Teacher monkey

So, I'm a teacher now...or at least I pretend I am every Wednesday night from 5:10-7:50pm. I'm teaching my first ever college level class ( a 200 level critical thinking class) and so far it seems like it is going mostly okay. Most of the class came back for the second week, so thats a positive sign. Some of the students even seem to think I am somewhat funny and interesting but some of them just stare into space and seem not to notice me. A few seem confused when I joke around and appear to take notes in all the wrong places in the lecture. This concerns me a bit.

It is interesting being in the front of the classroom. It is amazing how un-subtle people are about falling asleep, talking, doodling, scratching their balls (I'm thinking, of course, of one student in particular who sits right in the front and is an especially itchy human being). I'm reminded of how clever I thought I was when I was in college and would wear a baseball cap to class when I was sleepy...as though that would make me invisible to my professors. Heh. Probably not.

Even though we're only two weeks in, I've already identified the teacher's pet (she offered to carry my bag and supplies to my office after class and keeps telling me how good a job I'm doing. I love her), the class weirdo (ball scratcher) and the suspected slackers (a table of 4 guys who are trying to out cool each other and put forth the barest of minimums on the few assignments we've done). I'm curious to see how many of the students last the whole semester. I'm curious to see if I'll do a good job. I hope I do, but I'm not really sure how to measure myself. I think getting teacher evaluations will scare me a bit. We'll see.