College officially started today and I can say it went pretty well.  I don’t dread the start of school, I actually look forward to it.  The students are the lifeblood of any school and with out them, well…it’s pretty lifeless.  I think as teachers we should be excited about school starting, after-all isn’t that why we chose to be teachers?  All jobs/careers have their tensions, headaches, and unnecessary “hoops”… at least we get some time to “recoup”!

In classes today, we had the normal first day of class “rigaramol”: add/drops, early and lates, books, etc.  It’s an exciting time for the students, especially the freshmen.  It’s kind of fun to watch the freshmen try to figure out who is an upperclassmen or the “where” and “what” of their first few days.  Very quickly they assimilate into the “know”.

Wow, has class equipment changed since I was an undergrad.  Every student comes in to class with their computer notebooks, pdas, cell phones, and music devices… I often wonder how many of them have a pencil on the first day of class. The majority of them take notes on their computers now, at least at our college (every student is given a laptop their freshmen year).  However, I still oft-times take hand written notes in a real “note book” (yes, I realize I’m a technology guru!).  Interestingly enough, many people have juxtaposed the definition of notebook to be a “computer notebook” when the talk and think about it.  I’ve even heard of letters and books being called “treeware” now!

All-in-all it was a great first day and at the end of it, after numerous students had “pounded down” my door to tell me about their summers or say hello, it felt good to know that I am having a positive impact on my students and soon I’ll be able to call many of them my colleagues and friends. 

Do you have any good “first day stories”?  Let us know, please share them in the comment section below!

[tags] grove city college, joseph pisano, first day back at school [/tags]

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