Ali The Alien

It's only 2:00 p.m. and I've already been up for far too long. The past few days I've been on bar time, which means going to bed around 3:00 a.m. This morning I had to abruptly shift to teaching class time, with an extra dollop of getting ready for the first class time, so I was up and getting ready by 7:15 this morning. Ugh.

Today was my first Comp. 101 class. I said the introductory stuff, made the students introduce themselves, and made them answer questions while they did so. Questions like "What's your major?" and "What do you read?"

I kept getting those looks, the ones that say, "What planet did you come from?" Now we get to play the game called "Who's dropped? Who's added? How many of the students whose names I've learned are going to disappear?" I've never played that game before, but I hear it's fun.

Today I started learning names. I learned enough that when no one wanted to talk after I asked a question, I got to pick on people.
Me: Well Bob [name changed to protect the innocent], what do you think?
Bob: You know my name already?
Me: Yeah. Scary, isn't it?
I've got to thank my Ninja Waitress skills for that one. By the end of class I was calling a few people by name and thinking, "I think her name is --, but I don't want to call her by it and be wrong," for others. By the next class I ought to have them all down (save any newbies) because the university has this nifty thing where you can print up your class roster with students' school ID photos included.

I know I may be over-emphasizing the name thing a bit, but I'm keen on this idea that if they know I know who they are, there's an extra bit of accountability there. That's certainly been my experience. I'll work harder for a prof. who knows who I am than for one who has no clue.

Speaking of names, wanna hear something funny? When I took roll, I prefaced it by telling them if I mispronounce their name, or if they go by something else, they ought to tell me. I had one student tell me they'd rather go by something else. Then I had them all introduce themselves and about four introduced themselves by something other than what I had called them. It's a psychology thing. It's funny.