A New Fall Semester

I just finished my first week of teaching for this fall semester, and let me tell you, my numerous first-year students have exhausted me! I'm teaching two sections of PLS 103, Issues in World Politics, and I've never had so many first-year students in my fall classes. How is this different, you ask? Well, it's the numerous e-mails asking where to find the readings, how to find the on-line library course reserve, how to log onto Blackboard (our course website), and even to find the reading questions. Most of this is contained in my ever-so-lengthy syllabus (10 pages -- YIKES!), so I was surprised that so many students did not heed my warning given on the first day of class: "There's no such thing as a dumb question, unless the answer can be found in the syllabus."

So, I must resolve to maintain my patience and not get too exasperated at the first-year students, who are merely trying to find their way during their first week of college. Yet, they still must try to figure these things out on their own, right? I'm not that much of a hand-holder, so I've made a bit of a compromise: I posted a FAQs discussion board so students can post questions, and even fellow students can post answers, and I asked them to do so, to help me out. Hopefully this will reduce the number of e-mails in my Inbox.

On a better note, a student from Thailand with whom I worked very closely last semester gave me a cute little business card holder made of Thai silk, which was super sweet. And another student came by my office to chat with me about what he had read about Russia recently and told me that he was telling students to take my Russian politics class next semester. He's one of my best advocates, to make sure that I get enough students in that course so it won't get canceled.

In other words, it's all about keeping things in perspective, right? We tend to focus on the negative (or at least the annoying), while positive experiences are pushed to the background. That is my lesson learned this week, and I'll have to try to keep things in perspective, as I deal with the 100 students that I am to teach this semester. :-)

Speaking of the positive, tomorrow morning Mike and I are leaving for Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I'm hoping I will have beautiful photos to post in the near future!