Well this is my first summer term in a permanent job and I am enjoying a real change in timetable and job description. After two tough, long teaching terms, the summer term can seem like light relief: but it presents its own unique sets of challenges.
Now that email has become the method of choice for communication with students and other colleagues there is less pressure to be in the office during the summer term, which makes a real difference to long distance commuters like me. Working from home saves both time and money, not to mention reducing our carbon footprints! However it is a period of really intensive marking, and this is not everyone’s cup of tea, even dedicated teachers sometime baulk at the thought of a pile of dissertations waiting to be dealt with. I on the other hand love marking. I even do extra marking at this time of year by working as an examiner for International Baccalureate and A levels. A glutton for punishment you might think, but I find it really rewarding. For every frustrating script where a student has made a foolish mistake or woefully under-performed, there is a joy to read where someone has shown real flair.
Marking is not the only focus of academic life in the late spring and early summer though. If you are anything like me, you will have signed up for too many conferences and workshops and now it is time to actually write those papers, perhaps even doing a last minute bit of research. This can be pretty challenging because you don’t get those endless spare days to dedicate to writing that are the most productive. Instead you have to fit in an hour here and an hour there around the marking schedule, never quite immersing yourself in your work. Despite this though, most academics agree the summer term is quite an enjoyable time of consolidation of the teaching year and anticipation of research activities to come. As long as you enjoy marking, that is!
