ton of shit. Inside one of the doors, someone taped up a March Madness bracket...from 2001.
So far, okay. I like the open feeling of the room and the space on my desk. However, because of all the seating, most of my students are sitting at a table all by themselves. When I want them to do group work, which is a lot, they groan a lot more than usual because they actually have to stand up and walk. I know, awful.
P.S. Sorry for the absence, which I can only blame on teaching at night, the holiday weekend, and food poisoning.
Food poisoning? That happened to three people I know this weekend: must be related to a holiday devoted to parades, drinking and eating?
ReplyDeleteAt my CC we have to teach in whatever room the computer lottery system sticks us in, so I've been in lab like rooms, rooms with dead elk heads, skeletons, and the like.
Good luck with the summer term class: do you have an abbreviated session in summer? We (well, not ME) are doing the full 10 weeks this summer for the first time (usually, summer was only 4 or 8 week sessions). I'm curious how much burn out there will be for the faculty who chose to teach summer....
Food poisoning?! Ack. Have had it a couple of times. Terrible.
ReplyDeleteMy CC cancelled almost all of the summer classes b/c of budgeting issues. Not good for the students (and teachers) who were counting on summer classes.
So, in the new classroom, have you found anything combustible?
Well, maybe not food poisoning. The way it came on I was sure it was, but now, two days later, my husband experienced basically the same sickness, so maybe it was a 24-hour type thing. Whatever it was, it sucked.
ReplyDeleteAnnie- Dead elk heads? Ew. This summer semester is actually 7 weeks, so the classes are really full and pretty exhausting!
GEW- Nothing combustible yet, but today I found a black box that said "Turn pen off when done!" I opened up the box and inside was a normal looking pen. It is obviously magic.
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ReplyDeleteOur CC has teaching buildings that are named "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", and "Science and Technology" (this one is a newer building. Perhaps they felt it would wig the students out to get stuck in a building named "F"). Most of them have a supplementary name, similar to what you said, one is Arts and Sciences, I know, but I don't know the names of the others. I've taught in A, B, D, and Sci&Tech. The school has been around for a while, so the classes and buildings have been through various stages of remodeling, and even the classrooms in the same buildings are not all the same. "A" building still has chalk boards.
ReplyDeleteCan the black box with the ordinary looking pen be a pen for marking on the computer screen (which then comes up on the overhead screen so the students can see)? The Sci&Tech classrooms tend to have weird things like this, which I do not touch. But maybe that's what it's for?
And I am teaching three 10-week summer classes. We will have one week off (during which I'll be grading exams and essays and frantically trying to get my classes - of which I have six - prepped for the fall). Ah, the life of an adjunct....