The First Day of School!

I have had 32 "first day of school" events in my life, 20 as a student, and 12 at the front of the class. Last night was no different than any of the other 31: nervous, butterflies, and a little "what am doing!" mixed together. You might think this goes away with time, but not in my case. I confessed my feeling to a colleague a few years back. He has been teaching since the days of slate and I have the utmost of repect for him. He said to me "The day you aren't a little nervous, is the day to quit," so I don't feel so bad now.

I was in at 7:30 to get everything fired up in the brand new lab I am teaching in. Lots of great new tech stuff with unbelievable potential, if only we can find the time to learn to use it! Today the goal is just to get through the class without any smoke, fires, or complete computer failures.

The new students slowly file in; for many of them, this is the first time they have been in a college class, and I have to remind myself that they are more nervous than I am. I know from exerience that once I "hit the stage" I will be fine, but that 10 minutes before class is the worst time for me. 8 o'clock--curtain goes up, lights go down, and it is show time folks! The first ten minutes are a blur. Read the audience: who is bored? who is confused? who will be the group leaders? and most importantly, who will laugh at my bad jokes? My goals are simple: keep them awake, get everyone to engage at least once, and make sure that everyone smiles! This is a great group of students--eager, attentive and mostly interested.

My job is 3 part salesman and 1 part entertainer. I believe that I cannot teach anyone anything, but I can convince them that they will want to learn it. The sales job is getting easier every year. When I started this, half my students had never turned on a computer; this year I did not have one student who did not like computers.

Every year at Olds College I see about 300 new students personally, and this year will be no exception. The thing is that in 2 years, these students will graduate while I will continue to have a "first day of school" experience annually until they haul me out from behind my computer on a stretcher, or I don't feel nervous on the first day.