I had a nightmare last night.

I had a class coming up soon. But as the class neared my coworkers kept screwing with the printouts (editing the course materials). Also, they kept having reasons why I couldn't get into the classroom until just before the class was supposed to start. So 15 minutes before the class is supposed to start I'm walking out the meeting room door and I get handed the final printed version of the handouts... Which have all of the flowcharts black on black (= impossible to read!) and the flowcharts are a hideous missmash of the last version and a more recent edit that I had disagreed with. In other words, a critical section of the handouts was unusable. And I'm scrambling to find my printed copies of the flowcharts from the last version so I can make copies on the way to the classroom....

Gah!

The only unreal part of this when I woke up was the visual of the handouts themselves. It was my real coworkers, it was a class I have coming up.... *sigh*

In real life I Do Not Allow Anyone to Mess With My Materials in advance of the class. I am super super controlling. Absolutely no last minute changes.

Because, of course, Shit Happens in a class.

I've had classrooms where the ambient temperature was in unbearable ranges (55F and 90F, sometimes in the same room on the same day). I've had classes where the electricity would randomly go out, which takes with it the projector and all lights in the room. I've had classes where the handouts didn't arrive until after the class ended. I've had classes where the printer had a complete brain fart and the handouts have the chapters in a random order (fired that printer!). I've had classes where students Cannot Install Anything on their own computer and thus addins of the flowcharts will not open on their computer. I've had classes where the only women's restroom was on a different floor and on the entire other side of the building (4 minutes walk each way, which makes for challenging 10 minute class breaks). I've had classes where my clothing would come apart at random intervals (usually a slip or bra shoulder strap that would just BREAK.). I've had fire alarms during class (mostly practice, but at least once it was real), for which we had to evacuate.

So when I'm preparing to teach a class, I control everything I can. I prepare for the common ways in which things go wrong. There are things for which I cannot prepare and I think I've accepted that. I believe that good instructors have backup plans for the common things that go wrong and roll with the weird stuff. I try to follow that philosophy.

I'm just trying to figure out exactly why my subconscious thinks my coworkers are making my life more difficult... My conscious mind disagrees...