And, We're Back! Realizing and Balancing Capacity

It's been a while... for the last time... I promise.  Last I wrote, it was August, right before the madness that is grad school/work.  Now, school has started and work is in full swing.  A colleague in my same position tonight asked, "how many hours are you working this week?" and my number equaled his and we both said, "too much."  It's not that I mind working a lot, because really, the past month has been amazing.  It's more about taking the time to have time for a bit of reflection and knowing my capacity to do things well as opposed to just doing them.

Between last Tuesday and next Tuesday (7 days), I'll have taught 5 workshops.  Whew.  Might not sound like a lot (and I know people teach that much all the time) but what I didn't consider prior to committing to instruct was the prep time.  Now I've taught before, and prepped before, but usually one workshop a month.  Not two a day :)  So, the reflection part of this - AND - the prep part of this all tie nicely into my thinking about capacity.  I know that in order to be a good instructor, prep time is key.  And, that reflection time is key.  And both of those take time.  Luckily, instructing is my job, and my job relates directly to one of my classes (Information Literacy) where part of my requirements are to observe and, ahem, instruct.  So this is actually all great experience.  But looking back on September (wait, what?  September is over?), I realized that most of what I'd done was prep and teach.  Which is good, but I didn't get much else done (homework, wait, what?). 

So, back to capacity - what is the balance between doing a lot and doing well?

I felt over capacity at work last month.  But then I started reflecting; during the last month, I think I became a better instructor.  It felt at the time like I was doing too much, but in reality, I think I was doing the right things too much.  It felt like I was just flying at an unreasonable pace, but that fast pace actually allowed me to not over think or get nervous, but rather just to do my job.  Prep, instruct, prep, instruct.  Reflect, prep, instruct.  And then, all of a sudden, I'm comfortable instructing.  Not that it didn't take hard work, it was just hard to see how that hard work payed off until the reflection came.

So, back to capacity - in the end, I've realized that doing the right things a lot can be very valuable, but that reflecting on that experience is just as important.  My prior knowledge of instruction, paired with my whirlwind month of September did  help me realize that teaching 5 classes in 7 days is not sustainable, but that now I can feel more comfortable teaching in general and helped me realize that I need to reflect to evaluate, learn, and move forward to continue gaining new skills.