Thoughts on the First Day of Classes

Ah, yes. It is the beginning of a new year, and after having visited with my first two classes, here are some initial thoughts:

1. Cell phones are obnoxious -- yet another student was embarrassed when her phone went off in the middle of class. It was an accident, and she thought she had put it on silent, but I wonder how often this happens to others. In my syllabus, I tell students I subtract points off of final grades for cell phone usage. So from now on .....
2. Class ends when the teacher ends it. In my second class of the day, the students decided at 12:45 that class was over -- or they thought it was over until I reminded them that we had five minutes to go, and yes, I had five more minutes of info to go over. We'll see how this goes on Wednesday.
3. Get students involved. Starting the semester with an activity helps get students interested early. It's also more interesting for me to do on the first day as well, and it's fun to get to know a bit more about who is in your class.
4. First-year students are great. They're a bit nervous, and it shows, but usually they try hard and want to do well. For some reason, I often find the opposite of second-year students who are in my composition classes. I can't figure it out.

Here's to a good fall semester.

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