Friday, January 8, 2010

new job for fall?

I received a verbal offer from the new dept chair at Kendall to teach writing for them in the fall. YEA!!!! She was very nice during the interview on Wednesday, and their refurbished building is really, really cool looking. There are 2 morning classes that she offered me, and I accepted. Unfortunately, I won't get the contracts until July. I can only hope that nothing changes in the meantime. And, even if I had the contracts now, I've learned the hard way (a couple of times) that a signed contract for teaching adjunct doesn't mean much--it can be cancelled at any time.

The classes have only 20 students, which is LOVELY. Writing and writing intensive classes should be capped at a low number. Aquinas caps theirs at 18, and I love it. And the pay at Kendall is really great. It ranks up there with GRCC, which is the top paying institution in GR (from what I've found). Although I love Aquinas and they have a fond place in my heart, the pay is pretty lousy, at least for the area.

So, I have some hope for the fall! I certainly need to increase my pool of options for where I can teach. I should be okay (fingers crossed) for fall, but I'm going to have a similar problem next winter (similar to what I'm facing right now). Everyone offers fewer classes of the classes I teach in the winter. I really need to teach 4 (full semester) classes per semester to make ends meet. This semester I have one class at Aquinas and two mini classes (5 weeks each) at Cornerstone. I can't even pay half my bills with that pay. The adjunct life sucks. It really, really sucks.