First Day of Class

January 15th, 2013

A few weeks ago I had a dream that I walked into the first day of class unprepared to teach. It turned out to be partially accurate.

This semester I am teaching Property I and Property II, one at 9:00 a.m. and the other at 2:10 p.m.

For some reason, I mistakenly though Property I was at 9:00 a.m. and Property II was at 2:10 p.m. I mean it makes sense, you teach the first class first thing in the morning.

I was prepping all last night and first thing in the morning for Property I. About 30 minutes before class I looked at the roster. Property II came first. Crap. I very, very quickly reviewed my notes for Property II  and got ready. I had read everything, and prepared my lecture notes, but was planning on finishing the preparation after my first class so it was fresh in my mind.

I thought it went pretty well (video is here). I doubt the students even noticed. Though I could’ve really messed with them if I started talking about Johnson v. M’Intosh and acquiring property through conquest instead of Adverse Possession. I wonder how long it would’ve taken before I noticed.

Though, my first day of class last semester was perhaps the best, in the worst possible way.

I managed to knock over an entire bottle of water, drench the seating chart, and knock over my laptop within the first few minutes of class. For serious.

Fortunately it was caught on video. Pay attention to the black bottle of water next to the lectern.

vertical

As I move my laptop over, a cord knocks over the bottle. In this shot you can actually see the bottle tipping over.

horizontal

And it spilled. A lot of water. A lot. Like 20 ounces. The seating chart was drenched.

spilled

I don’t skip a beat, and start wiping up waters while a video is running.

clean-up

Yes I am a big klutz. Here is the full video. The waterworks begins around 6:30 .

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sadRHskGxeQ]