Teaching

The community college cancelled the last of my community education classes for this semester, because not enough people signed up for it (only three signed up, they need six).  So, of the four classes that I had scheduled this semester, I actually only taught one. 

That's irritating.  Especially since this particular college's website is so stupid that I suspect that I had a bunch of people who wanted to come to the class, but the people couldn't figure out how to sign up for it.

I'm a computer professional and a website professional.  You'd think that I'd have a step up in trying to figure out how to accomplish things on a website.  By the time I was done I was absolutely astounded at the counter-intuitiveness of their process, and I'm actually flabbergasted that those three people could actually figure out _how_ to sign up for the class.

First off, before you can sign up for any class at this college, you have to have an ID number... and they make that a stupidly idiotic process. You can't just click on a webform and get a number.  No... you have to snail-mail something in and wait for a snail-mail back, or you have to fax a form in and wait for a snail-mail back... before you can even begin to sign up for a community education class!! 

They're kidding, right?  Don't they know that community ed classes are impulse buys?  People want to click on a link and sign up for a class, all in one quick session.  But apparently this college doesn't know that.  And no, unfortunately they're not kidding.  Morons! (Read more)

Today is "do anything but work" day.  I'm mad at myself because I need the money, but I honestly can't face work today.  So, instead, I did a task that has been hovering over my head for a week or more.

I'm teaching a critique class at one of the local community colleges, and last week's lesson was on show-don't-tell.  After I got home, everybody's characters started yammering at me, insisting that I "show" the authors what I was trying to "tell" them with the critique I'd given.  Reluctant to step on people's toes, I finally emailed them, asking if they'd like me to do so.  They all replied "yes", so now I was committed.

All the way down to Texas and back, a couple of their characters yammered at me, but I didn't get a chance to write any of it down.  So today, instead of doing what I should have been doing, I spent all day so far rewriting a couple paragraphs of each their stories. (Read more)

I had class tonight; the craft and critique class.  It went well, I think.  At least it did from my point of view.  Everybody had good and useful things to say to everybody else, and they were all supportive and respectful.  And when I chimed in with my comments, the seemed appreciative.  So, I guees that's good.  :-)

I just wish that I could get my act in gear sooner for the class.  I printed off the last of the handouts five minutes after the time I was supposed to be leaving.  I made it to the room on time, and I had everything ready, but I really hate cutting things that close.  The trouble is that inspiration always seems to wait until the last minute.  **sigh** (Read more)

Or at least as ready as it's going to get.  I'm printing off handouts as I type this.

And... as always, printing the handouts is the hardest part of the whole process.  Admittedly, some of that may be my fault because I refuse to spend the money to go out and buy a new laser printer, and I also don't get the class done in time to email the handouts to the coordinator-gal so she can copy them and snail-mail them back to me. 

So, every class, I sit here and "discuss" with a laser printer that's older than my eldest son.  The printer itself works fine, but the problem is that the printer isn't quite sure what to do with all this new software that's on the other end of it, so to say it's finicky is putting it mildly.  (Read more)

Spent all day today and all day yesterday planning, organizing, drawing and in general putting together the slides for this Saturday's class.... 6-hours (minus breaks) worth of slides.  So far it's been about 26 hours of work, in two days.  Needless to say, my back and neck are a tad bit stiff at the moment.

But it's work that I really, really enjoy.  I enjoy the challenge of getting things that make sense in my head to make sense on paper.  I enjoy drawing the pictures that suddenly make the concept clear for everybody.  I enjoy doing the research.  I just enjoy all the aspects of getting ready for the class.

My hope is that I can get the blasted thing done tomorrow, so this time--for once-- I'm not staying up until 3am on the night before the presentation finishing it up.

We'll see how it works.

I just put the two new classes I'm teaching this fall up on the front page.   Go check them out.