I have felt significantly burdened the last eight weeks with constant pain in my right shoulder. Of course I am right handed, and that includes using a mouse with my right hand and using two hands to drive. I have had to take two days away from classes in order to go to medical appointments to try and get a diagnosis (which would be nice to have) a way to relieve the pain (absolutely necessary) and a solution (also absolutely necessary but I can wait for it if the pain is bearable). Today the medical consensus is there has been no nerve damage so there is probably no need for surgery. Yeah! I have a new medication to reduce soft tissue swelling and I have been told to get physiotherapy which may also reduce the swelling and help the joint to heal. I have had good experiences with both physiotherapy and Shiatsu so I think I will try both. What does this have to do with teaching?
As well as missing two classroom days, not being able to use my right hand and arm efficiently and predictably is a problem. It means I feel less than 100% when in front of a class. For one or two days that's not so bad, but it is going to be at least one more week and I am not happy about that. It means I am slower getting things done in and out of class. Being slower in class might be a good thing for students. However I have a backlog of marking to do for my online students because of shoulder pain. I will get at the marking tomorrow and the marking will only be a few days late. So I should let up on myself I guess.
If I keep up this computer work I will not be able to sleep tonight. So I will sign off now and come back to this blog in a few days time.
2009-09-21
2009-09-12
End of Week 1
When I said to another faculty member that it was the end of the first week, the response was "only thirteen weeks to go". While that is true, the statement also feels somewhat negative to me. However I have not been teaching in this system for very long compared to many of the faculty.
As yet I have not experienced any of the routine rudeness I remember from the Fall semester last year. That is a good thing. I hope this continues. Perhaps last year was an anomaly? Perhaps last year I had lower tolerance for inappropriate behaviour? This Fall the inappropriate behaviour has come from college employees. The all faculty startup meeting was announced to be in a completely inappropriate location: a student pub. And it turns out to have been a bad choice as a meeting room. There were not enough seats. The pub equipment (coolers, ice makers, telephones, etc.) was all left running and made various noises throughout the meeting. The A-V system was not adequate. And sight lines were not good from parts of the room.
On Wednesday I received a package of information from the Faculty Professional Development Office thanking me for agreeing to do a particular task. While I am happy to do the work, I would have liked to have agreed to do it beforehand. I expect this kind of behaviour will continue through the semester and probably for many years to come.
It seems to me this kind of behaviour, along with other events that I have heard about but not experienced directly, is an indicator of a change of corporate culture. It seems to me people at the top of the organization are now operating as if the college is a large institution. Unfortunately it seems no one thought to talk about the change in corporate culture with the long term faculty, and probably also not with the long term support staff either. So many long term employees do or will feel the organization is not the same organization as it used to be. That is true. Unfortunately many long term employees will feel they do not want to work in this "new" organization (what they mean is they do not like the new corporate culture). So they will either leave as soon as they can, or they will not work the way they used to. These changes in personnel or in the way people work will accelerate the change in culture.
As yet I have not experienced any of the routine rudeness I remember from the Fall semester last year. That is a good thing. I hope this continues. Perhaps last year was an anomaly? Perhaps last year I had lower tolerance for inappropriate behaviour? This Fall the inappropriate behaviour has come from college employees. The all faculty startup meeting was announced to be in a completely inappropriate location: a student pub. And it turns out to have been a bad choice as a meeting room. There were not enough seats. The pub equipment (coolers, ice makers, telephones, etc.) was all left running and made various noises throughout the meeting. The A-V system was not adequate. And sight lines were not good from parts of the room.
On Wednesday I received a package of information from the Faculty Professional Development Office thanking me for agreeing to do a particular task. While I am happy to do the work, I would have liked to have agreed to do it beforehand. I expect this kind of behaviour will continue through the semester and probably for many years to come.
It seems to me this kind of behaviour, along with other events that I have heard about but not experienced directly, is an indicator of a change of corporate culture. It seems to me people at the top of the organization are now operating as if the college is a large institution. Unfortunately it seems no one thought to talk about the change in corporate culture with the long term faculty, and probably also not with the long term support staff either. So many long term employees do or will feel the organization is not the same organization as it used to be. That is true. Unfortunately many long term employees will feel they do not want to work in this "new" organization (what they mean is they do not like the new corporate culture). So they will either leave as soon as they can, or they will not work the way they used to. These changes in personnel or in the way people work will accelerate the change in culture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)