First Year Seminar. Day One. Survived.

Emily, Dan, and I just got done with our first 50-min. class. First days are always whirlwinds, but I think this year was the most hectic ever. And when my head is left spinning, I know my students' heads are. Here was the agenda:

• Meet @ Central Pattee and walk to classroom
• Roll call - introductions - Lots of students from Philly this year. Many from State College. One from China who's never been abroad before. Several nicknames to remember!
  
• Syllabus introduction - Syllabus is Bible (we redesigned this year and the format seems to be working well).
  
• Explanation of Blogging assignment/assignment of teams/instructions for weekly reports - Students seem eager to blog, anxious about grading criteria (already had ? about length of posting), and a bit frustrated with getting MT4 working for them. We anticipate a 3-week learning curve.
  
• Sony Reader project intro/description of study/consent form administration - Students seem to <3 their Readers and are eager to put their own content on the devices. Battery Suck, here they come! Great research material - here we (the instructors) come!
  
• Assignment of first blog post topic - Describe a memorable (or not so memorable) trip to the library (any library). What made the visit memorable?
• Post-class troubleshooting time - most people had to rush off so there will be furious emailing between now and next Wed.

Anticipating many emails this week. I can already tell that doing the class in this format will allow me to get to know my students better, and will help them to know one another more.