Use the tools below to copy the article in plain text form, or you can copy it as HTML, ready to copy and paste directly into a web page.
HTML <html> <head> <title>My first days as lecturer at the Institute of Science & Technology</title> </head> <body> <h1>My first days as lecturer at the Institute of Science & Technology</h1> <div class="info">Author: <a href="author_1_95763.html">Pico</a></div><div class="body">Getting the appointment letter was a long and arduous process. I had been getting a lot as a deputy manager at Grameen Phone, a leading telecom services provider in Bangladesh. As a lecturer at the Institute of Science and Technology I knew I was not going to get anything remotely in the vicinity in the way of a salary. But I was determined it should be at least half. During the final interview, the Chairman promised to do what she could do to make the committee she answered to sign off on the money I wanted. With this I was only half satisfied. The interview took place in the Chairman’s room on the second floor. She was sitting at her massive and I across from her. In the background sat the coordinator of the BBA program in which I was going to lecture. The interview ended and the coordinator took me to his room on the third floor to show me the lesson plans for the different courses. He said that the decision had not yet been made as to which courses I was going to be assigned but that the principles of finance was a sure bet. He said he would make a photocopy of the lesson plans so I could review them at home. Unfortunately the photocopier in-house was not in working condition, so he would send one of the assistants out to get a photocopy. I came down to the second floor to await the return of the assistant. On reaching the bottom of the stairs from the third floor, one immediately turned left to come up against a glass door which one pushed open at considerable muscular effort to enter a very short corridor. Immediately on the left, as one stood in the corridor on the other side of the rather unyielding glass door, one entered the chairman’s room. Here my interview had just taken place. Walking straight down the short corridor however, the coordinator and I entered a sitting room of sorts. Here I sat and waited for my photocopies to arrive. After a while the chairman joined the crowd. I was completely ill at ease and perceiving this, the chairman said that the photocopies would be sent to my address. Vastly relieved I came back home. Of course, I had asked the coordinator while in his room if I was not going to sign some sort of contract that would specify what my monthly pay was going to be. The coordinator said that was a sure thing and I decided that would work out somehow and I did not pursue this further with the chairman. <br /> <br /> All the above had taken place on a Saturday. It had to because the Institute was closed on Friday and the other five days I was Grameen Phone from eight in the morning till eight in the evening, this time period being inclusive of the three hours on average murdered by traffic. So I had to do all the formalities and paperwork prior to joining the Institute on Saturdays. Next Saturday I was back in the Chairman’s room and the good news was that I was going to get what I had asked for. Even as the interview was in progress, an appointment letter was being typed. I sat listening to some very interesting views held by the Chairman. For example, at the minutest level, no two people in the world have the same height. Sonia Gandhi had at some time or other turned down prime ministership because she actually loved only one Indian and did not really know the rest. At about this time, an officer walked in with the appointment letter. But the problem was that in order for her to sign the appointment letter, the Chairman needed to see my credentials. Unfortunately I did not have them with me at the time. So I had to go home to get those papers. I asked the coordinator if he would arrange for one of the assistants to accompany me home to fetch the papers. He said that was possible but that I would have to come back anyway to set the class schedule. In light of this, I saw no reason for the assistant to accompany me home. So I said I was coming back with the papers. Unfortunately, the power supply in the area was being put through a maintenance work and that meant none of the photocopying machines in the neighborhood would work. I realized this back home and called the coordinator and said that I would send someone the next day with the papers. He said that that was fine but that I would have to come back sometime over the next week to set the class schedule. I said that would have to be next Saturday. I also asked him to send the appointment letter back with the someone with my papers. He said that was ok. But as it turned out over the next week, it was not ok. On the Monday of that week, the letter had not arrived. This was a problem not just because I was still in the dark about what I was getting into but that I could not tell my current employer at Grameen Phone about my plans to switch. I called the coordinator at the Institute. But he was not there because he was out on a study tour. I wanted to know if he had a mobile phone number I could call. I got the number and called accordingly. A female answered. She said if I called