First Week of the Last Year

A few first-week-of-school observations:

• Classrooms without windows should not exist. It is impossible to establish a jovial, 'let's all do some learnin', whaddaya say?' atmosphere when you feel like you're trapped in a dungeon.
• On a similar note, classroom designers should think long and hard about the placement of clocks: first of all, a clock is very, very important in this age of cellphones -- if you don't have a clock, you can't legitimately tell students to turn off their phones while in class as many of them use their phones as watches. Secondly, if you put the clock above my head at the front of the classroom, students don't seem to look you in the eye ever, and you yourself have to turn around to check it. Likewise, if the clock is behind the students, they do not hesitate to turn around every 5 minutes to look at it, which can really screw up an instructor's mojo. My preferred clock position is to the side, by the windows or the door, where it can be discretely checked by all.
• No matter how far I get from the days of Trapper-Keepers and #2 pencils, I still love buying new school supplies at the beginning of September.
• It is very strange to teach a class that you yourself attended only a few years before.
• Simple pleasures, like a new office with a computer, swively chairs and space to get up and pace (should one want to pace) can do wonders.
• I'm still not sure if wearing flip-flops while teaching a Medieval Literature class sets a "she's cool, she wears flip-flops" tone or a "who does she think she is? wearing flip-flops? what, is she 20?" tone. The jury's still out on that one. I think pretty soon I'll cave and wear jeans, though. I just wanted to look like the teacher for at least the first couple of weeks.