But this summer I have 18 weeks of freedom and I'm starting with a road trip to Utah for some biking and camping.
Q: For those of you who don't toil all summer, what deliciousness do you have planned?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
An Early Thirsty on Summer Plans.
I'm Karen from Kearney. This is the first summer I've had that I'm taking off entirely. The first two years I taught I did a grad class each summer, and although I had plenty of free time, I was tied to the campus.
But this summer I have 18 weeks of freedom and I'm starting with a road trip to Utah for some biking and camping.
But this summer I have 18 weeks of freedom and I'm starting with a road trip to Utah for some biking and camping.
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Glorious, glorious work on my house. Clean out the study, complete my daughter's room, tuck point the brick front steps, replace porch columns, finish the last stretch of outdoor painting on the house, continue to clear scrub from nearby woods, consider putting pavers in for the front walk....all sorts of yummy building fun! Oh...and reading...reading good, ennobling things that don't make me want to give myself a swirly in the faculty lounge bathroom. Also, course creation, prof. dev., mixed in with beach time.
ReplyDeleteYosemite!!
ReplyDeleteWe're going to Canada for several weeks. Road trip!
ReplyDeleteCome visit!
DeleteI have to work on my dissertation and a book article, but this is the first summer in several years where I don't have to physically sit in a classroom. I'm really looking forward to digging into stuff I'm passionate about instead of flailing through stuff I had to take because that was what was available over summer. ;)
ReplyDeleteI received some sage advice from a wise silverback a few years ago when I was thinking about taking the summer off. He said, "Once you take a summer off from teaching you will never teach in the summer again." He was right! I have not taught a class in the summer in years. I get to travel. I play in my garden lots. I read BOOKS, not crappy snowflake papers. I will also be remodeling the basement (we had flooding back in September) so I will be trying to get rid of that bombed out war-zone look I have going on down there.
ReplyDeleteI second this idea of never going back to teaching. Once I skipped summer school for one year, I never want to do it again. God help me when I take a sabbatical.
DeleteI will be toiling some through the summer, but much less than during the school year. I have a reading list as long as my arm. I'm also hoping to go south and visit my grandmother - she's been sick for a while and this might be her last summer.
ReplyDeleteI will be finishing my dissertation and taking care of my children. I will probably learn how to cook more dishes that I had no time to learn during the school year.
ReplyDeleteSanta Fe and environs for a couple of weeks. A few days in San Francisco. Then backpacking in Wyoming. In between, I'm going to loll in a lounge chair with my nose in a succession of books and a glass filled with a succession of beverages.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite rituals in the first week of the break is to go to a pub located on a busy corner, sit at an outdoor table with a view of everyone scurrying to and fro, and order a beer. At 11 am. Because I can. :0)
And I've never gotten into the ha it of teaching summer session, and I've never regretted it.
DeleteI am loving the idea of this ritual.
DeleteWrapping up my sabbatical, back to the States in July... absinthe to anesthetize myself for the new academic year.
ReplyDeleteDue to the fact that my pay was cut (and my pension and healthcare contributions were increased), I will be teaching summer school for the first time since 2007. I am not looking forward to it, except that should the thing enroll and actually "go" (after I've done the prep work to turn a 15-week course into a 7-week course), I will get money. $4500, to be exact.
ReplyDeleteThat money will help my family make it through the summer (I'm paid on a 9 month basis).
If it looks like there might be a little bit left over, I'll take my SO to New Orleans (a bunch of our friends are going) in August.
Having been in your situation for 6 years now (9 month salary), I can sympathize. Plus, we're on quarters, so I still have 2 months to go before summer begins.
DeleteI have found that in summer, it's not worth teaching just ONE class. If I'm going to be doing it, I might as well get as much out of it as possible.
Viva New Orleans!!!
This is my first year not on the adjuncting track where I always felt compelled to cobble stuff together for the summer to make ends meet. So what did I do? Cobbled stuff together...simply from habit. But now, as a full-timer I get paid better for my cobbles which is good but I've so over-scheduled my summer with classes, I may only squeeze in the occasional weekend break to have some "me time" away from school! (I shouldn't complain to be employed, I realize.) So I will spend the summer testing out new courses on unsuspecting undergrads, enjoying my deck and garden, and not feeling guilty about heading home early each day. I deserve that at least!
DeleteMoving across country to a brand-new tenure-track job.
ReplyDeleteOrdinarily I loathe summer work duties, but I can make an exception here.
That is just lovely. Take the scenic route and enjoy the trip! I've moved cross-country twice and the time I took the direct route was the most miserable. Moving is always terrible, so do yourself a favor and line up some fun things to do en route.
DeleteCongrats!
Congratulations!
DeleteMany congrats! Wonderful news!
DeleteBut I must disagree with AM. Both times I drove across the country for a job were miserable.
