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Work stories!
Dec. 6th, 2019 01:11 pmSo my boss comes to me and she says "you know how there's been a clusterfuck of classes for next year? It got clustier. Anyways, upside, would you be able to run a year long course of "Data Analysis 1" and "Data Analysis 2"? Kthx"
(Heavily paraphrased. For reference, I am currently doing a single semester of Data Analysis, in the spring.)
Now, the _really really good_ part of all of this is that all these conversations about "what's the schedule gonna be like next year" have this really glaring subtext of "YOU ARE STAYING AT THIS SCHOOL". Which is...fantastic, frankly. It's absolutely the sort of thing that does absolutely zero for my anxietybrain, but is a great thing for my sanebrain to know about.
(anxietybrain is convinced that I will do all this work for some new teacher they hire. Anxietybrain is at least four poops.)
And the more-good-than-bad part of all this is an extended conversation around "let's have a good challenge, and keep doing new things at work!" It turns out that year three is, in some ways, the year things start feeling more like a rut and kinda stuck and just coasting by on the work I did last year (which is not always good enough to coast on). Okay, fine, that's just for my Calc Honors class, which has always been my hardest class to prep for, but still! Getting my brain out and into new curriculum is, theoretically, quite good for me!
Also, Data Analysis is a bangin' course. It's probably what I feel most proud of, it leads to a lot of good (somewhat anarchist) conversations about capitalism and the real world, and it's a chance to kick ass at some project based learning.
But the Data Analysis class I teach is loowww on math. We do lots of math related things --reading graphs, mean-median-mode, a very basic statistical distribution-- but we do not do like...stats. Like any stats. My student population is blissfully unaware of what a p-value is, and that's really the right fit for where they are, mathematically and academically.
And I've stretched it into a semester, maybe a semester-plus-six-weeks, but that's...that's not two semesters. Not yet. So it's very possible that I'm going to be spending some Serious Summer Time working on creating at _least_ a bare-bones curriculum, and hopefully even making some...actual lessons. For actual teaching.
(Big plus side there: sweet dollarbucks)
But wow, despite all the work I might be looking at, despite the fact that God I Hate Change1 And This Is A Lot Of It, despite...despite, I am finding myself to be pretty excited actually. And, in classic ADHD fashion, my hyperfocus has latched onto this Great Thing To Work On, which would be _awesome_ except that WOW I HAVE AN EVIDENCE FILE DUE IN A WEEK, WANNA DO THAT INSTEAD PLEASE?
Still the dream job. Increasingly "the dream job in spite of all the bullshit" but still dream job.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Okay, technically what it is is "sudden, unexpected change". My mental damages are just such that I can get _really_ off-balance and upset (super exacerbated by hunger or tired) if things Don't Go Like They Were Supposed To. This change is not actually bothering me at all, mostly because it's being presented to me like six months before I'd have to do anything at all with the information. Six months is a long time to get used to something. I've got this!
(Heavily paraphrased. For reference, I am currently doing a single semester of Data Analysis, in the spring.)
Now, the _really really good_ part of all of this is that all these conversations about "what's the schedule gonna be like next year" have this really glaring subtext of "YOU ARE STAYING AT THIS SCHOOL". Which is...fantastic, frankly. It's absolutely the sort of thing that does absolutely zero for my anxietybrain, but is a great thing for my sanebrain to know about.
(anxietybrain is convinced that I will do all this work for some new teacher they hire. Anxietybrain is at least four poops.)
And the more-good-than-bad part of all this is an extended conversation around "let's have a good challenge, and keep doing new things at work!" It turns out that year three is, in some ways, the year things start feeling more like a rut and kinda stuck and just coasting by on the work I did last year (which is not always good enough to coast on). Okay, fine, that's just for my Calc Honors class, which has always been my hardest class to prep for, but still! Getting my brain out and into new curriculum is, theoretically, quite good for me!
Also, Data Analysis is a bangin' course. It's probably what I feel most proud of, it leads to a lot of good (somewhat anarchist) conversations about capitalism and the real world, and it's a chance to kick ass at some project based learning.
But the Data Analysis class I teach is loowww on math. We do lots of math related things --reading graphs, mean-median-mode, a very basic statistical distribution-- but we do not do like...stats. Like any stats. My student population is blissfully unaware of what a p-value is, and that's really the right fit for where they are, mathematically and academically.
And I've stretched it into a semester, maybe a semester-plus-six-weeks, but that's...that's not two semesters. Not yet. So it's very possible that I'm going to be spending some Serious Summer Time working on creating at _least_ a bare-bones curriculum, and hopefully even making some...actual lessons. For actual teaching.
(Big plus side there: sweet dollarbucks)
But wow, despite all the work I might be looking at, despite the fact that God I Hate Change1 And This Is A Lot Of It, despite...despite, I am finding myself to be pretty excited actually. And, in classic ADHD fashion, my hyperfocus has latched onto this Great Thing To Work On, which would be _awesome_ except that WOW I HAVE AN EVIDENCE FILE DUE IN A WEEK, WANNA DO THAT INSTEAD PLEASE?
Still the dream job. Increasingly "the dream job in spite of all the bullshit" but still dream job.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Okay, technically what it is is "sudden, unexpected change". My mental damages are just such that I can get _really_ off-balance and upset (super exacerbated by hunger or tired) if things Don't Go Like They Were Supposed To. This change is not actually bothering me at all, mostly because it's being presented to me like six months before I'd have to do anything at all with the information. Six months is a long time to get used to something. I've got this!