First Class

I taught my first class (COR 1203: Freshmen Seminar) on Thursday, and it went well. Twenty-three out of our twenty-five students made it to class. The students asked questions and seemed to be willing to talk and share. I am glad that they are not too quiet because I do not want to have to "lecture" too much. We have a nice mix of majors in the class.

I am finding a couple of challenges as I teach for the first time. The big challenge is timing. How long will things take?! We did let the class out fifteen minutes early on the first day. I met with the co-instructor (another advisor in my office) on Friday, and we talked about how to time the class. We are going to try to have a "schedule" for the next couple of classes to see how that goes. (We have an hour and fifteen minutes, twice a week.) The other challenge is balancing teaching with the rest of my job. I still need to advise and see that as my main role.

Our class has a peer leader, who is a sophomore and serves as a mentor for our students. She took a freshmen seminar class last fall. On Friday, she asked if we had taught before. She could not tell that we had not taught before. I am taking that as a compliment.

Here are the two book that we are using for the class: Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine and On Course by Skip Downing. It was fun to see Doug Fine speak on Monday afternoon.