It's hardly a plan,
ReplyDeletemore like a wish,
that I'll travel to Utah,
and with Yaro, I'll fish.
So sorry for people for whom teaching in the summer is a necessity; once I didn't have to I stopped. The pay is ridiculously high for tenure-line faculty to do it, but the time is still worth more to me.
ReplyDeleteResearch, write, travel to 3 places for 1 week each.
The pay is obscene for tenure line faculty ($8000 each class in my school). But, at least in French, it rips-off the students: you cannot acquire in five weeks the same amount of language you do in fifteen. Probably it's different in other fields.
DeleteMy god, I'm tenured, and here I am grateful for a piddly-ass $4500! Jeebus.
DeleteI need a drink.
Ours is 1/9 of your salary, whatever that is, so it's obscenely profitable for full profs -- up to about $10K I think. But I would rather have the time.
DeleteWell, that would explain it, since my salary is $45k for a 4/4 load.
DeleteYay.
Are you kidding??? My school reduces summer pay (ft faculty are paid 70% of their regular pay, which ends up averaging $3000 per class). That's a big reason why I've refused to do it. And I'd rather give the classes to my adjuncts who need the money more than I do.
DeleteMy school does what Annie's does. Summer school is paid at a reduced rate.
DeleteWe (Full timers) are paid at the adjunct rate for overload or summer work. We make less than 3000/class
DeleteI am teaching, but it's a study abroad course in Tuscany. Have done it before and enjoyed it. Look forward to sitting around some patio in the hills around Fiesole with an Aperol spritz stuffing myself with prosciutto and mozzarella and smelling the jasmine while all of the students are off shopping for shoes. I will gaze out over the countryside and think, briefly, "I've had worse jobs".
ReplyDeleteDo you need a co-chaperone? I'm available.
DeleteO what a dreamy summer! I hope it's even more wonderful than you can imagine!
DeleteMostly I'll be drinking, doing research, and trying to pull my shit back together. I'll raise a glass to all the hardworking CMers though.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I'm doing. Hey, maybe the same moderator does write both our posts. Getting my shit together is hard work too, though I'll raise a glass to everybody anyway.
DeleteThat's exactly what I'm going to do. Hey, maybe both our posts are written by the same moderator. Getting my shit together is hard work, the hardest work I've ever done, though I'm always happy to raise a glass to everybody here.
DeleteBeaker, you've given yourself away! :o)
DeleteCurses! We've been outed!
DeleteBack at you, Bison.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a meeting from many years ago...
ReplyDeleteDuring a previous budget crisis, (life?) a committee (of course!) came together to bemoan our station in life and brainstorm ways to save money. A long-tenured silverback decided we should close during the summer because, "No one does anything during the summer anyway."
He assumed all the snowflakes fell from heaven or miracled themselves into his classes each Fall.
Who do I need Strelnikov to pay a visit to so I can get me one of them 10 month gigs?
For Strelnikov it's EVEN MORE reconstruction of the Soviet labor camp system!
ReplyDeleteUrrah!!!
I'll be teaching, but a reduced schedule and at a reduced rate. I've never been able to afford to take a summer off.
ReplyDeleteSince it's roughly half my usual load, though, it feels like a kind of vacation. I'll be cleaning, writing, gardening, prepping for fall, hiking, day-tripping, reading for pleasure, catching up with friends. The extra money I earn has to help me through the rest of the year, so I don't take vacations--but I am saving up for one, a few years from now.
Until July I will be continuing to work my cruddy undergraduate warehouse job. But I'm free of that soon enough, so it's worth it.
ReplyDeleteI'll mostly spend the summer moving - in just a few weeks down to the farm for the summer and then from there to the new apartment in time to start grad school in August.
I'm hoping to get a good bit of reading done, though, as well as a bit of quality time with my coin collection. I'm going to see about working with my undergraduate advisor's husband on their printing press on weekends too. Full summer, but going to be so worth it.
@Mad Dreamer I have no idea what you'll be going into for your grad school program, but I strongly recommend you add this book to your summer reading list:
DeleteGetting what you came for, by Robert Peters
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-What-You-Came-For/dp/0374524777
Good luck!
Seconded. The Robert Peters book is essential reading for any grad student or prospective grad student.
DeleteA lot of your plans are making me jealous!
ReplyDeleteAs long as I don't get roped into a summer class at the last second, I'll be attending Capybara lessons for foreign faculty, accompanying Dr. Hubs on conference travel (the STEM folks get all the best locales), revising a book manuscript, and figuring out what to do with the next project. Then back to Hamsterland for a visit with family and friends -- always the best part of the summer!
My one summer responsibility fell through, and in the past 4 days, we've planned a trip to the Shetland Islands. No teaching. No reading. No writing.
ReplyDeleteLove y'all.
Fab
12 month contracts suck!
ReplyDelete