I Heart Panic

About this time of year, as the first day of classes draws nearer (Monday 8/28)-- the same feeling waves over me every time. It's a deep-seated, slightly disorganized panic: one of "Ohmigod, I have so many tasks to do-- where should I start?" It's not so much that I don't believe I can start the work (indeed, ask any of my colleagues from graduate school-- I was always ahead of due dates), it's more that I haven't done any work all summer long-- and when this happens, I begin to wonder whether or not I still have the "OOMPH" needed to push me into the productivity of fall. I will say that my summer's-end mini-panic dissipates easily, without chemical relief agents (like Merlot), when I actually jump headlong into work-related tasks and start "accomplishing something" as my mom likes to say.

I tend to start with the easy stuff: charting out course calendars, deciding what type of assignments I want to do, reviewing the textbook, revising wording on my syllabi, etc. Once I finish that stuff, I start the more complex stuff, like actually draft assignment sheets. In my opinion, it doesn't really take too long to get pretty prepared to teach a course. I figure about two-hours worth of work for each document-- most of my assignment sheets are just that-- one sheet-- so we're talking about a very short work week (18-20 hours worth) of drafting assignment sheets, miscellaneous homework, etc.

As always, even the most organized person can only be so ready for the start of classes. Sometimes syllabi don't get copied in full; sometimes you can't access your class lists, so you can't really take attendance or verify that the students in your class are actually supposed to be there.

And I know shit happens, but it's the shit I can't plan for (or panic about) that scares me/annoys me most.