Today is the last day of a loooonggg week.

For the first time in a few years, I'm "teaching" a Saturday class.  I put the quotation marks on teaching because it's actually someone from PLDT/SMART who is teaching the class.  I'm taking it. 

The class is Enterprise Programming. We're using J2EE.  One of DISCS's weaknesses is that we didn't have anyone in the Department with J2EE competencies.  We've always had to import people. The feedback regarding the class depended highly on the person teaching it.  Late last sem, SMART offered us (DISCS and ECCE) J2EE training with the end in mind that we would handle the class this sem.  After some discussion, we decided it would probably be better if someone from SMART handled the class first.  We would sit in and then, with any luck, be ready to handle the class independently by next year.

Since I became chair, I've deliberately avoided Saturday classes because I feel as if my week was long enough already.  Furthermore, especially during the second sem, our Saturdays are eaten up by open houses and other events.  However, when an opportunity presents itself to learn something valuable, the sacrifice is worth it.