He sends me the syllabus. At this point, I've never taught this class, it's been taught by this other guy for a while, I'll just keep as is. I open the syllabus basically to change dates and semester and I'm reading it...um, WTF?!?! Seriously, there's talk of homework problems for one class then back talking about case studies for this class. It appears that he taught finance first and didn't change the syllabus well. And how long has it been like this??? So I delete, and delete. Fix this, fix that. Whatever... I'm still going to use it.
I get an email telling me I can come pick up the book Wednesday (class starts Thurs). I go Wednesday and apparently the other guy had lost the book. (Really...cause I'm thinking I can find it on ebay or Craigslist if I look....oh, let's not beat around the bush - this is where adjunct whores make extra cash flow - selling freebie textbooks). So, literally I go to class Thursday with nothing but a half-ass syllabus and an activity to sort of start discussions.
I arrive to class. He's there - literally his office is just outside my door. Now, I know he's teaching adjunct at the community college where I teach...which starts at 6:30, which means you need to be there by 6:00. So I ask....he said he told his class not to show up until after 7 that night!!! REALLY?? This after we had our faculty convocation where they came down on adjuncts to ensure we hold our office hours and to hold classes for the full length of time?!?! Oh, wait, he didn't come to faculty convocation.....my bad... Yeah, there's a reason he's not teaching in my dept anymore. Apparently the English dept is still desperate, though.
So he hangs around and students are coming in. Odd, but okay...you can stand around and chat with me. I mean, we are in an annex building, so I think he just likes having people to talk to - not sure. Anyway, students are talking about books, etc. One says to the guy that she's got the old edition and the guy says that's fine, Mrs X will make it work. Oh, okay, I will. Turns out that the edition is like #2 out of #18. And other students have books from different authors/publishers. Whatever. Really? One person had the right book. Then another person tells him that she has to leave an hour early every week and if it's okay. Um, hello - I'm right here. He says oh, it's fine... He tells me again - in front of these few students - that this is the last time this class is being taught and they just need these credits to get their bachelors degree...blah, blah... the new curriculum doesn't have this course, don't care what you do, just finish this out....blah, blah.
I wait, I wait. 7 students? I have 5. I wait. People are eating chicken from down the hall. (Apparently this school has food ALL THE TIME. Add in the free backpacks and daycare, it freaks me out. Explains why the tuition is through the roof!!). We're now past the 15 late mark (6:45), he pops his head in one last time to tell me I should just let everyone go early since another girl has to leave early too. Her story is that it was just that night, but I'm thinking the students will rotate this leaving early thing. Anyway, the guy finally leaves for his 7 pm class down the road...good luck getting there in 15 minutes. Whatever. I'm thinking about ratting him out.
I ask the students if they know of the other students in class that aren't there. Yep. So and so comes to class about an hour late each week. So and so never comes the first day since you never do nothing. Okay....we'll let's begin. I do introduction pictionary. Now, I've done this with 37 students before. It took some time, we it was fun and we did it. This, however, was the longest event ever. I swear I think they got that if they stretched it out that's all we would do... I finally had to speed it up. Really, don't draw your life story....only draw one thing about yourself - we guess - you explain - you sit down. That's it. I had people seriously providing oral and pictorial histories of multi-generations. Kill me.
Passed out syllabus. Discussed syllabus. Gave them the activity to do in groups. They asked if they could do it at home. I said fine. They left. I went shopping. Retail therapy works wonders.
I'm selling my soul one class at a time....
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