This day turned into the typical first day of class, but there were a few twists involved. I walked into my 8 o’clock class and, shock of shocks, everyone was there. This never happens on the first day. Heck, it never happens on any day, so I was pleasantly surprised. I went over the syllabus; laid down the law; and talked about the stupidity of Titanic, the movie version I mean.
That’s when I asked if anyone had questions about the class. A guy wearing shorts and a t-shirt raised his hand:
“Do we need to dress up for convocation?”
“If I was you I would wear long pants.”
“Is this shirt ok?”
“I think it will be. It’s not too wrinkled.”
As I stood there wondering what this had to do with class, a woman raised her hand:
“Where can I get a cup of coffee around here?”
Honestly, I don’t understand why people drink this stuff.
By now, I am figuring that my message got lost somewhere along the way, but I answered anyway.
“There is a coffee kiosk downstairs. It claims to be Starbucks, but I wouldn’t expect that. But, I don’t know. I only get the chocolate milk.”
With that, I dismissed class and went downstairs to get said chocolate milk.
This is me before I drink the milk.
Between classes, a student came by to drop a class. That’s a problem since I am not her advisor. Apparently, her advisor wasn’t around, and she came to me because she was in my class once. I had to explain that I couldn’t help her and asked if she could wait for her advisor to arrive.
“I don’t want to. They teach the class that I want to drop.”
Eventually, it became time for the afternoon class. It’s the same course as the earlier one, and that causes problems now and again. I always try to say the exact same things, and I never fail to realize that I forgot to say something to the first one. In this schedule, the second class always gets my best stuff.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, this class did not have any questions. I guess they already found the coffee place.
Next, the entire school went to the gym for convocation. I was correct in the last post. Speeches were made. The Alma Mater was sung. However, they didn’t break out the gowns. I was disappointed because it’s fun to see people in regalia. If you squint your eyes, then it looks almost like Hogwarts.
Harry must be making a speech or singing the Alma Mater.
That was pretty much it for the academic world, but the day was not over. I ran some errands before dinner and checked out Twitter to see what was happening in the world. In the local world of my county, our esteemed elected officials were voting on a property tax increase. This is not something I am in favor of because, well, I own a lot of property. And, that property has lost a great deal of value in recent years.
The county commission decided that it would be a good idea to raise taxes without lowering property values to the corrected level. I could go on and on about this, but, hell, government is government. It will not give up until it gets everything. My rant is going to be about a certain aspect of the meeting.
The vote to increase the tax ended in a tie, and the procedures dictate that the County Mayor break the tie. He says that one person should not make the decision for the entire county and refuses to go along. To me, this is ridiculous. He was elected to this position and should have realized that this might happen. He took the job but didn’t take the responsibility. That, my friends, is not what an elected official should do. Make a decision, whether popular or not, and stick with it. Don’t straddle the fence.
Udder Destruction
I’m not sure how we went from school to government, but I wonder if this cow produces chocolate milk.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
I usually get “where’s the teacher? R U?” in my discussion session.
“We introduced ourselves to you guys two days ago in the main session. Yes you just exposed yourself.”
When I talk to them about cellphones, I explain that texting under the desk doesn’t work because I can see them. I usually say, “I don’t know why your hands are moving between your legs, but you probably shouldn’t be doing it in class.”
Lol. We TAs usually sit in the last row in the main session. So we get to observe all these kids’ laptop screens: video games, doing homework for another class, chatting on facebook/twitter, amazon, fashion show…
My first ever college class remains my most vivid memory of any class I ever attended. An 8am class on a Monday. It ended up changing my entire academic path. I just didn’t recognize that for another four months. When I finally did, I decided to transfer to another school and adopt as my major the subject of that first class.
You have an important job.
Wow, that was a lot of quick changes. What was the class? Sometimes I get bogged down in the daily grind, but it is a rewarding job in the end.
Nice work on the football posts. It’s almost here.
What ages are you teaching?
Three of my classes are filled with Freshmen. My other class has Juniors and Seniors.