A little surprise for you above — so take a click.

Today was good; not productive in terms of lesson planning, but great in terms of getting all settled in. I got to finally meet my other two classes (Algebra II and Multivariable Calculus) and I thoroughly enjoyed both. Overall, I think all my classes are going to be really solid this year. I’ve been trying to do this really mixed attitude: friendly but firm. (An example of firm: “Can I get a drink of water?” “No.” [I continue teaching].)

Also, I now have a calculus motto, used by a student in an aside conversation: “ANYTHING FOR CALCULUS.” Maybe I’ll make buttons.

My one concern is the split between the two calculus classes: in one I have 15, in the other I have 4. I’ll be honest: I’m already noticing a huge difference in the amount of material we can cover each day. I anticipate getting to cover 5-7 minutes worth of more material in the small class than in the large class. Even today, I got much further, and felt more confident about where we left things. And this is day two. I don’t know how the class sizes got so wackadoodle, but I have to figure out — and early on too — how to keep them at least approximately in sync, without doing either class a disservice.

But I am really looking forward for tomorrow — because after Friday comes THE WEEKEND. (And I’ve been working for the weekend.)

UPDATE: A seal made for my calculus class.