For the first time in over eight years, I will not be teaching a class at Baker College of Jackson in a fall semester. With my wife's broadening schedule and some changes in my school schedule this year, it was not practical to teach an evening class, and due to lower student enrollment, they are not offering the Saturday classes that I used to teach.
It did not fully hit me until I sent the email declining a class this fall, but I have been at Baker for quite a while now. I have been teaching classes there nearly every term since only two months after we moved to Jackson. I have been teaching there since almost a year before Connor was born, let alone Rowen. When I first started working there, George W. Bush was still President, Jennifer Granholm was in her first term as Governor of Michigan, we had not hit the "great recession," and the first iPhone had not yet been introduced.
I am concerned about how this will affect our overall finances, but I hope that I will see an improvement in my health during this reprieve. Last year at this time, I was teaching two classes (although one was independent study). The issue with teaching extra classes during the school year isn't just the class time, but the number of hours that I spend every week preparing for class and grading assignments. During weeks when papers are due, I often lose the entire weekend.
One way or another, this fall is going to be different than any other fall semester than I've had at Lincoln. I hope that it works out for the best.
It did not fully hit me until I sent the email declining a class this fall, but I have been at Baker for quite a while now. I have been teaching classes there nearly every term since only two months after we moved to Jackson. I have been teaching there since almost a year before Connor was born, let alone Rowen. When I first started working there, George W. Bush was still President, Jennifer Granholm was in her first term as Governor of Michigan, we had not hit the "great recession," and the first iPhone had not yet been introduced.
I am concerned about how this will affect our overall finances, but I hope that I will see an improvement in my health during this reprieve. Last year at this time, I was teaching two classes (although one was independent study). The issue with teaching extra classes during the school year isn't just the class time, but the number of hours that I spend every week preparing for class and grading assignments. During weeks when papers are due, I often lose the entire weekend.
One way or another, this fall is going to be different than any other fall semester than I've had at Lincoln. I hope that it works out for the best.
RSS Feed
