The 400

I am getting back in the academic groove again for the fall. Here is a picture someone took recently of me in full tilt lecture mode. The whole performance part of teaching really is fun most of the time.

Every other year I teach our huge intro course, RTF 305. This year it has almost 400 people in it, mostly freshmen, mostly majors in Radio-TV-Film. My first lecture was the first day of college for most of them. Too bad it has to be in groups of 400 at a time, but that is the economics of a big school. Unfortunately we have to teach big groups in some classes so we can afford to teach small groups in the upper division classes where they get to actually make movies and write more intensely. Still, a big intro class can be kind of fun because we do get to do a tour of the big issues.

So here we go, me and the 400, fewer than the 600 of the Light Brigade, more than the Spartans at Thermopylae. Less dangerous, but I hope still interesting.