It's been nearly seven years since I did. Back then I taught a whole lot of sections; it was how my department tried to make my life easier, by giving me lots of reruns early on. Yes, it's a service course, but a place to recruit majors too.
I like teaching first-years. They're so hopeful! You can get them to try anything! (Let's not think too hard about how that's probably even more true outside the classroom...) And during my first three or four years, I got to watch lots of students come in and grow and change (the haircuts! the confidence!) and graduate.
I'm teaching 101 again now. Back in the day I'd put together a pretty structured course, including a sharply choreographed first day: introductions, breakout groups, mini-presentations, discussions. So much activity planned, in fact, that it's now clear that going through the syllabus and expectations only used to take me 10 minutes.
This time around? 35 minutes. Yes, faculty grow and change too, and not always for the better. Those mini-presentations will happen at our, um, next meeting.
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