Friday only comes twice a week

My normal blogging schedule (MWF) creates a slight conflict with my teaching schedule (TR) for this semester. Since I blog on the days I don't teach, it would seem that this would be a conflict-free zone, but there's a slight problem called a five-day weekend. So, I might skip some Monday and Friday blogs but hopefully not as many as I skipped last semester.

Yesterday was my first day of classes for the semester and my last day of classes for the week. At this point in my teaching career, first days have become pretty predictable. At least, I've come to expect a few certain things will happen:

Something will always go wrong. In my first class, I was in a building I've never taught in before, so I had to get new information about how to get the computer/projector up and running. That caused all sorts of technological problems. I also had to find my way around the building. I'm not sure that this is universal, but at every college I've been to, the buildings are unnecessarily labyrinthine with the threat of spandexed David Bowie around every turn.

I will always pronounce some names incorrectly. Last night, I pronounced a student's name wrong twice. I felt terrible because she went out of her way to introduce herself before class started, but I just wasn't paying all that much attention. Then I asked her to pronounce her name during roll and finally mispronounced it when I was using her as an example since she was one of the only students whose name I thought I knew at the time. I think I have it now. So, at least I know one student's name.

I already like and dislike certain students. These judgments are passing, and I'll probably forget them by Tuesday, but they exist, nonetheless. I have 75 students this semester, and I'd probably only recognize a dozen at this point, but that means one of three things: I've taught you before, you impressed me in some way on day one, or you annoyed me in some way on day one. Everybody else is just chaff at this point.

The later classes will always go more smoothly than the earlier classes. Slightly related note: I have an interesting experience this semester because I teach in one classroom from 5 to about 8. So, when I go into the room, it's still light out, but when I leave, the sun has gone down and the temperature's dropped about 5 degrees.

I'm never really ready. This was exacerbated this semester because the university decided to move the semester forward one week so that we could finish one week earlier. While ostensibly this makes sense, it's the kind of logic Veridian Dynamics would use to make a plant that grows light bulbs or a box that tells time. Regardless, it has decreased my general preparedness by roughly 15%. But, at least it's the weekend.

Question of the Week:

What was the best bowl game you watched?

My take: Texas almost made last night's championship game interesting without Colt McCoy, though not really. I thought the Boise State/TCU game lived up to the quiet but full hype and was entertaining, even if it was ultimately meaningless.