First Day. . .

As some of you know, today, Tuesday 19 January, is the first day of classes of my new semester.  I both love and hate the first day of classes.  I love the beginning of a new term, for the same reason that I love Mondays:  it's a chance to get organized and start over.  I thrive on the process of cleaning out, scheduling, organizing, setting goals and having this period of time (a week, a month, a semester, a year) in front of me to see them through.  It's like there's such possibility for success of all kinds.  And I love, love, love that feeling.  I love putting together syllabi (mine tend to be quite detailed) and seeing the entire fourteen weeks outlined there, on paper.  It's not about control, although I struggle with wanting control in many areas of my life.  It's more about planning and setting goals and believing that one can actually achieve them.  But it's also about doing what I can now to reduce stress later.  I plan out the reading and topic for exploration for each and every class period so that it's one less decision I have to make later.  And sure, I have to make changes as I go--I can be flexible.  But I like knowing where it is that I'm going and how I'm going to get there.

I do, also, hate the first day of classes.  As much as I love having a syllabus, a plan in place for my classes and my time and my life for the next few months, I absolutely HATE spending the first day of class going over the syllabus.  Rather than exploring this fascinating, potentially rewarding plan for the class, I end up droning on and on about policies:  how many absences students are allowed, the fact that I don't take late work.  All of it's there in writing, and I read through it, all of it.  I think it's important to do so, because I think that it's important that students be aware of my expectations and the requirements for success in the class.  But it's both boring and discouraging.  I find that I'm not overviewing all the fun things we'll be doing or the ways that they can succeed.  Rather, I'm emphasizing all the things they should avoid doing.  Partly, I always hope to scare off those who aren't willing to take the class seriously.  And I figure I should come across really mean at the start--it's easy to loosen up later.  If you've read Miss Nelson is Missing, and you should if you haven't, you'll know that being too nice is just a recipe for paper airplanes and spit wads.  So I start out like Miss Viola Swamp.  And although I think it's necessary, I sort of hate having to be that way, you know?  But basically, going over syllabi is just plain boring for everyone in the room, including me.

I guess I'm always glad when the first class meeting is over and I can think about the second and all the things I really love about teaching.