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.

At first there were three

In the fall of 2008 I went from being unemployed to working three jobs.

I was offered a teaching position at a community college, a dance instructor position at a gym, and reference librarian position at an academic library. All three of them fell into my lap as I hadn't done much in the way of applying for them.

The first, the community college, emailed me among many others based on an application I put in more than a year prior for the library. Because of my master degree in English, I was qualified to teach at the community college level.

The second, dance instructor, came about by having a conversation with my trainer, who also scheduled the group fitness classes. I was training in order to build upper body strength for my ballroom dance hobby. Their latin dance instructor was leaving and they needed somebody new. I was hired soon after telling him that I could teach.

The third, as reference librarian, I took over from a colleague of mine who was leaving the position. It was easier for the library director to hire me (after interviewing!) than open the position to applicants.

That fall was extremely busy. I had two 11 hour days and two 13.5 hour days because Monday through Thursday I was commuting between two jobs. I was always at work by 8 or 8am and home around 10pm or later. I was constantly planning for classes, grading papers, and making notes about what in my curriculum needed to be changed. It was an extremely stressful four months.

It's been awhile

I realize I haven't blogged in a very long time. Besides that, I am also toying with my template. I found quite a few good ones at http://www.bloggertemplatesfree.com/ It was hard to choose just one, and they are very easy to install. So if you see it change again you'll know why!

Some changes are going on in my life - I've enrolled part-time in school while I work part-time at my academic library job. I have dropped my numerous other jobs to focus on these.

This is my first foray into Online classes and let me tell you that has been an education all of it's own.