People who teach 4:4 (4 courses per semester) are heroes. I only taught four classes yesterday, for the first and the last time this semester, and I still haven’t fully recovered a day and a half later. I have no idea how people do it on a regular basis and remain even minimally effective.
This is one of those structural problems in the American higher ed system that we need to discuss without sighing for the mythical 1950s when the grass was greener and the profs were whiter.
On the positive note, starting from tomorrow I only have 2 classes which are 2 sections of the same course. Except for once in 3 weeks when my blended course meets. I also have 9 students doing independent research projects to supervise. Life is good.
Clarissa's Blog 
I teach 4/4. It’s hard, but you get used to it. It helps when you have double preps and at least one course in your specialization. That’s the one you wing. Teaching 4/4 doesn’t leave much time for research, though. So you really have to love teaching to make it work.
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Wow, this must be so intense!
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Yes, it’s intense. This semester will be particularly hard. I have two sections of humanities with 90 students a piece. Then two classes that total twenty students. In all, I have exactly 200 students this fall. No, I don’t have a TA. I only have to grade the writing assignments for people in my discussion sections though for humanities, which is 36 students. I do have to grade all 180 tests for those students, though. It’s going to kick my ass. Plus, I got a paper accepted for a conference in November. I’ll be losing my mind around midterm.
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180 tests to grade??? Oy yoy yoy. This is very very harsh.
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I also wonder how high school teachers who teach five or six hours a day, five days a week, and then grade papers do it.
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My mother was a high school teacher and there were times when she had up to 10 (ten!) classes a day. The classes were never smaller than 40 students. Horrible!
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It is my second year teaching 4/3 (my decision). I think the only reason why I found it feasible is that my visiting position requires very little to zero service.
I would be happy to teach 4/4 or more if I did not have to participate in committees and meetings. The more students exposed to my knowledge the better 🙂
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