Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I just got to the department today when I got a call from one of my co-teachers. Side note: I already told our secretary reliever not to give my name when someone calls asking who’s in the department. It’s usually someone who is looking for a substitute or wants someone to do some work for them because they can’t go to the department.

And I was right. My co-teacher wanted me to accompany the students who were making their thesis paper at the Science and Technology Research Center. One of the policies with that room we stayed overnight in is that the students are not allowed to stay there without faculty supervision. I guess the same is true with most of the other lab rooms there handled by Biology, Math, Chemistry and Engineering.

Anyway, the observation of this rule is as much that since the guard knew that no faculty member from our department had yet entered through the gates, therefore she did not allow the students to enter either, knowing no faculty was there to supervise them in the lab. So they contacted their thesis adviser (who usually accompanies them in the lab anyway). Since their adviser would not be going to school until after lunch, he called up the department, and that’s how I got involved.

Now, I didn’t mind this request, because all I had to do was stay in the room with the students, and there were only two of them, leaving five computer terminals for my use. That’s what I was planning to do in the department anyway, the daily e-mail and internet check and update. Besides that, it’s crunch time for the students, as they are required to submit their paper to their panelists today because they are scheduled to give their final oral defense tomorrow.

Same with substitutions, giving the students exams, quizzes and library research activities are okay because it doesn’t take away much from my time of preparation for my next classes (either later that same day or on the succeeding one). Laboratory experiments are also okay, because I’ve more or less memorized most of the experiments anyway. Ditto if it’s a subject I’m currently teaching, because it’s not extra preparation. What I usually shy away from is having to prepare a completely a new lecture to give to the class. It takes away twice the amount of time from my schedule, for the same amount of compensation as any of the scenarios I mentioned above.

I just didn’t expect that I’d be receiving these types of requests during the summer, when there are less than ten teachers on duty, and they’re required and used to going to school everyday for classes.