Mountains Made Low

Given the morning that I had, I think it was a good idea (though I had no clue at the time) to go to the gym after work today, particularly on a day where “after work” meant 1 pm.

I’ve already mentioned my professional development workshop— the one no one came to. But then I had two other reasons to be on campus this morning; two other planned things. I was going to meet, briefly, with an adjunct about teaching in the fall. He got caught on the Boone side of a car accident on 105, so he canceled both his class and our meeting. That wasn’t a total loss, though, because he called me and we worked out his fall teaching schedule: he’s teaching three sections for me. And now I’ve only got five left to staff.

Then, I was supposed to meet with a student about an individual study in the fall. I don’t think we needed to do much, but he didn’t show up either. So whatever it was we needed to do to get this set up, we still need to do it.

So, yeah, going to the gym after all of this was a good idea. And, at the very least, I had a good day at the gym. 32 minutes, and felt like I could have kept going. It was 32 minutes, 2.98 miles, 5.59 mph. It was a very good day—my body is returning to it’s pre-hiatus condition, and doing so much more rapidly than I had expected.

That’s the story of my life, at least as it relates to Writing Across the Curriculum in my job. Let’s rewind a bit… back to the fall semester, when I arrived here bright-eyed and excited about the possibilities.

And, apparently, naïve as all hell.

We’ve been having “professional development” sessions on Thursday mornings all year this year. This is the sort of thing where the faculty put on sessions for other faculty member that have to do with improving the quality of teaching, improving student engagement, and just generally getting better at what we do.

As the Rhetoric Coordinator, I was asked to do sessions—several of them throughout the year—on Writing Across the Curriculum. I did five of these sessions in the fall. Not including me, the average attendance at these sessions was 1.8 faculty members.

This semester, the total number of sessions has been cut back (we’re doing this professional development thing every other week, instead of every week). Early in the term, I did my bit for king and country and went to other sessions. Now, my WAC sessions have come back around.

I had one scheduled for last week and one for this week. Average attendance, other than me, in my spring sessions? ZERO!

Yeah. What more can I say?