Long time, no post.
Things have been a bit chaotic, this last six months, really: what with getting the thesis in and then what has practically been two full time jobs. I haven't done a family update for a LONG time. Things have been so busy here this year, that all sorts of things have slipped. A bit mad.
So let's roll the clock back and tell the story of the last six months.
Jan had a lovely birthday
celebration with friends and my family at a German restaurant in Nelson last month. He got spoilt with lots of lovely presents, including a MS Surface (tablet) from me, and a copy of Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide from 1913, complete with fold out maps. Very cute.
My Masters was submitted on 26 June, but I had not heard anything back by September. I then got an invite at the beginning of September from Auckland Uni inviting me to the graduand's dinner. So I contacted the PostGrad Co-ordinator and asked if my results were back yet - that I figured I would only be getting an invite if I had passed. Response was an "oops, that's a mistake", and a "sorry we haven't got your results back yet. As you weren't going to graduate until May next year, you got put [on the slow boat]". OK, so I have waited another three weeks, and just sent off a hurry-up email today. I hope all this delay doesn't mean bad news :-(
It was crazy in the lead-up to getting my Masters in.
There were so many things to get done with the final report, my teaching, my
brother's wedding in Rarotonga, my Father's 80th, meeting our 'lost' cousin,
and the skullduggery of getting my Uncle here from Australia in secret for my
Father's shindig, Joerg's birthday and having Otto & Lara here that I don't
feel I have had time to draw breath since the gallop began in January. I have
only been teaching one paper for NMIT, one for AUT per semester over the past
two years, while I completed my Masters; that's about a half-time teaching
load (as well as career clients). The idea was to have a staged return to work from July where I increased
my revenue and got back up to full-time speed.
However, since the start of Semester 2 in July, I have
been very, very busy working for NMIT. The Head of School resigned in February,
and one of our Management lecturers, John, replaced him (a very good choice,
too). John tried to keep teaching all his papers, but had to admit defeat due
to workload, so a lecturer who was waiting for the bulk of his Postgrad courses
to start in semester 2 (doing project work in the meantime), finished two of
John's courses off. Planning immediately started on reallocating John's
teaching and him only taking one paper per semester in future (he wants to keep
thoroughly in touch with teaching practice, keeping it fresh and top of mind).
This left three papers needing a home. One I coveted, and thought that would
make a great addition to my two existing teaching papers. All good.
Then suddenly in the semester break, another Management
lecturer resigned. Eeek! This meant there were now 7 papers needing a home, a
week out from the start of the new semester. But wait, there's more! NMIT is
reducing costs - they, like most ITPs, are being starved of cash by central Government. So either
through attrition or redundancy, costs must be cut. So we effectively have a
sinking lid policy, and didn't get go-ahead to hire replacement lecturers.
Three management lecturers left: seven papers. I took on two more papers.
Things went from having a bit of a rest after the madness of
getting my Masters in, to total chaos. I had to rewrite two papers 'in my own
image' so that I could teach them: one online, and one face to face (now known
as 'F2F'!). One had been an online paper that I had set up originally, but the
world has moved on since that was done three years ago. However, previous
incumbent had left it un-updated, disorganised, not in the current teaching
model, using old technology, and worded in a very autocratic manner. This took
me until a month ago to get up to current standards, well resourced,
friendly and for me to get my head around the new requirements of teaching
online, and au fait with the new tools and policies.
My second paper, a 30 credit research paper, has me
mentoring year 3 students doing their capstone management research projects. I
love it! But John, who taught this before me, teaches by telling stories, and
had few resources aside from the PowerPoints from the textbook: he was the
resource, and had very little online on the course site.
My teaching approach is to have a blended course: lots of
resources online so students can seek their own resources from the resource
bank, which includes recorded lectures, readings, exemplars and software. It took until mid-September to get this
course written, resourced and the lectures recorded and posted.
Oh, and I have an NZQA moderation to prepare for on one
new paper, and an external moderation on the other, both for this semester. So
things have to be absolutely spot on for both courses. No pressure! I am so thankful that I
habitually tweak my courses as I go to keep them up to date, because the two I
already had at the start of this semester needed very little attention from me
aside from me turning up to deliver familiar material. They saved me from total
overload.
And then, to top things off, both Jan & I got sick.
We both got the flu that was going around, and each spent four days in bed.
Luckily I got the flu on a non-teaching day, Thursday, and only missed one day
of lectures; the Friday. I was walking wounded for my next teaching day;
Tuesday. I think I under-performed for around two weeks - dog tired, coughing,
fevers, headaches - before I shook it off. Jan too took a long time to recover - and in fact is still suffering from phlegmy throats.
A month ago, at last, I finally got some time to
draw breath. I had worked 50 days straight from the beginning of the semester before I got a half day off that wasn't a sick day. Now I am able to focus on marking, teaching and small course
tweaks to keep everything up to date across the four papers. I also have time now for my other clients and my role as the Treasurer and Comms Director of CDANZ. Things are still busy, but are now do-able.
Jan too has been very busy. With the changes in the H&S in Employment Act coming into force next April, Nelson Pine has lots of things that need to be planned and enacted. Jan is also heading away next week on a residential NZIM management course in Chch, out at the Airport Commodore.
Other news: Warren, Tracy & Erica have moved to Nelson, and are living 15 minutes away in Cotterel Road. We have caught up a few times, including a wonderful Election Night Special with them, Murray, Julie & Janet at our place with cocktails, pool playing, music and half an eye on the election with the sound off. Great fun was had by all. Hopefully Janet will email some photos other than the panorama photo I took from the top of Christian's driveway.
We had a great time at Jörg's birthday party in Morrinsville earlier in the year (and hopefully some who were there will email some photos); my cousin has been up to stay from Dunedin (and hopefully will email me her photos)... hmm. Sound like a theme happening here?
We have caught up with Jenny L a few times, which has been great, and Kathleen, Frits and Amy came out and we had a mid-winter Christmas celebration in mid-July before the semester started which was very enjoyable. Otto and Lara came to stay in the break as well, and it was lovely having them here (we are hoping to have them here again in late December, early January for another week).
Magda had a car accident in August, being struck by a 4WD driver on a one lane bridge on the Lewis Pass. Luckily she was unhurt, though her car was written off. As she was heading off to Holland to visit family soon after the accident, she decided not to replace her car until she got back to Kiwiland. She got back last week, and is now in the exciting phase of road-testing new cars. I hope her good judgement is on hyper-sensitive!
I am also about to have an article published in the Canadian Career's publication, and about to start some new research on Applicant Tracking Software with a local HR company. That too should result in an article or two.
Dogs are well. Jan has a new Motorbike on the way (Triumph Tiger).
Right. I know I have forgotten lots, but that will do for this time. More in a few weeks :-)
All the best
Sam & Jan
