A Call for Prayer

I know this sounds like I am whining, but I am. School has been crazy this semester. Just now I am sitting in my World Literature class all alone. You never know what is going to happen. I am not fretting, however. I can use the break. I need the break.

We, I, are/am teaching everything both in person and online. I am teaching my entire load twice. With a course load of 21 hours (but getting paid for 18), I am in effect teaching 42 semester hours. The semester just started, and I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and a little hostile. 

Teaching online is not easy. If you think it is, give it a try. It is much more difficult than teaching face to face. I know my job, face to face. I don't know my job online. I am having to teach myself, learn by trail and error, and threaten to break things. It is time consuming, frustrating, and never ending. I did not sign up to teach online.

Yes, a couple of students showed up so I did not get a break. They, the students, can come and go at will. They can take a week off, a class off, a semester off. They can go online, come to class, or mix and match just like you do your pants and shirts. And I have to make sure it works for them. 

I am having nightmares keeping up with who is who, who is attending when abd where. Attendance is almost impossible. Attendance, by the way, is the most important thing we do. Unlike four-year schools, we get reimbursed from the state according to attendance. What used to take minutes, now takes hours. Hours. And that is not even teaching.

For every class, not matter if everyone attends in person or not, I have to put it all online. I am guessing that this is going to make it easier to fire us. I think that is what the new admin wants, to get rid of as many of us as possible. Once we get all our classes online, they could fire us, go online with our classes, and give everyone an A or B. Don't say it will never happen. Who could have made you believe that we could save the school, get a pay cut, and then have our work load more than doubled? It happened.

Pray for me, for us, the worn, worked, wobbly faculty of MDCC.