Figuring it out

For the past few weeks I have been throwing around ideas for one of my classes. At one of the places I teach classes, the class I had been teaching as moved from a 3 unit class to a 4 unit class. This means that I have to assign an additional 3 or so hours of work per week for the students to make up for the additional unit.

In my attempt to make sure my classes fulfill and exceed the requirements of the University, I have had an interesting time trying to come up with additional work that would be useful to the students. You see, I do not have PhD, therefore feel that I have less wiggle room to work with - meaning, my creative license is partially revoked on a consistent basis. Of course this may be my perception of things, but I'd rather stay in the kiddie pool where it's safe rather than venture out for fear of sinking.

I like things safe, especially when it comes to my job. This means that I ask lots of questions, run things by tenured track professors, etc....

Back to my point - I think I have finally figured out what to do for the additional unit. It's going to take a bit of time, and the students will be greatly involved in each other, even to the point of grading each other's work. They will have to venture out of their safe zone and get out into society to have 'real world' experiences, all while applying the concepts they are learning about.

I am excited about the new project, or the 'additional unit' if you will. But I am always a little apprehensive when it comes to new projects. There are always bugs to workout, possibly giving the students the idea that I have no idea what I'm doing, even if I DID in fact try to think through these types of situations.

The coming semester should be fun - busy, but fun.

I'm still thankful that I have a job, which may not be the case as of Jan. 2010. (Both college's have mentioned more budget cuts). *sigh*