Out of the starting gate

A flutter of activity--coats and backpacks unzipping, pens and paper emerging--and the race is on. Too many chairs in this classroom, too many obstacles, too many opportunities for me to trip and fall. The syllabus goes zipping past on the screen, suggesting that I need more practice on our new Smartboard. I toss information out there like confetti. The students look stunned.

Why don't they laugh at my joke about the Tiddlywinks team? Have they ever heard of Tiddlywinks? I tell them my grading policy: everyone who laughs at my jokes gets an A; everyone else flunks. No one laughs. "You all just flunked."

We're done with the syllabus and now it's time to write, but what time is it, exactly? They took down the clock to install the Smartboard projector. How can I teach without a clock? "You have half an hour to write this, more or less."

They're working on writing and I'm working on how to make this classroom environment work. Practice on the Smartboard. Reconfigure the desks. Take out the extra chairs. The previous class has 28 students while this one has only 18...how can I make this environment work for both classes?

Fifteen more weeks. Deep breath. The race is on.