COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM!

I have to admit, with only a week left in my first stint of teaching FDENG101 and with 25 hapless souls lined up to take the course from me next semester starting in September, I’m beginning to feel as if I, too, had participated in some farcical aquatic ceremony in order to become king.

Here’s what’s weird about this whole teaching situation:

• First semester ends in a week
• I’ve had virtually no supervision; there’s a lot of trust on BYU-Idaho’s part here
• Still haven’t received any feedback from the week my teaching group supervisor spent observing me in class. I assume if I were way off base, I’d have heard from him by now
• At least three students, possibly four, are going to get Fs in this course because they either didn’t show up past the first week or washed out after about half a semester’s worth of work. That would not be me. I’m too cheap to do that kind of thing

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of feedback I get on this first semester, and whether that feedback will have positive or negative effects on my future employment with the university. I’m pretty sure they take negative feedback with a grain of salt, and combine what positive feedback I get with the reality of observations from my teaching group leader. Either way, I feel fairly confident I’ll be able to continue employment as an instructor. That’s good news, as the money is handy. The experience as well is a benefit.