Week 5

I had my first conference with Mary today.  The conference was very informal. We sat down and discussed the classroom, my thoughts on what was happening, how my semester was progressing, and what my tentative teaching plans were for the unit I was assigned.  Mary and I haven’t gotten together as often as we should have for talks and pulse taking this semester.  I’m not sure why we didn’t get together more—I don’t know if I projected an attitude that I wasn’t really interested in that, or whether it was truly a time constraint situation.  I know Mary was unhappy with the time I had away from the classroom.  I was very unhappy with the English graduate department for not being upfront about how much time was involved with the T-Prep program.  I received a letter in the summer telling me I was enrolled in the T-Prep class, but no more information than that.  When I enrolled for the fall, I was initially carrying 12 hours, but my schedule showed I was off on Monday and Friday.  Dan bought airline tickets for me so I could travel back to KC for extended weekends, and then I was told that Mondays and Fridays would be utilized for T-Prep.  Oops. Sorry—I already have these tickets, and you know what?  You guys need to get your shit together and tell us what is going on.  I discussed this with Lauren Onkey, who seemed to be a bit irritated and asked me if I thought I was getting paid for simply taking 12 hours.  Then what, she asked, did I think I was getting paid for?  I told her I didn’t know what I was getting paid for; moreover, it was her responsibility to tell me what I was getting paid for, which meant—tell me upfront what T-Prep consists of:  two class meetings per week, shadowing an instructor, teaching circle meetings, and other activities.  I was not the only one in my class who was put in a sticky spot because of being uninformed.  Things in the English department started to go downhill after that meeting. 

 Week 6

Weeks 7-8