Back to Work

We don't start classes until after Labor Day here in Wisconsin, but today was the first official day of contract, and the first all-day meetings. Somebody at a different college told me years ago that the real purpose of these opening meetings was to wake up the older faculty, so they'd know that classes were actually on the way.

As these things go, they were fine. I long ago gave up on the hope that any opening-day speaker would totally transform my teaching. At this point, I'll settle for being reasonably interesting and not saying anything patently stupid, which these speakers both managed. Each in their own way, they challenged us to think about who our students are and how well we are serving them in and out of the classroom. That's about the best I can expect.

One funny little quirk. The first speaker wore a lapel microphone, so the first thing that she did was to test it, and then to explain to us that for today's students, you don't want to stand behind a podium. She then stood there for an hour and a half, next to the podium, and gave her talk. Well, I'm sure that if there had been any Millenial Generation students in the audience, they would have appreciated it.

Anyway, I have a couple of short meetings tomorrow on technology, and then a couple of days off, then departmental stuff on Friday. And classes start on Tuesday, September 4. I think it will be a good semester. I'm looking forward to it.