back shortly, she would give me the number of the coordinator. I called back accordingly and got a number. But this was another gentleman who was in the same study tour. He said that the coordinator was praying at the time but that if I called at the Institute and saw the Chairman, she would have the appointment letter for me. I phoned the institute once again to make sure the Chairman was available at the time. She was home sick. But the person who answered the phone assured me that he would have the appointment letter sent to my address. I failed to understand why they were keeping me in such suspense over the appointment letter. There had been nothing even remotely akin to this in the matter of the lesson plan. In the interview with the Chairman, the decision had been for me to start on the next Sunday. So as affairs stood as the sun rose on the Tuesday before, I did not know for sure what I should do. But the previous night I had decided after a lengthy thought process that everything was going to be just fine at the Institue of Science and Technology, heretofore referred to as IST. So I was going to tell my employer, who was also a friend of mind from my undergraduate days, that I was not coming back from the next day. <br /> <br /> On Tuesday, instead of walking to my desk, on entering the office, I walked straight to my employer-friend’s office. He was not at his desk but a very colorful plate on his desk held pieces of watermelon. I went to my desk and switched on the computer. I sat at my desk with my back to his office, so I had no way of knowing when he had come back to his office. Fortunately he happened to call out to one of my colleagues and so I walked in his office and said that I was not coming back from next day. He asked if I actually meant to put in a resignation letter. He made the course of action sound dire and I stood shaken for a second. He said he was going off to a meeting at the time and that we should talk about this in the afternoon. W e did. He wanted me to resign next week. But I said that I was unwell. So he said that he was giving me leave. Things stood thus as I went to the IST on my first day as lecturer there on Monday next. <br /> <br /> I was back in the sitting room. The previous day, on Sunday, I had finally got the appointment letter and had been shown the room where my desk was. Never one with a good sense of direction, I was not sure on Monday where the room was. But I did know where the sitting room was and there I was seated on Monday at 10:30 AM. I went through the usual formalities with the traffic of my new colleagies. After sometime one assistant took me down to the room on the first floor and unlocked the door. After turning on the lights and the fans, he left me to my own and I sat at my desk. I studied the class schedule. I had no classes that day. After some time another teacher walked in. He sat facing me. He said that there would be students in the room all the time and that would make it a bit noisy. He took me to the library and showed me a small room in the back. This room was reserved for the use of teachers only. So if the room became too noisy for me, I could always come to this room which was absolutely quiet. The library was not very extensive. I found some books related to my courses and sat studying them in the small room. <br /> <br /> The next day, I had two classes, one on Principles of Finance and the other on Macroeconomics. One of the teachers took me to the classroom to introduce me to the class. Nothing noteworthy happened. I finished my lecture. Then one of the students asked if I had the lesson plan with me. What I had just talked about in the class had a tenuous relationship at best, apparently, with the topics listed in the lesson plan. But the class had to know about these preliminaries in order to fully appreciate the listed topics. The classroom was on the second floor. This happened to be immediately on the right standing at the bottom of the stairs from the third floor. I came down to my room and sat out the one hour till it was time for the class on Macroeconomics. Three other teachers sat with me in the same room. This time in the room with me was another teacher who sat to my right. I asked him where I should take the class on Macroeconomics. He said that the classroom was the same one as before but offered to take me there anyway. Once again the question regarding the lesson plan came up. But I had decided to fight this out patiently till the class understood at the end of the semester. <br /> <br /> Over time I received the keys to the room and to the drawers in my desk. A valuable possession for me was the marker with which I wrote on the white board. As it turned out, it was a valuable possession for others as well. The marker I had left on my desk was no longer there the next day. Clearly I would need to leave the pair of markers locked up in the drawers. I had decided to keep a pair with me at all time because given the physical structure of the marker, there was no way to gauge how much life it had left in it. An embarrassing incident in one of the sessions had taught me the wisdom of maintaining a pair at all times. The session had started and I had started writing on the board when it became clear that I had walked in with an empty marker. One student went to the office to get