i love going over the syllabus and explaining all the amazing and fun-filled things we will be doing together over the next few months and then for my very favorite-- introductions.
you've all done this, im sure-- every student goes around and says their name, their hometown, and something interesting about themselves. this always creates quite the conversation and a level of comfort that i see necessary for the class environment i'm looking for.
1. one of my students is a 4th generation Kenyan! and was born in mombasa- which led me to my landing in mombasa in kenya story.
2. another girl is from Nigeria and she is here for med school and is going to take her learning's back to her country and help those in need.
3. one boy "tames tigers"
4. another girl was in the circus for a week. i asked her, "and what exactly did you do?" and she said "picked up elephant shit". which may explain her limited amount of time in the circus.
5. a lot of my students are from san antonio and LOVE the spurs
6. one of those students claims that she is going to be the first female owner of the spurs.
7. one girl is a quadruplet! 1 of her siblings is here at UT with her-- and the other two are at tech.
8. one girl said that her running goal is to run a sub 4 minute mile and also claims that she has only run 3 times in the past 4 years. i think she was a little confused about mile pacing and such.
9. i had two students in the same class that were born and raised in romania--they kind of had a small reunion of sorts right then and there.
10. everyone claimed to love their dog...i had to finally say- "ya, hopefully we all love our dogs and this is becoming un-interesting so you're not allowed to say i love my dog"
11. so then, one girl professed that she rescues cat's-- and then said she's constantly picking up cat 'S'. so her and the elephant girl had a special connection. it was neat.
12. one student said that they had gotten badly injured while running last year
13...and then the next student claimed to be an EMT so he says "don't you worry, i've gotcha all covered in case of an emergency"
14. i had a lot of students who love to dance, love to sing, love to cook.
15. one guy brews his own beer.
16. one girls boyfriend is a kappa sig at baylor
17. one girls mom is my dad and stepmom's neighbor
18. and turns out another girl is MY neighbor...in the dorm...and this is when i revealed my interesting fact-- that we live in whitis court dormitory. i think they thought i was joking...and then i told them that we'd just have to have a dorm party and they can see for themselves.
19. one of my students has been a UT student for 25 years and has not missed a semester of taking class. he's also one of the few people left in any of my classes that was born before the 90s.
so there you go-- a little peek into what goes on in the first day of class. i then give them my intro that typically goes something like so-
my husband and i grew up in san antonio, i went to a&m (doesn't always go over so well now that i'm at UT) he went to baylor, i transferred to baylor, we graduated, got married. he was dead set on a masters, i didn't know what i'd do in waco texas for two years so i decided i guess i'd continue my education too. i switched from communications to sport's pedagogy--influenced by my experiences on the baylor cross and track team, they made me teach bowling, i've always bowled granny shots, i decided baylor needed running classes--selfish decision so i didn't have to teach lame classes like bowling, i developed the running curriculum and did that for two years, i also became a more serious runner and ran a series of marathons, trey decided a masters wasn't enough, he got accepted to a phd program at UT, the race was on to find a job so we could move down here to our favorite city and he didn't have to commute, trey won the race and got a job in housing, a few weeks later i got a job in the kinesiology department, i found out that UT didn't have running classes, i changed that, and here we all are loving life and loving running...and you have me to thank ;o) cheers...to myself.
okay, i don't say it quite like that--but pretty much.
and since i'm sure you are all just sooooooooooooooooo interested in my non-sense life stories stay tuned for day 2, or any other hilarious mishaps that occur under my supervision as instructor guinn. ugh, too bad for F.E.R.P.A or i would copy and paste some very very humorous emails that i've recently received.
alright, that's all i've got for today. over and out.
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