Now that there is a countdown going around the office about the potential number of classes and how many days till we all go on vacation, each potential day left teaching on the schedule seems sysiphisian.
I’ve finished my book in my evening classes and need to prepare new material for two classes for the next two days. I spent four hours on the last class I prepared from scratch yesterday, so while I am very close to finishing these classes for the month, I’m having a harder time teaching them now than ever before.
Today I had three classes to grade and enter into the computer in addition to the classes I needed to teach in the evening. Grading is a total concentration suck for me, so just being productive enough to produce a “maybe it’s okay” activity was a big thing. I got significantly less done on the “plan a new lesson” front, but did get two classes exams graded before my eyes started getting fatigued. I have one more class to enter into the computer this week, then I get to start on the tedious stuff.
I actually took an hour off from grading and thought about what I should do for my lesson in the evening classes. I thought that with enough time inspiration might strike me. I was really hurting for activities and ideas, but after a while I had an activity I made from something I had laying around that might work. I might not be as good as yesterday’s activity, but at least it was something to do and talk about. I just don’t have the time to plan. It’s crunch time, and I’ve got to get other stuff done. I wish I had more time to plan my classes this week, but I don’t.
I was ready to teach my evening class today. I was going to go in optimistically and just try to make it work. I had a positive attitude and I was ready to go in. I went upstairs to my classroom to find it…empty. No one in my first class showed up! The class has been shrinking week after week, but this is the first time I’ve had no one at all show up. Luckily for me it doesn’t matter if there are students in the classroom or not. I get paid the same for sitting in the office preparing my next lesson regardless.
I’m sure I’ll have students in my second class that I’ll need to also entertain now that their book is finished, but it was a slight reprieve to try to refocus and rearrange my thoughts. Even with that bit of luck, I still have these evening classes one more time tomorrow, and I’ll be spending a significant amount of time finishing up my grades and whatnot again so I’ll be right back where I started tomorrow.
Almost….there.
