First Day of School

I've been here more than a month, and felt as prepared as I could be.Last week,  I went into the classroom I would be teaching in and tested out the visual display, wifi, and lighting. I made sure all of the important stuff was projected on the screen so that students who are not so proficient in English could follow along. I was given a list of 17 students (with challenging names for mono-lingual Annie). The classroom was a lecture hall, which I am not used to, but it had windows and looked modern, like the rest of the building.

No matter how long I've taught, I still get the "first day of school jitters". So, I got up and out early for my 9am class. Got to the classroom by 8:30, set up the projection system, Wifi was perfect. And I was ready to roll. ...9:05, no one, 9:15 came around and still no one appeared in the classroom. I was told that another professor would be there to introduce me to the class, but even she wasn't there. Was I in the wrong room?wrorng day?  Now my heart is pounding. Finally,   one brave soul entered the room and wisely suggested that I download my presentation just in case the wifi crapped out. Very good advice, since shortly thereafter, the wifi did go south.  I asked the "early" student if I had the time wrong and he explained that 9am usually meant sometime "around 9am" depending on traffic...by 9:30 10 students triclked in and I decided to start. But first I asked the students to introduce themselves and tell me where they lived, i.e. how long was their commute. Most lived either on campus or walking distance from campus. Traffic?  Hmmmm...

The professor that was supposed to introduce me to the class moseyed in a bit before 10 and just listened. No introduction. Fine by me. 

We had a lgreat time doing Journalism 101, They interviewed me, they interviewed each other, etc. ..

But it turns out half the students were 3rd year students and had already had JO 101. Hmmmm. 

The class was supposed to end at noon, but the students said they had another class at noon and had to leave at 11:30 for lunch. Okie dokie.  We quickly went upstairs to my office to get the books that I had shipped over for them. Let's hope they read them.

Dorothy is not in Kansas (or Boston University)  anymore. We'll just roll with it and see where we land. 

The most exciting part of the day was returning to my office..For the first time in my adult life I have an office with a window. Traditionally, TV and radio newsrooms are in the bowels of the building, no windows or honking horns to compete with the studio lights and sound proof booths. (Nowadays they put the sets right out on the street for the gawkers to gawk.)

 Even at BU, I worked next to the radio station in a windowless office for 30 years. So my bright office is a treat. I have great view of traffic and the city beyond, but at least it is natural light.  I decorated it, as I did at BU, with New Yorker covers, posters and postcards. By the end of 30 years at BU I had all four walls covered, ceiling to floor. We'll see how far I get in four more months here.

Stephen met me at my office and once I was finished with school business we went out to lunch at the Old Bazaar and walked home on another cloudless, blue sky day. 

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