Summer Teaching

 I'm teaching a single class this summer, Comp I, entirely online. 

Here are the things I like about it:

(1) It's online. I can teach it in my pajamas from my living room.

(2) Because it's a summer class, the enrollment is low. Also, it's my only class. There are 15 students in the class and I can focus on all of them. I can learn what's going on in their lives, and craft explanations for any individual who is having problems. This is something I would love to do always, but when I'm teaching 150 students (my usual load during fall and spring semesters) it's impossible. I end up focusing only on the really brilliant or the really challenging students.

(3) Because everything is online, no one has to try to read my abysmal handwriting. I can also go into much more detail when I'm commenting on their work.

(4) Also, with only 15 students, multiple drafts are feasible. (We only really learn to write through the multi-draft process. This is the hill I will die on.)

(5) The semester is only five weeks long. This means we have to laser-focus on getting things done -- no stretching out the work over months. A paper every week, each leading to the next paper, means no one forgets what our goal is.

Here are things I do not like about it:

(A) It's online. I can't see the students, usually. Without being able to see their faces, I don't know if I'm under-explaining or over-explaining. I don't know if they have questions. (They can ask, of course; there's a way to comment, or they can email me; but almost none of them actually will.) I can't assign impromptu in-class assignments when I can see they're not getting a point. Also, no class energy.

(B) It's summer, and many of my students are in the military. So they're doing military exercises, and while they think they'll be able to do that and my class, it seldom works out that way. Also, I always have at least one student who "has" to go on vacation during the five-week semester. They're only going to miss one week! They'll make up all the work! (See point 5 above.)

(C) Multiple drafts are feasible, but so much work. I do them anyway, because it is in fact the only way people learn to write, but ugh.

(D) The semester is only five weeks long. If someone has to spend a week doing military training or at the lake with their family, it's really hard for them to catch up. Or, say, if your part of the country has multiple massive storms, so that everyone loses power several times in the first week.

On the whole, though, I'm enjoying teaching this class. It's just the right amount of work, leaving me time for reading and writing my novel; and the extra money will certainly be helpful.