We have just had a week off from classes, and just like my students I have pretty well stepped away from the academic life. I know my students have, at least, as the number of emails from the better ones have suddenly gone skyrocketing. I try to get back to them relatively quickly, but sometimes I let things slip.
There are still things to do here, before going back to school, so other than the one paper I have so far managed to grade (and maybe a couple of more if I am ambitious), I will be waiting until tomorrow evening to try to go through some 30 short papers. But before I go out and run more errands for Dad and Mom, I wanted to share a few thoughts about the weekends, which for me tend to be only the one day of glorious Saturday.
Across the Saturday loop-de-loop, if you please.
Most of the year I don't sleep late on Saturdays, because there is a farmers' market in town and if you want the good stuff (strawberries, blackberries, eggs) you have to get there before 8 or so. There are other people there at that time, too, and it is a great time to gossip, recuperate, socialize, and often we wander into one or the other of the coffee shops on the square. Then I go home, often write a teachers' lounge diary (if it has not been done the night before), and often crawl back into bed for a nice nap.
I watch bad television in the afternoon, go to the gym (which is more aspirational than actual right now -- I am still exhausted from the thyroid cancer and recovery and the lack of proper drug levels -- that is another whole saga!, but even without that I would take a nap on Saturdays, because that is what the day is for), and maybe cook for a party in the afternoon (all parties in town are potluck, even if they are not advertised as such). It is a day to not do anything academic -- if books are to be read, they are fun ones; if internet surfing, it is not to develop links for a class page.
I need at least one day away from things. Teaching, to do it well (just ask teacherken or any of the other great teachers that "haunt" this community, requires much more than a 40 hour week. Some weeks if you are lucky it might be a bit less, but it is usually much much more. That is why most positions are nominally done by salary, and not hourly (and the estimate for hourly commitment is much less than is spent). If you have a part time position they will estimate the number of hours you will spend, but for any valuable experience for the students it will not be only the ones you are told you are doing (have you tried to grade a set of 25 papers and give valuable feedback but have only 10 minutes per paper, if you are lucky? Not doable, even when most of them are only two pages long).
So I need to set aside some time for myself. I need to watch junky tv if I am not going to a friend's house (Syfy or "Oddities" on Science are usually pretty worthwhile if I don't have something recorded from the week). I need to let my mind reform and recuperate. I could easily put in 8-10 hours on Saturday, just as I usually do on Sunday, but that would very quickly result in a bleary Sunday on which I would not be particularly productive, and a Monday that I would dread. I need a break, and for the most part I am pretty successful at giving myself one on Saturdays.
Of course, I have already admitted it was at least an academic break this past week and I have a hellish Sunday ahead of me. But oh, well. I hope your holiday was somewhat restful, and you are looking forward to Monday and seeing bright and shiny student faces. Or at least student faces. I suppose bright eyes and bushy tails generally are missing by this point of the semester, at least on our students. May you have a few among yourselves and your colleagues on Monday.
How have you spent your break, even if it was only a couple of days?