New Faculty Orientation

I just finished a week of new faculty orientation. Even though I've taught here for a semester, I still had to go through new faculty orientation. I'm very glad that I did. I learned so much about the learner-centered approach to teaching. I came away with a complete teaching philosophy, which I will post soon, and a reinvigorated desire to plan better lessons. I realize now that perhaps some of my frustration last semester stemmed from a lack of ideas as to how to improve my teaching. I thought I needed more activities and engagement, but I didn't have a structure to guide my improvement. Now I know that I can begin with learning objectives, design activities to meet the learning objectives, and assess whether students have met the objectives. I feel as if I have a practical approach I can take that will help me improve. My lessons can be intentional, rather than a haphazard collection of remotely related activities to wake up the students.

Secondly, I signed up to be an first year experience instructor this semester. I've also learned that the current director of the first year experience program will be leaving the position next year, and he's encouraged me to apply for the position as soon as it opens up. I'm actually considering applying for the position, although I don't want to leave my current position as assistant professor in my department. I'm hoping it will be possible to have a dual-appointment. I think I might actually like a part-time directorship, coupled with a reduced teaching load. It could be lovely to teach only one or two classes in my department while I venture into the world of administration. Plus, it would be rewarding to know I was doing my best to help students adjust to their first semester, potentially retaining some students who might have dropped out.

Wedding Planning Confusion

So I've had the thought in the back of my head that I should be inviting my new coworkers to my wedding. But, I can't possibly afford to pay for all of them to be included in the reception. One of my new coworkers dropped by today and chatted with me about how neat it would be to invite students and faculty to attend the wedding ceremony since the ceremony will be on campus and the chapel is beautiful (hoping not to give away my location!). Other coworkers have asked me about the wedding in small talk, and they mentioned enjoying other weddings at that site. Hmm...yes, I think I'm getting the hint. I don't want to burn any bridges in my new work environment. So here's the idea...I'm going to look into using another site on campus as a reception site where appetizers will be served in standing room only with open invitation for an hour and a half after the wedding. Afterwards, only the people I had planned to invite to the reception will retire to an intimate family and friends gathering for a catered meal and dancing. Sounds like a good compromise to me. Only now, I'm thinking that if it's too expensive we might nix the reception all-together, and just go with the informal meet-and-greet over appetizers...except for the fact that I just put down a non-refundable deposit on the reception site. On the other hand, I could cancel the reception and put the deposit towards renting the lodge for guests instead. I really wish I knew what to do, but at least my fiance and I handled the confusion well instead of blowing up into a fight, which we've been doing a lot of lately. Although he wasn't so keen on inviting a bunch of people he didn't know to the wedding. Gah! I wish this was over with already! I'm actually not sure how much I will enjoy my own wedding since I don't like being in the limelight and I don't like socializing for hours on end.