Bellboy's on Sabbatical!
Anyone got the tune to that Wizard of Oz song? Ding, dong, the witch is dead... I'd go on, but you get the meaning. That's right! No more Bellboy. Not for the whole semester. Cha-ching!
Our orientation was today, early. I had to leave the house at 7:45. We picked AM up at the airport after 10 the night previous, and then went and got a celebratory pizza at One Guy's. So we were up late. And early. I picked them all up in a row, and went to eat sugary doughnuts for breakfast. Then Hell broke loose.
I mean, the orientation started. First off, there was a communication problem. The emails had all said the room was 001. All the word of mouth had said room 001. The signs had said room 001. So we all trooped off to room 001 and began waiting. More and more people showed up, and we all sat there, waiting. About half an hour goes by, and there is still a sizeable force sitting in 001 waiting for the gods of composition to descend. Well. The gods never did show up. We went looking for them.
They were camped out in room 105, along with the other 2/3 of the department. People gave us nasty looks as we all walked in late and interrupted some discussion on professional development. The handout the sent our way indicated that the whole thing was to take place in room 105. Whatever happened to room 001, you might ask? Simple. They had decided to change the room assignment from one empty and perfectly suitable room to another empty and perfectly suitable room. They gave no reason, but someone did step up to apologize to us for forgetting to come down and tell us about the change. Apparently, arriving early is not a good thing. All those who had shown up much later got to the right room, while those of us who were responsible ended up looking bad. Thus begins the orientation.
From this point, there is a brief run down on the P-policy. I'm not allowed to actually say the P word, since it has legally binding implications of intentional and serious wrongdoing. They seem to think the school's policy for dealing with P is too harsh, so we've got a more lenient one that doesn't involve actually nailing the students for "un-original work" or "not being properly familiar with citations." Instead we try to turn this crime into a "teachable moment." But it doesn't concern me. All I have to do at this juncture is flag any suspected instances of P and let someone else pussyfoot around the sensitive topic.
Then we split into two groups, 1301 and 1302. We got the IDENTICAL lecture on what to do the first day of class, how to make a lesson plan in five minutes, and how to cover assignments. Never mind the fact that none of us would be in a classroom this semester. Never mind the fact that several of us had complained about this very same thing happening last time.
The positive in this is that the leader for this part of our orientation was flexible, and once he figured out that he had been given the wrong information, we switched gears immediately and focused on DI work. Great example of what people have been trying to tell us about all along, but have never really done before. I like it when people actually do what they tell others to do. It's nice.
We got back together for a frank discussion of sexual harassment. In fact, because it was so frank, we split into two different groups, the men and the women. It actually wasn't too bad a thing, and while none of it was new, this section was the most beneficial, hands down. Then again, look at the other stuff we've been doing.
We also got a few minutes to fill out an ANONYMOUS survey on how concerned we were about aspects of TOPIC. This survey (anonymous, remember?) included a header with room for us to print the last four digits of our SSN, and our mother's maiden name. I left my header blank, and so did just about everyone else.
Toward the end, I started to fade. I might have blanked out for a considerable portion of the last bit, but I wasn't the only one, since Dr. R had us all get up and stretch for three minutes. He said he had noticed at least four people falling asleep. I know I was one that noticed, since the only space available for the early birds-turned-latecomers was the front row, right by his computer table. But AM had her head down on the desk, and the guy behind me was softly snoring, so I couldn't have been too high on the bad list. All I kept doing was starting awake and fidgeting to stay that way.
There was an optional bit after that, and we skipped it. Instead, we walked in the brisk evening air and bought our books for class. Then we took a trip to Wal-mart so that AM could buy groceries. I actually didn't get in until about seven. Yikes, what a day.
Well, I'm still nodding off, even typing this, and it's about time to consume some light snack before bed at ten. So I'm off.
End.
Our orientation was today, early. I had to leave the house at 7:45. We picked AM up at the airport after 10 the night previous, and then went and got a celebratory pizza at One Guy's. So we were up late. And early. I picked them all up in a row, and went to eat sugary doughnuts for breakfast. Then Hell broke loose.
I mean, the orientation started. First off, there was a communication problem. The emails had all said the room was 001. All the word of mouth had said room 001. The signs had said room 001. So we all trooped off to room 001 and began waiting. More and more people showed up, and we all sat there, waiting. About half an hour goes by, and there is still a sizeable force sitting in 001 waiting for the gods of composition to descend. Well. The gods never did show up. We went looking for them.
They were camped out in room 105, along with the other 2/3 of the department. People gave us nasty looks as we all walked in late and interrupted some discussion on professional development. The handout the sent our way indicated that the whole thing was to take place in room 105. Whatever happened to room 001, you might ask? Simple. They had decided to change the room assignment from one empty and perfectly suitable room to another empty and perfectly suitable room. They gave no reason, but someone did step up to apologize to us for forgetting to come down and tell us about the change. Apparently, arriving early is not a good thing. All those who had shown up much later got to the right room, while those of us who were responsible ended up looking bad. Thus begins the orientation.
From this point, there is a brief run down on the P-policy. I'm not allowed to actually say the P word, since it has legally binding implications of intentional and serious wrongdoing. They seem to think the school's policy for dealing with P is too harsh, so we've got a more lenient one that doesn't involve actually nailing the students for "un-original work" or "not being properly familiar with citations." Instead we try to turn this crime into a "teachable moment." But it doesn't concern me. All I have to do at this juncture is flag any suspected instances of P and let someone else pussyfoot around the sensitive topic.
Then we split into two groups, 1301 and 1302. We got the IDENTICAL lecture on what to do the first day of class, how to make a lesson plan in five minutes, and how to cover assignments. Never mind the fact that none of us would be in a classroom this semester. Never mind the fact that several of us had complained about this very same thing happening last time.
The positive in this is that the leader for this part of our orientation was flexible, and once he figured out that he had been given the wrong information, we switched gears immediately and focused on DI work. Great example of what people have been trying to tell us about all along, but have never really done before. I like it when people actually do what they tell others to do. It's nice.
We got back together for a frank discussion of sexual harassment. In fact, because it was so frank, we split into two different groups, the men and the women. It actually wasn't too bad a thing, and while none of it was new, this section was the most beneficial, hands down. Then again, look at the other stuff we've been doing.
We also got a few minutes to fill out an ANONYMOUS survey on how concerned we were about aspects of TOPIC. This survey (anonymous, remember?) included a header with room for us to print the last four digits of our SSN, and our mother's maiden name. I left my header blank, and so did just about everyone else.
Toward the end, I started to fade. I might have blanked out for a considerable portion of the last bit, but I wasn't the only one, since Dr. R had us all get up and stretch for three minutes. He said he had noticed at least four people falling asleep. I know I was one that noticed, since the only space available for the early birds-turned-latecomers was the front row, right by his computer table. But AM had her head down on the desk, and the guy behind me was softly snoring, so I couldn't have been too high on the bad list. All I kept doing was starting awake and fidgeting to stay that way.
There was an optional bit after that, and we skipped it. Instead, we walked in the brisk evening air and bought our books for class. Then we took a trip to Wal-mart so that AM could buy groceries. I actually didn't get in until about seven. Yikes, what a day.
Well, I'm still nodding off, even typing this, and it's about time to consume some light snack before bed at ten. So I'm off.
End.
posted by Rehkmira @ 20:31
1 Comments:
At Wednesday, January 12, 2005 6:22:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Okay, so I sent the e-mail before I read the blog. Now I have all the answers to all my questions, thank you. I still do not understand why all the entries since your return only showed up today. Very strange. sr
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