Mary Lou
Alice Mills wrote:
I echo these concerns, twice having been the new instructor (not adjunct, but uninformed). At my first school, no A&P lab teacher who had been there longer than I ever seemed to think they should volunteer info (how would I even know what to ask, overwhelmed as I was with writing new lectures too, and never having taken human A&P as a student) - in fact, I didn't teach in the same lab as everyone else, so all the materials had to be carted down to the other room, while another A&P section was in session, and I didn't know what materials we had, we didn't have enough for 2 sections, I assumed the students were required to know everything in a given chapter, etc. It was a nightmare for me and the students. When I became one of the 'senior' staff, I went out of my way to help the new folks, adjunct or otherwise. I didn't want to seem like a micromanager, but I wanted them to know our inventory (which I wrote up), what could be left out and what should be locked up, where things belong, how equipment works, and as much standardization of lab exercises as possible.Then I relocated and though I am now the sole A&P teacher, everyone helps themselves to my lab stuff - I'm still discovering lab supplies after a full year, that I didn't know were "mine." I ordered expensive micr. slides that I needn't have ordered. It's never easy! I was a good friend with one of our adjuncts, and she would applaud the comment that sometimes the full-timers are worthless!
At 11:28 AM 1/22/2003 -0500, you wrote:
Sorry that you feel "We have tried adjuncts, but most are more trouble than they are worth" have you tried explaining what is expected and where to find materials (or even that the materials exist)! Did you hire adjuncts with a proper background or just a warm body? Having taught both full and part time for more years than I care to count I know that whenever more than one person teaches in a lab, a good deal of coordination must occur. Unfortunately no one is born knowing where the other 2,3,4...n people that also teach in the lab tend to put stuff. It takes a few years of teaching with others to know how to share a lab successfully. Many new adjuncts make up in enthusiasm what they may lack in procedures. After a few semesters of not being able to find things or hearing about them after they've covered that material tends to really dampen the enthusiasm. I have found over the years (none currently at least) that some of the full! timers I've taught with were also more trouble than they were worth!Leslie Lichtenstein
Massasoit Community College
One Massasoit Blvd.
Brockton, MA 03203
llichtenstein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDr. Alice Mills
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN 38238
(731) 587-7175
(731) 587-7187 (fax)