More on being a teacher at a CC

It's the end of the semester and yes, I'm beginning to feel bitchy. Papers to grade. Papers not submitted in their correct place. Students with crisis. My phone ringing off the hook.

But what do you do? Some people say don't babysit the students. Yet, I know one student is so depressed about news she received. She was crying when I called her. Another in the ER. But many of these students are single parents, working full time, and going back to school. The system has screwed them and their tuition at a CC is puts them in financial despair, but they need the degree to go on.

So, some people would say too bad, but yes, the helping instinct in me says, no. They have to pass the class. Not the ones who never do anything, but the ones who have worked their tails off. Yes, all professors and instructors face similar challenges at the end of the semester, but my students do care about their course work very much. They are not doing this on purpose, but because they live life.

Being from the Midwest

I hail from a state smack dab in the middle of the US. I moved to the state next door for college and then a bit further North, but at least a metro area.
So, I went to our credit union on Friday to pay on our loan. I was asked by the teller why we don't have our other accounts with this place. I said because we got our accounts when we moved here, X bank is bigger and more convenient when traveling back home for ATMs. She asks what state. I tell her. The she asks what city. I tell her. Then she tells me she's from X town in X state. I look at her with my okay, what do you want me to say look as I have no idea in hell where this tiny town is.
Well, she explains and it's nearer where my in-laws live in the boonies of the state I grew up in, but closer to the town my partner grew up in.
But how the hell would I know where X town is. Sometimes I think people from the Midwest and the same state think we are going to know where everything yes. Granted, I know where some towns are from my dad's service work across the state, but good gosh I'm not that expert on the state of X.
Do others get this? Am I attributing this to a Midwestern thing, but it might happen all over? Was she lonely and looking for connections?
Yes, random, but it turned into a 10 minute conversation.... Oh, how the small things in life perplex me or they keep my mind of the shitty things happening in the world.

A story I wanted to scream to the world just a short time ago.
But now a story I want to forget.
Yet, the nightmares still happen.
Yes, a hostile work environment can have lasting effects.
A package came in the mail today.
Proofs from a book I worked on as the managerial editor.
Professional obligation is to look at what's inside.
But the part of me that wants to say f** you, wants to forget the mail ever came.

No, I haven't told the story yet in this forum.
It took so long to heal and I'm still healing.
I have a hard time accepting praise or compliments
The telling me I am wrong and have no side to my story is what I fear will come later.
And I run like mad when anyone is trying to preach in the streets.
All I want to say right now to my old work, is f** you.
You ruined my life for too long.
I am me.
You stole my life for too long.
But I found myself again.
F** you!

It's not okay

I am pissed off, upset, and concerned for a friend, but for all young women who may experience what we have been through.
I've thought this before. Maybe it has been written about, but I haven't seen it.
Rape is non-consensual sex.
A woman (or man) should not blame themselves when they are unable to say no. And when I say this I mean that are in a state of mind, which yes might be inebriated, and/or afraid to fight back and say no.
Don't blame yourselves. Stop. Even if he (she) thinks it was consensual, it's not. You didn't consent to the act.
But I believe many of us didn't call it rape and many young girls don't.
They see this force of power as a someone liking them, paying attention to them.
But it's not good attention. If they respect you, they would not violate you.
Women, teens and adults, face this. I know they do.
You can't excuse his(her) behavior because you were drunk. That's blaming the victim and not making the abuser take responsibility for their actions. I don't care what the abuser thinks. If you don't remember it, how can it have been consensual?
We need to mentor young girls. We need to help them gain self-esteem. We need to challenge a society that blames the victim for being drunk. We need to challenge society's norms that promote a rape culture and power.
No it's not okay. Please tell me you believe this dear friend. I am hurting for you.
I wish I would have defined the times it happened to me as what they were at the time. Instead it f*** ed with my head, my future relationships, and security with myself.
It's not okay.

Teaching with Passion from the Heart

I finished my degree and so now for three years, I can enact the title Dr.

Yet, where I work, I don't persuade the students to call me Dr.

I am " My Name" and I am their instructor.

Some of my professional societies don't understand what I do.

Don't get me wrong...

I still believe in the necessity of research, but yet that's not what I have time to do.

A paper rejected on the basis of "experience" over literature.

It's about teaching, not about applying theory.

I teach at a community college. I teach in-person. I teach online.

I teach with passion and from the heart.

I look to fellow instructors, not all sociologists, for advice and support.

Our students are smart. Our students are strong. Our students have lived through what most of us only read about.

Our students are young and old.

Our students can identify with any status you can think of.

I teach. I mentor. I advise.

It's the end of the semester.

I have four classes to grade, while my colleagues have five or more.

I have to go with my instinct of what is right and it's not always right.

I teach towards a goal of inclusion and changing lives.

I understand learner outcomes and different pedagogical techniques.

I employ my knowledge of teaching.

But teaching comes from the heart.

Teaching is knowing your students and understanding their plight.

It's finals, but the crisis are real my students face.

Teaching is about passion and the students.