And then there was one

After that first semester of juggling three jobs I chose not to continue at the community college. I kept on with the dance teaching and even added extra hours there. This past fall (2009) I swapped out the dance teaching for the English teaching once again. It was in some ways easier and harder than the year before.

On the one hand I had a better grasp on the material that I was teaching. I was better able to plan for the classes since I had an idea of what was coming up and what I would be testing them on. I even had a better grasp on grading. Although, that part was still time consuming and far from perfected. Actually, none of it was perfected, even by the time I was finished.

In many ways this semester was also harder. I had three plagiarized papers turned in (that I know of!) and one person who cheated on a quiz. One section began with 27 enrolled students, 25 actually showed up the first day, and 16 finished the semester. I had a handful of very good students, one of which I liked having in class - he did the work made well thought out comments and generally contributed well in class - until half way through when I mentioned that I had a boyfriend. Then this student was chronically late and had little to say in class. My first semester teaching a male student did pushups on the last day of class after the final in an attempt to get me to go to dinner with him... in front of other students. I had a number of students in both classes who just failed to turn any work in - or handed in 1 page essays when the assignment called for 6+. I understand that I was at community college, but I burnt out having to deal with blatant apathy week after week.

Teaching dance did in-fact put me in a good mood. Seeing students go from knowing nothing to learning a basic step to putting real moves together was a fun part of my job. The commute, the parking, the walking 5 blocks to and from my car, the students that thought they knew more than me, and once again the being hit on all the time, was not the fun part of my job.

And in that way I have gone from three to one job in just over a year. And it's a part-time job at that! So what is a librarian to do with all this extra free time on her hands?

Go back to school that's what! I enrolled and began on-line classes in January of 2010 for a Certificate in Publishing. I am not 100% sure that I will get the certificate, but I am taking the classes to know more about the publishing industry. For now I am learning about Trade publishing and copy editing. It is fun and exciting - well, editing is at least if you're a big fan of grammar which I am in the process of re-learning. I am going to attempt a new blog about this, but don't really know what direction it will take just yet.