T -1

Tomorrow, summer classes start. Last time I checked, I had 11 in one class and 10 in the other. (Sometimes we gain a few the last day of registration or the first day of classes - someone's work schedule changes and they can take classes after all, or they decide they want to get a class out of the way, or something). But if the classes don't grow any, I won't mind. That small of a number - provided everyone is willing to participate - is pretty much ideal for a class.

I re-did the introductory material for one class (I try to re-do stuff a little each semester, to keep fresh and also to discard stuff that doesn't work). I'm eager to start that class because I think it will start things off well, it will get people into the idea of planning the experimental work they are to do as part of the class, and hopefully will get some discussion going. The other class, I've kind of "mentally redone" some of my examples; this is a class that we're getting a new book (and a "forced syllabus," sigh - they want to make all the sections of the class as identical as possible even though multiple people teach it) this fall, and so I'm redoing the lecture material for it this summer.

(I've decided - to force myself to stay on the "forced syllabus" - to allot myself a set number - say 12 to 15 - Powerpoint slides for each class, and force myself to strictly prioritize what I put on them in terms of graphs and figures and terms. Unfortunately this "cram it all in" new syllabus is going to require me to let go some of the weirder and - to me at least - more wonderful stuff I shared with the class in the past, but whatever. The challenge will be to make the basic stuff I have to teach as interesting as possible.)

Summer teaching is good for me. I don't deal well with long periods of idleness - when I'm not teaching, I have a hard time staying disciplined to do things like work on research and write papers and even exercise. (It's ironic - when I'm busy, I can make time to do the things I should be doing, but when I'm not busy, I kind of fall into a mañana philosophy and don't get much done.) When I'm actively teaching, I plan my schedule pretty tightly - for example, I get out of class at 10:45 Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. After that, I plan to work on some research papers I have going until lunch, and then after lunch, plan the next day's class material. And then once I get that done - back to research until 3 or 4 when I go home. I have one paper I MUST finish this summer (as I'm submitting it when I go to a conference the end of July) and I have another I would very much like to finish (and will, unless I get lazy). And I have a third project I can kind of poke away at as I make time for it.

It will be nice though to have more evenings open - AAUW does not meet in the summer, Youth Group is on summer hiatus (some of the kids work and some are going to camp), most of my evening responsibilities go away in the summer. Which is just nice. It is nice to have a period of time when I can come home and STAY home, when I can come home at 4 or so and make some kind of more-elaborate dinner preparations instead of washing salad greens, throwing them in a bowl, opening a can of chickpeas, and calling it good (which is what I often do during the school year).

I enjoy the slightly relaxed schedule on campus, as well - a lot of the horsepucky doesn't take place over the summer - no committee meetings, no OH NOES WHAT DO WE DO NOW directives from the administration, much less busywork designed to make some administrator look good. A person can focus on teaching and research, and that is why I took this job - to teach and to do research.

I also like the peace of the campus in the summer - only perhaps 10% of the students are present that are present during the school year. It's a lot quieter, a lot less trafficky. You can walk across campus and be largely alone, even at class-changing time. The quietness is a nice change, and I think for me it's necessary - I get overwhelmed by too many people being around all the time.

I also find the summer teaching restorative because of the students. We tend to get really good students in the summer - usually they're people who are committed to finishing their undergrad degrees in three years, or they're incoming freshmen who want to get a jump on their schoolwork, or sometimes they're advanced high-school students who want to earn college credit early. At any rate, they tend to be more focused, to care more, and that's good. I also think the more relaxed atmosphere of the summer - and the fact that we meet every day (except Fridays) helps the students' personalities to come out more - they're not so much an amorphous mass, they're very clearly individuals with different personalities. And some of them are so funny or so interested. I get a lot of music and theater students in my non-majors class in the summer and they tend to be a lot of fun to have - creative, clever, a lot of them ask good questions. It's almost as if the people who feel so pressured to be "cool" - "cool" in the sense of not letting on they CARE about anything - don't bother to show up in the summer.

And I like that. I like the slight geekiness of a student who will make a joke about Stentor (as one of my students did last summer...and you know, that just totally made my day when he did that, when he made that mythology reference. It was like, "You don't mind that we're seeing your personality and sense of humor! And it makes you interesting to me!"). I suppose it's because I'm a geek myself and I tend to make those funny little references in class (I try to make ones that aren't TOO obscure. I did get a laugh one day by making an offhand comment about "filing TPS reports").

So summer - even though I'm working - kind of restores me. Having classes of good students is better for me than a total rest because it re-energizes me, it gives me hope for the future. (My ecology class this spring was pretty darn good, too, so that helps my enthusiasm).

And I have to admit, the money's not bad, either. The one summer I DIDN'T teach (because my classes didn't "make"), I had to really watch my pennies; summers I do teach my budget is a lot happier.

So, tomorrow at 8 am I will be beginning a new season, a new group of students. New personalities, new interests to learn about. Hopefully good classes with interested (and interesting - and I tend to feel that people who are engaged with life ARE more interesting than people who feel that need to be detached and "cool") people in them, and hopefully I can live up to their expectations in terms of what they want to learn and do this summer.