Stand-up Psychology and the Art of War

9:41 a.m. In the Staff room working on today's lecture. I had to investigate the origin of Sun Tzu's name just to satisfy my own curiosity this morning and even involved one of the Asian Studies professors. Then a history professor over heard us and got involved and before I knew it, I had a full blown gaggle of degrees trying to remember and/or find out what was Sun Tzu's real name.

In the chaos, one of the professors realized that I didn't have an office. It's the end of the 9th week and they just now realized that I don't have an office. Swift. One professor said that their offices should go to their faculty before it's given to the other departments. I liked the sound of that. Another professor said that they'd get me an office for next quarter. My pulse rose.

Next quarter?

I told him, with sort of a joking tone, that I hadn't been hired for next quarter yet so I can only HOPE I'm here to get an office. He, the skinny Fem guy, replied that since I'm able to teach during the day, they should just make me full time.

Pulse continued to rise.

He left and then I started to talking to a few of the professors about Doc programs and how to handle it while working here at SSU. One woman did what I'm thinking about doing here; teaching with a Master's degree while going for her Ph.D. I liked the sound of that. It gives precedent to the concept and if they did it once, they'll probably do it again.

11:54 a.m. Ok, class was AWSOME! I kept the students laughing and they were engaged! I swear that it feels like I'm doing stand-up Psychology but if it works who cares?

I was probably in a much better mood for class today since I was actually discussing my future here at SSU rather than floating in a pool of ignorance. Knowledge is good. Knowledge is Power. Well, so is an army of evil robots but one step at a time here people.

So I'm back in the Faculty Lounge, my primary office, and munching on some pinapple chunks and nannas - mmm, good. I still have to finish the Soc review for class in a few hours but the very real possibility of teaching not one, not two, but perhaps THREE classes next quarter has got me pumped. Oh yeah, Sandi mentioned that I'll probably be getting an office next quarter since I'll be here every day .

It looks like I'll be teaching two sections of Psych 101 (a Monday-Wednesday section and a Tuesday-Thursday section) from 10-12 and then 1 section of Soc 101 that's on Tuesday and Thursday from 2-4. Since I would be on campus for four days of the week, having an office is definitely something that they're looking into. There's one office that the faculty member doesn't even use that might be 'converted' for my use. The professor doesn't hold office hours other than 1 hour a week and is never in his office around his classes. The theory is that there's something personal going on that's keeping him at home more and more, but the harsh reality is that the department doesn't have the luxury of 'extra' office space that they can leave unused.

Also, there are some faculty that only teach in the evening (after 6) and only twice a week, so there's no reason that they should have an office is they're not using it.

Yes, I REALLY want an office. I don't mind sharing it with someone else but just having an office gives me a sense of legitimacy and acceptance that I've been wanting since I got on campus.

Ok. It's a little past 12 now, I need to start work on Soc, hopefully it won't be some 12 page chapter again. There's almost no way of holding the student's together and stretching the class for an extra hour.

Later.