a replacement. He was gone for some time and the wait for me was none too enjoyable, not yet being the one to smoothly slip into gear for a banter with the class. The student returned empty-handed, saying they, meaning the office, were getting one. Another wait ensured as I stood facing the class and leafing through the book before me. Finally an assistant appeared with a marker and I was on my merry way on the white board. But I had determined never to let this happen again. So before leaving for the day, I always left the pair of markers locked up in the drawers. The arrangement was ideal. Yet after sometime, the keys would no longer fit in the locks and to this day that pair of my markers stands locked up in my desk. I communicated to one of the assistants the uselessness of the keys. He said he would have to bring in a demolition man. To this day he has not done so. So now I take my marker home. <br /> <br /> My prowess on the white board was a pleasant surprise. Just three years ago, in the student lounge at the National University of Singapore, I had tried to jot down discussion points with the same sort of markers on the same sort of whiteboard. For some reason I could not write at all. I put it down to lack of confidence with new things. Now I had become confident and I was all over the place on the white board and loved every minute of it, forgetting the presence of the class at times even. On one session, one student politely asked me if I would look at them. I heard the question but declined to react, my intention being to turn to the class only when someone had a question on the subject matter. However, every rose has its thorn. The thorn of the white board was that it was a Herculean task of patience to get the graphs right. Sometimes the different curves and straight lines would have points very close to each other and then the trouble would start. I would try to guess the points according to the axes and mark them and connect them accordingly. But all my best guesses turned out to be actually very bad ones and as a replacement method, I his upon the idea of drawing straight lines from the axes to get the points right. Yet the straight lines would not stay straight and neighboring points would still collide. Currently I am considering following the reverse process and shoot first, drawing the curve, and talk later, setting points. I have yet to try it out. It is funny how when I am underlining text on the white board it would be a very straight line and when I am actually trying to draw a straight line on a graph, it would be anything but. Yet in the former case, that of underlining text, there is no premium whatsoever in getting the line straight. <br /> </div> <div class="source">Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlealley.com/article_143169_50.html">http://www.articlealley.com/article_143169_50.html</a></div> <div class="author"> <div class="authorBio"></div> </author> </body> </html>
Text My first days as lecturer at the Institute of Science & Technology Author: Pico Getting the appointment letter was a long and arduous process. I had been getting a lot as a deputy manager at Grameen Phone, a leading telecom services provider in Bangladesh. As a lecturer at the Institute of Science and Technology I knew I was not going to get anything remotely in the vicinity in the way of a salary. But I was determined it should be at least half. During the final interview, the Chairman promised to do what she could do to make the committee she answered to sign off on the money I wanted. With this I was only half satisfied. The interview took place in the Chairman’s room on the second floor. She was sitting at her massive and I across from her. In the background sat the coordinator of the BBA program in which I was going to lecture. The interview ended and the coordinator took me to his room on the third floor to show me the lesson plans for the different courses. He said that the decision had not yet been made as to which courses I was going to be assigned but that the principles of finance was a sure bet. He said he would make a photocopy of the lesson plans so I could review them at home. Unfortunately the photocopier in-house was not in working condition, so he would send one of the assistants out to get a photocopy. I came down to the second floor to await the return of the assistant. On reaching the bottom of the stairs from the third floor, one immediately turned left to come up against a glass door which one pushed open at considerable muscular effort to enter a very short corridor. Immediately on the left, as one stood in the corridor on the other side of the rather unyielding glass door, one entered the chairman’s room. Here my interview had just taken place. Walking straight down the short corridor however, the coordinator and I entered a sitting room of sorts. Here I sat and waited for my photocopies to arrive. After a while the chairman joined the crowd. I was completely ill at ease and perceiving this, the chairman said that the photocopies would be sent to my address. Vastly relieved I came back home. Of course, I had asked the coordinator while in his room if I was not going to sign some sort of contract that would specify what my monthly pay was going to be. The coordinator said that was a sure thing and I decided that would work out