How to Not Spend Time...

In his famous "Diario Minimo" Umberto Eco relates how professionals like dentists are credible when they say they don't have time to attend to us, but when teachers say it, they are not believed. "Surely, you have time. After all, you only teach 3-4 classes a week."  Eco does the math for the critics of the teacher as he includes all his activities besides teaching, down to the 3 packs of cigarettes he smokes per day. His conclusion is the typical, slightly absurd one:  he needs to quit smoking because it accounts for more than 182 hours a year.

Let me be equally absurd by saying that if Eco had quit smoking, he would have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (instead of Bob Dylan) and he would have had 182 more hours to devote to teaching, his periodical, travel, book reviews, and of course diario minimo.Now that we have set the Nobels straight on who should have won the prize, and given the fact that they do not award the prize posthumously, let's get back to the real issue of the teacher and how little time he has on his or her hands.

We teach 5 to 6 courses per semester (yes, we earn overtime pay for the 6th class but it is the part time instructor hourly rate, not our hourly salary rate), with 3 hours of office time, plus 2 of contact time per week, we are already at 30 hours a week. This does not include our committee time, which may be a couple hours a week, with prep time. So far we have not included correcting papers, including essays, quizzes, and Canvas. The latter is the course management system, which requires at least 5-6 hours a week to use. This includes adding assignments, calendars for each class, announcements, grades for students. Next comes answering student, faculty, staff, and admin emails. This is at least 2 hours a week. Nor does all this include travel time which could be 2 hours a day.

This does not include my union duties, which are from between 2-7 hours a week. Meetings are twice a month and go on for 2 hours each minimum. Then comes adding to the curricula:  I am creating 2 new courses (Sci Fi and Mystery Fiction); nor does it include adding to the Journalism curriculum and submitting that to my department and then the committee. I am also developing curriculum for Basic English with Computers. This will require some research, plus gathering information from colleagues.

Now comes my own publications. I am working on finishing a paper of Summer Bridge programs. I need a block of time each week--ideally--to focus on and develop an article.

This still does not include department and division meetings; nor socializing with my beloved department.

Can I stop at 40 hours a week, please?  Can I really take Christmas and summer off? Not a chance.