It really pays off to do things for people. A colleague asked me to swap my big and spacious classroom for her smaller and cramped one. I agreed because I’m a nice, accommodating person, and when my colleagues say they need something, I never doubt that their need is real.
At first, I didn’t recognize this new classroom but a few minutes into teaching, I remembered that this was the same room where I conducted my sample teaching class during my campus visit to this department. This was a place where I triumphed over a person who tried to sabotage me in a very nasty way so that I wouldn’t get the job. And I wiped the floor with her.
Now I have an enormous surge of energy and positive feelings whenever I enter this classroom. Today’s class has been fantastic as a result.
Clarissa's Blog 
Wow, now I want to here more about your campus interview! Ha,ha!
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Here is that sad story in 2 parts:
https://clarissasblog.com/2011/01/26/a-campus-visit-from-hell-part-i/
https://clarissasblog.com/2011/01/27/a-campus-visit-from-hell-part-ii/
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Looking at this 11 years later,is there any chance of re-instating the posts that were deleted (for good reason at the time!)?
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I have liberated the post linked here, so it’s now available. 😁
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something i don’t get, if they liked you then what was up with the chair and kafka’s ‘metamorphosis’?
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The Chair is now a very close friend. 🙂 I have realized since then that this is what her personality is like: she blurts things out and they come off as aggressive. But this is simply her way of being.
During the sample class, the Chair (who doesn’t speak Spanish and was understandably bored) kept giggling and speaking (loudly) with other colleagues. So I had to discipline her and threaten to remove her from the classroom. 🙂
She is a lovely person, and I can now say this freely since she is no longer the chair.
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I have a big room of triumph as well, but it is nothing so dramatic. It is just the room where I taught my first class here at University of Ghana.
http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-am-back-in-classroom-again.html
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It’s ’cause I’m a big ole drama queen. 🙂 🙂 Everything I do is hugely dramatic.
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