Carol's First Day of School

Last night I taught my first class in 6 months. After 6 full months of my brain turning to mush, I must say, I was pretty on top of my game last night. I employed all of the methods I was taught a couple of years ago as a beginning instructor, and I must say, it went pretty well. At the beginning of the class I was really nervous, but that quickly subsided after the evening began. I did find out though, through the course of the class that I have about 15 nursing majors in my class, one person who is going to be a Physicians Assistant, and a gentleman who is the Police Chief of a nearby city. A diverse class in some respects, but not nearly as diverse as my classes in the Bay Area. I think this summer session is going to prove to be fun and interesting. :) Of course, I do have the person who has a million questions about everything - which, of course happens in every class....and, I do have the "I have all the answers" person - of course this person is quickly going to become my "go to" person, or the person who is going to assist me in class (by the way, us instructors have a way of 'including' the know it all's, extra enthusiastic students etc.... by making them 'group leaders', discussion facilitators, mini guest lecturers for a short lecture, etc.... Honestly, these students are mostly an asset to the class, but sometimes could become a bit overbearing at times - not for me, but for the other students, because quite honestly, I like those students. However, some of them need that inclusion in the leading of the class in order to feel like they are an intragal part of the class - and I am one of those instructors who is more than willing to accomodate). :) So, all in all I am excited about this class. I am not excited that it's three nights in a row every week, and that my commute is about an hour each way.

Oh yeah - interestingly enough, my class was full last night on the roster, but not in the class. I had 27 enrolled, and 19 showed up on the first day of class. This absolutely SUCKS for other students who looked at the class online and noticed that it was full and didn't try to add the class by showing up. I could have taken about another 10 people. I did talk to the admission guy, who by the way is super cool, his name is Alex and he's from the Ukraine - he said that the summer add/drop rate is really really really high - so a word of advice to those out there that think they won't be able to add a class - show up anyway. More than likely you will be able to add it, even if the class is full online. :)