Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Summer School

Alternatively, this post could be entitled "I'm a Whore!" Turns out I'll do pretty much anything for money, though I still blame Katrina. Because of the flood we need to rebuild our house and it has cost much more than we first planned. We'll be able to finish, but the thought of having some extra money was enticing, so here I am teaching summer school. Usually I'd be excavating in Israel or Jordan, so the fact that we're taking this year off from the archaeology gave me the opportunity to teach summer school. It's the first time I'm doing it ever, and I'm looking forward to July when it will be over. I'm teaching Prophets and Prophecy, and my first section is 7:30 -8:55 AM, followed by my second section, 9:05-10:30. It's a whole semester crammed into five weeks, every day for an hour and a half. But in addition to having to get up at 6:30 AM, there have been many other hurdles. First the bookstore forgot to order my book, and so now, halfway through the second week, the textbook has finally arrived. I use Blenkinsopp's History of Prophecy in Israel. It isn't perfect, but it does the job. The delay screwed the scheduling up, and now the midterm has been pushed back. Second, just before graduation the air conditioner in the Theology Department started leaking large amounts of water. The carpet was soaked for two weeks, and mold grew everywhere. Finally we got the carpet dried out, but there is no air conditioning. New Orleans in the summer with no AC and the inability to open windows. It's not very easy to work in these conditions. But I do enjoy teaching. Today we acted like political prophets and examined the signs that Clinton would be ending her campaign tonight. It was clear from all of our oracular devices that God supports Obama.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A 7:30 AM class? Yikes that's worse than being on a committee...

Sue said...

Once you taste the 'big money' of summer session teaching, it's hard to go back (she says, now in her 8th year of teaching a summer NSF-REU).

'Course, I'm sure the lure of buried treasure and calling everything you don't understand a "cult object" eclipses summer salary ... so maybe you'll be able to pull yourself away next summer.

Enjoy ;-)