Feels weird to get a number that starts with 00
Today had indeed been a prodigious day. While it had started a bit like how most of my Tuesdays start, the way it proceeded and ended left me satisfied; I had initially thought the day might end up routine and ordinary but I was glad to be wrong!
I should say, the interesting half of my day began when I got that number in our Registrar queue. The Registrar Office in the University I work in has quite recently (about a year ago) been relocated to it's new, bigger and more spacious location. In the past, people crammed in a small room with only a few counters, which meant long queues and equally long wait times. Now, the new office has more counters, and a spiffy way of organizing queues.
When you arrive at the office, the first thing you do is to either swipe your ID or enter your credentials on a touch screen panel near the entrance of the office. Afterwards, you would then choose your reason for visiting the Registrar. Based on your choice, the system would automatically sort you into the proper queue, and give you a number. The first two digits of this number represents what queue you are in, and the last two your position in the queue.
The number above is quite special because, as a faculty, the system sorts you into the "Courtesy Queue", which uses the reserved 00 starting digits. While I'm not really a fan of preferential treatment, I suppose it's important to do this for the faculty as most have other tasks to do for the rest of the day. Regardless, the number made me feel quite, for a better lack of a term, faculty-like. Yeah, I've been teaching again for about four or five months now, about three years in total if you add in my past teaching tenure, but still. I have mostly acted like a student in the past, using my student ID and lining up in queues much like a student because it allows me (I thought) to empathize with student life, so you could see why this experience feels inordinately special to me.
After this, quite a lot happened, from working on a website project I had been involved in for quite some time now to playing DotA with a few faculty members. After this, I had a chance to talk with a faculty friend of mine about how the DLSU Faculty System works; what are the different positions for a professor, how do I get promoted and how much is the salary of a professor higher up in the tier. While I am definitely not doing this for the money, I got a bit encouraged when I found out how much my salary might become if I get promoted (after I finish my Masters Degree). Turns out teaching, at least in DLSU, is quite a lucrative job, and as long as I dip my toes into research every once in a while (which, while not my most favorite thing in the world, is something I kinda like to do), it can really pay off quite nicely!
Right after my conversation with my faculty friend, I received a message in Facebook from a student who wants to sit in my class. This student already passed COMPRO1, the subject I'm teaching now (my students are mostly second-takers, except for a few late enrollees or transferees) and is now taking COMPRO2, but she wants to sit in because she said I was teaching new information to my students. It feels quite vindicating, since I really put as much effort as I can expanding what I know about the subject I teach and sharpening my teaching techniques. Hopefully she will indeed learn something new from sitting in my class.
The student I had thought would be rather problematic in my class has also shown some progress in terms of his attitude. His skills and his knowledge aren't really lacking at all, but it's his lazy and rather cocky approach to things that has got me worried about him. Today however, he seems to be showing some progress, even asking me for some of the old Machine Project (the major project we give our students are part of the requirements for the subject) specifications I had given my former batch of students. I really hope this continues; I pray that it does. I don't want his talent to go to waste because of his apparent apathy.
And with that, I end my blog for the day. Tomorrow might be the last time I'd hold a class in STC, but I guess I would have to find that out when the decision has been made regarding that. For now, have a prodigious Wednesday tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment