I’ve been a lazy blogger of late. Frankly, I’ve been far too busy to write anything of interest (as if I ever do), & at least you got some moblogged photos. The medicine course is in its second week now, & while my prediction that bullshit levels would drop off was correct, so also was the one that said my workload would in no way be reduced. I hate to break this to any students reading this, but a lot of the teaching is being prepared on a week by week basis. The busier lecturers (yeah, I’m talking anatomy here, but not solely) are ahead of you, but not by much. God forbid one of us gets sick.
I know that students traditionally hold the long-standing belief that lecturers give an hour of teaching every so often & then have lovely long summer breaks, but that’s just not true. Asides from the research parts of our jobs (as important as teaching?) there are all the preparative and organisational tasks hidden just beneath the surface. I’d probably rather bury them in shallow graves, but I’d better not.
A good example is the, er, sensitive material that teaching anatomy requires. There are security, transport & logging issues that have been in the planning stages for a long time & are now coming in to play. We have no technicians yet to pass these jobs on to.
This is a new course in Swansea, & as such the content is also all new. We have good guidelines to work to thanks to Cardiff University, but there’s a mass of ongoing preparation. Once the first year has run in its entirety & the students have all passed their exams (they’re all loving that word right now) most of our stuff will be repeatable to a new batch of students. But then we’ll have two years to teach…
We’re also a bit keen on the old elearning business, which we’re making good use of already, but will be a resource that expands over the years rather than months.
I’m actually going to get home before dark tonight for the first time in over a week, which I’m very glad about. I solved some Filemaker Pro problems in time to catch the 4.30. It was the autumn solstice yesterday: the nights are as long as the days again. I haven’t seen much of Jack recently. My sister visited us from Sunday to Wednesday & I only saw her for a few hours each evening, which I don’t feel great about. I’m not whinging. Oh, wait, yes I am.
I have a holiday in a couple of weeks’ time. The problem is that I’m going to have to work twice as hard until then to make up for all the time I’ll lose. Will I relax for a week in Cornwall? Probably. Hopefully. I can’t remember what it feels like.
To any of my mates reading this: we’ll catch up soon. Really. Come round & help me drink some single malts. It’s getting cold outside.
