Heat + Class = Exhaustion

The first day of classes was unexpectedly exhausting, probably for a couple of reasons. One was that I had four classes, the first one starting at 9:30 and the last one ending at 8:15. I wasn't teaching non-stop, but the breaks were just big enough that there was no point in going home. I did a lot of prep work instead.

The other reason was the appalling heat and humidity. A high of 101 here, and absolutely killer humidity. Three of my classes are in our library classrooms, which is not that far from the building my office is in, but the walk over there is across an entirely unshaded walkway. It was fierce. Also getting into my car at the end of that long day was like getting into an oven.

The classes themselves went well. Everyone showed up! I don't think that's ever happened. Usually a handful of students skip the first day, probably thinking not much will happen. Not this time. Also, the classes were engaged, asking questions, and going to my first day "assignment" with zeal.

The assignment was for them to tell me (1) their preferred names (2) their preferred pronouns and (3) one question or anxiety they had about the class.

Honestly, I expected a little pushback about the pronoun question, given how conservative this area is, but that did not happen; and several of them, in fact, have pronouns that don't match the gender assigned at birth. So I'm glad I asked. And about a third of them asked to be called something that isn't their name on my roll sheet -- this has been common throughout my teaching career, because so many kids are named something like Hunter and called something like Bubba; but I never actually asked for that information up front. 

Frankly, I also asked this because I wanted to give my students fair warning. Yes, that's me, the ultra-progressive professor. If you can't take it, you've got three more days to switch into a different section.

But as I said, no student so much as blinked. The kids really are okay, even here in the reddest of the red states.