Instead of wasting away brain cells by looking at other people’s lives on Facebook whilst waiting for my soy protein and calcium infused protein shake to thicken in the freezer, I decided to blog a tad.
Today I felt like a real adult. I actually did all the things on my to-do list, followed up with a student who had an issue (instead of forget where I put the sticky note I put what I needed to do on). Oh! Speaking of students, this was my first day teaching. Happiness!
It’s kinda not my first day teaching per se, but it’s definitely my first day teaching—if that makes any sense. My first degree is in elementary education—so I’ve been teaching for a while. I never saw myself staying in a classroom for the rest of my life. Being a schoolteacher seemed like a death sentence. Just the thought of teaching carrying-over numbers in addition and science fairs and “let’s plot the continents” year after year made me very queasy in my insides. Some people can do that and I’m so happy for them because they may one day be teaching Leighton and her brothers and sisters (but I’m 89% sure I’ll be homeschooling unless there’s a bilingual school in the area).
But then again, I really don’t see myself doing ANYTHING consistently for the rest of my life. Even brushing my teeth and peeing seem so monotonous some days. I think to myself, “Did I not just pee like 2 hours ago??” Not saying that I can change the necessary functions in life, but if I could, I would. I like the new and exciting things that come with living.
So back to today.
My first day teaching.
I actually got a part-time adjunct faculty position at the university where I’ll be working on my doctorate. The sound of that sentence is so daunting and deathly. How in the world did I get to be in this place of my life?? Was I not just a sophomore and 19 a few months ago? I digress.
I will be teaching 3 sections of COMM 161 which is Business and Professional Speaking. It’s absolutely amazing that the Department of Communication here deems me qualified to be in control of the learning of 75 individuals. So cool! The favor of my Savior astounds me.
My day actually started at like 8 am (it was supposed to be 7) when I went walking. Jesus and I had an agreement that I was going to walk for 15 minutes—7.5 minutes in one direction and 7.5 minutes back to my bed. It ended up being 30 minutes of grief, but He kept telling me to walk further past my 15 minute comfort zone.
After my shower, I packed my backpack. This part was a bit tricky. I had to pack lunch, a change of clothes, MacKenzie my laptop, phone, a pen, textbook, notepad, blah blah blah. And shoes. It was a challenge because my backpack is little and I have to ride my bike to work. I get to the building right before the Fine Arts Building and change from my biking clothes to my work clothes—a bit awkward, but doable.
My classes started at 1130. My next one was 1240. My last was 150. Or something like that. Back to back. Very little time to take a bitty snack on my peanut butter sandwich and absolutely no time to play Words with Friends (an electronic Scrabble game you play with people I know on my phone.)
How was teaching?
Thanks for asking.
It was fabulous! I was a bit gittery in the first class, but about 4.5 minutes into it, I was fine. I absolutely loved it and can see myself teaching for the foreseeable future. I could probably teaching for like…10 years. Maybe 15. Who knows.
It was the weirdest thing to present my syllabus and my to my class. Like, I wrote it. It’s all mine. They were listening to me. I wanted to stop teaching and ask them if they knew that it was just a few semesters ago that I was in their shoes. Such a déjà vu experience.
The only most terrible thing at the moment is that I think my knees are broken. I haven’t really gotten out of bed yet. I’m not even that sleepy , but I did take a nap. Walking to the kitchen to get my soy-protein, calcium-enriched chocolate beverage is going to be very difficult. My mom said I should stretch my knees, buuuuttt you can’t stretch bone. I hope my knees are still alive tomorrow morning.
A few goals I have for this semester. I want to work on writing things down and following through with things I have to get done. No more random sticky notes. I used a small notebook today to jot things down and checked things off when they were done. I hope this system works. Also, I want to work on staying ahead by at least 2 weeks in the planning of my class. I also want to work on balancing. I will be taking a class, teaching 3, but I need me-time and time to focus on growing holistically. I’ll be taking a lot of time to revamp my eating philosophy and goals and focusing on exercising consistently.
And I think that’s all.
Buen semestre!