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bio_prof_
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« Reply #15 on: July 14, 2007, 02:05:43 PM » |
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Just throwing in that the discipline you teach may limit the number of classes you can physically teach. Biology labs will up the time commiment by 2-3 hours per week. Much more time is involved if you are an adjunct and have to prepare, supply, set-up and break down your own labs.
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That's all for now.
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comp_queen
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« Reply #16 on: July 14, 2007, 02:15:34 PM » |
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In the last two academic years (including summers) I've taught 36 classes--yes 108 credit hours, for a total of 7 schools (as many as six at a time).
I'm crazy.
I also have a supportive domestic situation.
I'd be gearing up for an 8-10 class fall semester if the job-search gods hadn't smiled.
C'est la vie.
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I hateseses powerpointseses
accreditation better be worth it!
"How...the bolt of our fate slides home." ~Thomas Harris |
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samspade
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« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2007, 11:54:40 PM » |
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Comp queen you are making me feel better. I have 5 surveys at my normal institution and one from where I received my doctorate. I am still trying to get a night class from a local CC. I hate teaching this many - my Sundays are devoted exclusively in the fall to grading (albeit as I watch football).
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beppolina
New member
Posts: 32
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« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2007, 06:10:39 AM » |
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Maries, would you consider a private/parochial/charter school? It ain't all that much greener, student-wise OR administrivia-wise, on the adjunct side of the fence.
I taught for a few extremely happy years at an independent school in Very Large City. The parents made me craaaaaaaazy and the pay was impossible (thank you, spouse, thank you so much) BUT it was the single most professionally fulfilling experience of my academic and intellectual life. I only got out of it because we moved, and then this happened and that happened, and blah blah blah.....
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I can has deeploma?
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maries
Junior member
Posts: 99
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« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2007, 02:01:08 PM » |
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No, I really want out of K-12 completely. Anyway, private school pay isn't much more than adjunct pay around here. And in any case, my subject is not taught at private schools. I teach ESL and kids in private school tend to speak English.
Honestly, I like working with underprivileged children. It's being treated like a child myself that I can't stand. I just feel so much better on a college campus. You wouldn't believe the indignities they subject us to in K-12.
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big_giant_head
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« Reply #20 on: July 19, 2007, 04:06:47 PM » |
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I would, and that's one giant reason I teach at the college level.
Last night I had a terrible nightmare that I started at my new faculty position (which in RL is at a CC), and found that it was really teaching 8th grade at my old middle school. Horrible, horrible, horrible. We had to buy our own books, too.
An adjunct-ing colleague at one place I teach came to me one day and said that I should apply for one of two suddenly-open positions at my old high school. This was last October. I asked her what had happened that jobs would be open at that time. Well, it turns out that two of the English teachers had just HAD it, partly with the administration and partly with NCLB. They just threw up their hands and quit. My informer chuckled smugly and commented that "they sure won't be finding new jobs in THIS state any time soon!" And I doubt they'll be crying about that, I thought but did not say.
So, my colleague told me, the job was open, and what's more, it came with $1500 "combat" pay! Yay! (When I went to school there, it was a good school, albeit filled with smart but poor students; I can't imagine how much worse things must have gotten in the intervening years.)
So, I told my colleague, um, no thanks, but thanks for thinking of me, right?
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carthago can haz delenda
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_touchedbyanoodle_
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« Reply #21 on: July 19, 2007, 05:10:20 PM » |
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No, I really want out of K-12 completely. Anyway, private school pay isn't much more than adjunct pay around here. And in any case, my subject is not taught at private schools. I teach ESL and kids in private school tend to speak English.
Honestly, I like working with underprivileged children. It's being treated like a child myself that I can't stand. I just feel so much better on a college campus. You wouldn't believe the indignities they subject us to in K-12.
maries, I believe them. I left K-12 (pretty much walked out in March of that year; school got shut down two months later), and I'd adjunct for 10K a year before going back. Since you're at that point, start calling the department heads at schools around you. I was offered adjunct positions that way before I even filled out applications. Take whatever you can get the first semester, up to 6 classes, but not more or you might run away from that scene as well. If you are technologically inclined, ask how you can get in on teaching online. Online pay isn't any more and it isn't easier, but the flexibility is greater, allowing you to squeeze in more classes without the time conflict hassle. Jumping on the adjunct train this way makes it difficult to ever rise above that status, but having experienced much, much worse makes it easier to stomach what some decry as the atrocities of the adjunct problem. Noodled |
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"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." -George Carlin
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maries
Junior member
Posts: 99
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« Reply #22 on: July 21, 2007, 12:25:50 AM » |
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Jumping on the adjunct train this way makes it difficult to ever rise above that status, but having experienced much, much worse makes it easier to stomach what some decry as the atrocities of the adjunct problem.
Noodled
This is my hope - that the trauma of K-12 has prepared me to more easily weather the troubles of adjunctdom. I have worked as an adjunct before - I can remember actually getting indignant when they took away my private office. I think I might have cried. My K-12 "classroom" is in a lopsided trailer in the back of a parking lot! And it's hardly the worst thing about working there (that would be the morons idiots administrators). I don't have to worry about not rising above adjunct - I left my PhD field eons ago and can never go back (it's extremely competitive and small), so non-tt is the best I'll ever do anyway. I do have a reasonable chance of landing something full-time (not assistant professor, but maybe a full-time instructor or some such) after I get a little bit more experience teaching in this field. I'm going to try three courses next fall, and see how that is. I'd love to teach online classes. None of the schools I adjunct at now have any available, but I keep hoping. I took some online courses, and I thought they totally sucked and could have been a lot better. I've always wanted to try doing it myself. |
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zuzu_
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« Reply #23 on: July 21, 2007, 08:58:43 AM » |
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I've just landed my first FT job after a five-year stint as a chronic adjunct. I just calculated that I averaged just over 32 credit hours per academic year, mostly composition. I was usually at 2 or 3 schools.
The most I could really handle was six 3-credit courses per semester. That's with zero scholarly work and virtually no extra service-type activities. I probably could've handled a bit more if I didn't have a toddler at home.
I'm looking foward to less work with double the pay this coming Fall. Adjuncting is such a racket.
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