I've survived my first month! My students (mostly) like me, but more importantly, they (mostly) respect me.
I like to maintain a certain line between the students and me. For example, they need to email me if they miss class due to an illness, but I don't need to hear about their 2 am vomit session. I will acknowledge that they are constantly juggling classes with extracurriculars/sports, but I don't want them to tell me about their awesome hookups/booze/hangovers.
My students (mostly) understand this, and so they refrain from dropping little overshare nuggets on me. But in the last week or so, students have been popping into my office and confessing their little academic transgressions.
It started with one student confessing that they overslept another class. Then another let me know that they put their homework off until the last minute. Another told me about how they blew off a class last semester for no reason. The next day a student told me they weren't returning their parents phone calls. (I told them to pick up their cells, pronto.) And most recently, an athlete confessed how they broke some team rules during team study hall.
Now I get that sometimes my lectures might veer into preachy territory. Don't we all preach the commandment "Thou shalt not bear electronic devices into my classroom"? What about the oft-quoted "Thou shalt complete all problem sets in a timely, legible fashion"?
But I don't wear a freakin' collar. I'm not their damn priest.
Yes, I recognize that these little confessions most likely indicate that my students are comfortable with me. At least that is what I'm hoping. Hmm....should I be giving out penance duties? Let's see... Five extra problems and thirty flashcards? One chapter of reading and three derivations? Hmmm...... oh, the possibilities are endless.
