Gone fishin’

On Tuesday night, I submitted my last batch of online grades for the summer, and yesterday afternoon, I sent my fall semester syllabi to be photocopied for next week. This means I’m pretty much off between now and Monday morning, when my next online term begins, with my first face-to-face classes in Keene starting on Tuesday.

When you’re a moonlighting adjunct, it’s rare to have a weekend (much less a long weekend) when you’re not teaching somewhere. Even during the weeks between online terms, there’s always grading from last term or course-prep for next term. And even during the summer months when you’re not teaching your face-to-face students, you’re still planning and prepping: already, I’m thinking ahead to spring term, when I’ll be teaching two sections of a new-to-me class as well as redesigning a class I’ve taught (and redesigned) countless times. When you’re a teacher who gives a damn about your teaching, there’s always something that needs tweaking and re-thinking.

In the meantime, yesterday afternoon I went for a long-overdue haircut, and last night I did some long-overdue laptop maintenance, installing software updates, backing-up documents, and doing a thorough virus and adware scan: the kind of things most folks do when they have a free weekend. And today, I’m turning my laptop OFF and am headed out into a cool and sunny day: the last few days of the “hoorah” called summer. I’ll see you on the flipside.