First Day as Under-Paid Adjunct

Here's my horoscope from yesterday:
You have wanted to play a much more active role in an involvement you have had little to say about - the time to speak up is now. You will be given an opportunity to exercise your will and show your stuff.

Seemed quite appropriate for my first day as a part-time instructor at a nearby commuter college. The day went fine, much smoother than I expected. I exercised some will, but stopped short of showing my stuff. I successfully got a new ID with an equally bad picture, figured out how to check email and learned about a very time consuming assessment that I have to force my students to do, and found my office that I share with up to 10 other part-time instructors.

Very few surprises in class. Since it was the first day, I decided to review the syllabus and let my students go. They didn't protest. I asked each student to share his or her favorite historical figure. Turns out, a lot of my southern students are Abraham Lincoln fans. My, my, how times change. One shared that he thinks Vladimir Lenin is the bomb. I had to squelch his enthusiasm when I explained that we wouldn't discuss Lenin (Vladimir or John) in this early US History class. Now, I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to work in something about Communism. Maybe I could convince them that Abraham Lincoln was a Communist.

By the end of the 2 sections, I hadn't identified my favorite student, but I think I've identified my least favorite. She approached me after class and seemed to take my reading assignments as a personal affront. As she explained, she's taking a professional exam in 4 months and just won't have a lot of time to do reading for my class, and could she do well in the class if she didn't do any reading? I said, "No." I almost said, "Look, sister, I'm finishing and defending my dissertation this semester, and I have to write and deliver lectures, find a more permanent job, and do all the reading for this class, so don't tell me how little time you have to read."

She left in a huff, after asking if she could take an exam to exempt out of the course. I said she'd have to talk to the department chair or the registrar. I'm still not sure what she expected me to say. "Oh, those reading assignments are just for show. I don't really expect you to do any of them. And, just skip all the writing assignments and discussion that come straight from the reading. I'll go ahead and give you an A on those, since you have so much work to do."

I feel certain that this experience will provide many new blogging opportunities.