somehow and I did not pursue this further with the chairman. All the above had taken place on a Saturday. It had to because the Institute was closed on Friday and the other five days I was Grameen Phone from eight in the morning till eight in the evening, this time period being inclusive of the three hours on average murdered by traffic. So I had to do all the formalities and paperwork prior to joining the Institute on Saturdays. Next Saturday I was back in the Chairman’s room and the good news was that I was going to get what I had asked for. Even as the interview was in progress, an appointment letter was being typed. I sat listening to some very interesting views held by the Chairman. For example, at the minutest level, no two people in the world have the same height. Sonia Gandhi had at some time or other turned down prime ministership because she actually loved only one Indian and did not really know the rest. At about this time, an officer walked in with the appointment letter. But the problem was that in order for her to sign the appointment letter, the Chairman needed to see my credentials. Unfortunately I did not have them with me at the time. So I had to go home to get those papers. I asked the coordinator if he would arrange for one of the assistants to accompany me home to fetch the papers. He said that was possible but that I would have to come back anyway to set the class schedule. In light of this, I saw no reason for the assistant to accompany me home. So I said I was coming back with the papers. Unfortunately, the power supply in the area was being put through a maintenance work and that meant none of the photocopying machines in the neighborhood would work. I realized this back home and called the coordinator and said that I would send someone the next day with the papers. He said that that was fine but that I would have to come back sometime over the next week to set the class schedule. I said that would have to be next Saturday. I also asked him to send the appointment letter back with the someone with my papers. He said that was ok. But as it turned out over the next week, it was not ok. On the Monday of that week, the letter had not arrived. This was a problem not just because I was still in the dark about what I was getting into but that I could not tell my current employer at Grameen Phone about my plans to switch. I called the coordinator at the Institute. But he was not there because he was out on a study tour. I wanted to know if he had a mobile phone number I could call. I got the number and called accordingly. A female answered. She said if I called back shortly, she would give me the number of the coordinator. I called back accordingly and got a number. But this was another gentleman who was in the same study tour. He said that the coordinator was praying at the time but that if I called at the Institute and saw the Chairman, she would have the appointment letter for me. I phoned the institute once again to make sure the Chairman was available at the time. She was home sick. But the person who answered the phone assured me that he would have the appointment letter sent to my address. I failed to understand why they were keeping me in such suspense over the appointment letter. There had been nothing even remotely akin to this in the matter of the lesson plan. In the interview with the Chairman, the decision had been for me to start on the next Sunday. So as affairs stood as the sun rose on the Tuesday before, I did not know for sure what I should do. But the previous night I had decided after a lengthy thought process that everything was going to be just fine at the Institue of Science and Technology, heretofore referred to as IST. So I was going to tell my employer, who was also a friend of mind from my undergraduate days, that I was not coming back from the next day. On Tuesday, instead of walking to my desk, on entering the office, I walked straight to my employer-friend’s office. He was not at his desk but a very colorful plate on his desk held pieces of watermelon. I went to my desk and switched on the computer. I sat at my desk with my back to his office, so I had no way of knowing when he had come back to his office. Fortunately he happened to call out to one of my colleagues and so I walked in his office and said that I was not coming back from next day. He asked if I actually meant to put in a resignation letter. He made the course of action sound dire and I stood shaken for a second. He said he was going off to a meeting at the time and that we should talk about this in the afternoon. W e did. He wanted me to resign next week. But I said that I was unwell. So he said that he was giving me leave. Things stood thus as I went to the IST on my first day as lecturer there on Monday next. I was back in the sitting room. The previous day, on Sunday, I had finally got the appointment letter and had been shown the room where my desk was. Never one with a good sense of direction, I was not sure on Monday where the room was. But I did know where the sitting room was and there I was seated on Monday at 10:30 AM. I went through the usual formalities with the traffic of my new colleagies. After sometime one assistant took me down to the room on the first floor and unlocked the door. After turning on the lights and the fans, he left me to my own