So I just finished my first full day of class. We had 10 minutes classes yesterday and had 30 minute classes today. I have so much more respect for all of my teachers than I ever did. Teaching is hard.

Some tidbits:

• In Arab culture, teachers go by their first names, so I am Mr. Bowman to all of the kids, which I find hilarious!
• In all of my classes, I had them guess my age, which was fun. One girl told me I looked 27 but I am actually 30. Thanks? I probably should have lied to them, but I told them straight up, I’m TWENTY TWO years old, only 5 years older than the oldest of you. I said: I know I look young, but you will treat me like you treat any other teacher in the school, especially the old crusty ones, and if you treat me like a student, I will treat you like you are 5 years younger than you are. BAM. Laying down the law! [it’s not helping though that we all wear blazers to class and with my blue blazer, I happen to look very student-like]
• The kids are at the same time reaaallly smart, but don’t know enough so that I feel good about myself in front of the class, which is perfect. I hope they stay there, ha. I just need to make sure I learn physics faster than them. The question today on the board was “Estimate how many times the human heart beats in a lifetime.” The answer is about 2.5 billion and probably about half the class got a number in that range.
• I am obsessed with Snakes on a Plane, and when I gave admissions tours at UVA, I would make a point to somehow mention it on every one. Well, I really hope to do this in my physics class, and I think it’s not going to be as hard as I thought. Check out this, I think it was invented with me and only me in mind. [Courtesy of CafePress.com]