My focus these last 24 hours or so has shifted a little.  I'm thinking forward to my treatments and trying to make sure that I am as ready for that ordeal as I can possibly be.  How?  Well, we have talked here previously about my lifestyle - specifically my night teaching job.  I've been teaching since 2006 - and ever since I started teaching, I have also taught classes at night.  I just looked at my 'adjunct faculty' contracts and I have taught 84 night courses since December 2006.  The money is good, don't get me wrong.  I make about $60/contract hour for these classes.  That is for classroom hours.  So, each class is 5 weeks for one night a week, 4 hours in class per night...  Now, this doesn't include prep time, reading time, grading time, and other administrative hours - like attending faculty meetings, training, etc.

So, let's do some quick math here:  (Stop your whining!! - I will do all the math for you!  Geez.)

84 courses times 5 nights per course = 84 * 5 = 420 nights taught (FYI, the average commute to these campuses for me is presently about 100 miles, so you can add about three hours of commuting per class, too.)

420 nights times (3 hours for commuting + 4 hours per class) = 420 *7 = 2940 hours...

Okay, so far we've calculated 'class day hours', now let's add grading and prep time.  For each 4 hour class, there is an equivalent of prep time.  In addition, each student has an average of 3 homework assignments per week that must be graded.  (To better wrap your head around that, most assignments are APA formatted papers varying in length from 500 to over 2000 words; I get to read, correct, grade, and feedback on all of these words.(Average class sizes at UOP are about 15 students...)

So, let's do some quick 'outside class day' hours calculations...

420 nights times 4 hours prep = 1680 hours

If there are 15 students, I spend an average of about 40  minutes (2/3 of an hour) per week on grading activities per student...

So, that's 420 times 15 times . 66 (to simplify, since 10 is 2/3 15, I'm just going to multiply 420 times 10)

That's another 4200 hours!!!

Let's add up those hours:

Class time + commute time for 84 courses = 2940 hours
Prep time                                                  = 1680 hours
Grading time                                             = 4200 hours

Grand total 8820 HOURS

Now, I don't know about you, but I could think of a lot of things to do with those 8820 hours besides working nights and weekends...

(Just for shits and giggles, an average work year is 2020 hours...)  That is 52 weeks times 40 hours per week.  That means I've worked an equivalent of an extra 4 years of full time work over the past 7 years.

Enough is enough.  Damn.  I almost wish I hadn't calculated that...

Oh, well...  I'm going to go do something to get my mind off this now.

I may see you again later this evening...  We shall see.