For probably about the past month, I’ve been doing my damnedest to write lectures and get as much finished as I can of the course preparation for my summer class. The bulk of the task has been writing the twenty lectures I’m giving over four and a half weeks, along with crafting outlines for each lecture, ideas for exams and the like. Then there’s the fine tuning of my syllabus, dropping supplemental readings here and there if they don’t quite fit with what I originally thought I’d cover, or tweaking my schedule of meetings when I discover that some topics are so enormous to require multiple days of class to cover fully.
Anyway, after working at a grueling pace of cranking out a lecture a day (generally around twelve to fifteen pages of single-spaced text), I managed to polish off my last lecture yesterday. I spent a good chunk of last night and today looking for a couple of images or so to illustrate each lecture, and then this evening I tended to some final prep (things like a cheat sheet for the IDs I can use if prompted by a student, and compiling all the readings on electronic reserve into a single 129-page PDF).
I’ve been killing myself these past few weeks, mostly because I was terrified at the thought of having to produce five two-hour lectures each week, along with grading papers and exams, and I thought I needed to have most of the course prep done before the class actually starts on Monday.
Of course, true to my usual form, I gave myself an exceedingly high target of having all the lectures written before the term begins, reasoning that I probably wouldn’t manage that feat, but would at least get myself quite deep into my syllabus so that the remaining prep would be manageable.
Part of the reason for my doubt was that I started on this project around the last week or two of my spring course, after I had that quarter’s lectures written, but I still had finals to grade. Plus, I think I had something like twelve lectures to write in thirteen days, which was doable if I could actually stick to a lecture-a-day pace, but didn’t leave much wiggle room in (what I thought) the inevitable event that I couldn’t keep at it.
So, it’s nice to know that I exceeded my own expectations for a change, and even managed to tend to the final odds and ends. I have all my handouts, exams and other supplemental materials ready to go. The only task now is to print all this stuff and make photocopies of the materials I need to distribute.
But, miraculously, I should actually have a fairly easy go of it once classes start Monday. I’m actually hoping I can relax a bit and enjoy my summer. And I’m really looking forward to about July 23, after the class finishes and I have the grading done, when I’ll have two months to be idle and to love every minute of it.
Really, I think that’s what motivated me to keep such a diligent pace, the knowledge that after killing myself the past couple of years to research and write a dissertation and teach three courses, I might get a chance to turn off that part of my brain and live a carefree existence for once.
On the bright side, I’ve probably gained some experience at planning and prepping courses that should prove invaluable when the day comes that I’m in my first job and coping with some insane course load of three or four classes per term. And, when I get saddled teaching a European survey, I’ll actually have most of it in the can.
Very impressive!