As a blogger and podcaster, I missed most of February and March of 2019.<\/p>\n
This academic year has overwhelmed me physically and emotionally, and I admit I\u2019m not up to the workload required of a full-time instructor with 140 students. The expectation that college writing instructors can and should have 25-35 students per class is insane. Add to the workload my cognitive challenges, especially my painfully slow reading speed, and the workload buries me.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no question in my mind that\u00a0The Autistic Me\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>needs weekly posts to the blog and at least twice-monthly podcast episodes. Missing those goals greatly reduces the traffic to the blog, which also links to the audio.<\/p>\n Yet, I have to grade homework and keep up with the same readings I expect of students.<\/p>\n It concerns me that the blog and podcast are suffering because I cannot keep up with a \u201cnormal\u201d workload as a professor. Yet, this workload is unlike any I have faced before, so it isn\u2019t normal.<\/p>\n A week or so into March, I caught a cold. That turned into something much worse, and then bronchitis. I lost my voice and I needed a lot of sleep. There\u2019s no question in my mind that the workload contributed to the length of this illness.<\/p>\n I am prone to infections and long illnesses, but this month\u2019s battle felt different. I push through when I\u2019m sick, but not this year. I lost time in the fall and now I am losing time in the spring because the work leaves me too drained to recover.<\/p>\n Please don\u2019t give up on this blog or the podcast. I am going to get back on track. Yes, I keep promising that, but I\u2019m done with teaching after May. If I had a position in private industry, I\u2019d go home after work and put in time on the blog. Instead, I spend my nights (well past midnight many nights) preparing for class: grading, reading, preparing class materials.<\/p>\n Since 2007, I\u2019ve kept this blog limping along. I\u2019m not about to stop, even though there are some long pauses when life gets in the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a blogger and podcaster, I missed most of February and March of 2019. This academic year has overwhelmed me physically and emotionally, and I admit I\u2019m not up to the workload required of a full-time instructor with 140 students. The expectation that college writing instructors can and should have…<\/p>\n