and I sat at my desk. I studied the class schedule. I had no classes that day. After some time another teacher walked in. He sat facing me. He said that there would be students in the room all the time and that would make it a bit noisy. He took me to the library and showed me a small room in the back. This room was reserved for the use of teachers only. So if the room became too noisy for me, I could always come to this room which was absolutely quiet. The library was not very extensive. I found some books related to my courses and sat studying them in the small room. The next day, I had two classes, one on Principles of Finance and the other on Macroeconomics. One of the teachers took me to the classroom to introduce me to the class. Nothing noteworthy happened. I finished my lecture. Then one of the students asked if I had the lesson plan with me. What I had just talked about in the class had a tenuous relationship at best, apparently, with the topics listed in the lesson plan. But the class had to know about these preliminaries in order to fully appreciate the listed topics. The classroom was on the second floor. This happened to be immediately on the right standing at the bottom of the stairs from the third floor. I came down to my room and sat out the one hour till it was time for the class on Macroeconomics. Three other teachers sat with me in the same room. This time in the room with me was another teacher who sat to my right. I asked him where I should take the class on Macroeconomics. He said that the classroom was the same one as before but offered to take me there anyway. Once again the question regarding the lesson plan came up. But I had decided to fight this out patiently till the class understood at the end of the semester. Over time I received the keys to the room and to the drawers in my desk. A valuable possession for me was the marker with which I wrote on the white board. As it turned out, it was a valuable possession for others as well. The marker I had left on my desk was no longer there the next day. Clearly I would need to leave the pair of markers locked up in the drawers. I had decided to keep a pair with me at all time because given the physical structure of the marker, there was no way to gauge how much life it had left in it. An embarrassing incident in one of the sessions had taught me the wisdom of maintaining a pair at all times. The session had started and I had started writing on the board when it became clear that I had walked in with an empty marker. One student went to the office to get a replacement. He was gone for some time and the wait for me was none too enjoyable, not yet being the one to smoothly slip into gear for a banter with the class. The student returned empty-handed, saying they, meaning the office, were getting one. Another wait ensured as I stood facing the class and leafing through the book before me. Finally an assistant appeared with a marker and I was on my merry way on the white board. But I had determined never to let this happen again. So before leaving for the day, I always left the pair of markers locked up in the drawers. The arrangement was ideal. Yet after sometime, the keys would no longer fit in the locks and to this day that pair of my markers stands locked up in my desk. I communicated to one of the assistants the uselessness of the keys. He said he would have to bring in a demolition man. To this day he has not done so. So now I take my marker home. My prowess on the white board was a pleasant surprise. Just three years ago, in the student lounge at the National University of Singapore, I had tried to jot down discussion points with the same sort of markers on the same sort of whiteboard. For some reason I could not write at all. I put it down to lack of confidence with new things. Now I had become confident and I was all over the place on the white board and loved every minute of it, forgetting the presence of the class at times even. On one session, one student politely asked me if I would look at them. I heard the question but declined to react, my intention being to turn to the class only when someone had a question on the subject matter. However, every rose has its thorn. The thorn of the white board was that it was a Herculean task of patience to get the graphs right. Sometimes the different curves and straight lines would have points very close to each other and then the trouble would start. I would try to guess the points according to the axes and mark them and connect them accordingly. But all my best guesses turned out to be actually very bad ones and as a replacement method, I his upon the idea of drawing straight lines from the axes to get the points right. Yet the straight lines would not stay straight and neighboring points would still collide. Currently I am considering following the reverse process and shoot first, drawing the curve, and talk later, setting points. I have yet to try it out. It is funny how when I am underlining text on the white board it would be a very straight line and when I am actually trying to draw a straight line on a graph, it would be anything but. Yet in the former case, that of underlining text, there is no premium whatsoever in getting the line straight. Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_143169_50.html About the Author:
return to article
