50 Fun Things for Professors to Do on the First Day of Class
Note: I don't totally agree with this list, and I strongly urge all
professors out there not to get any ideas, but I thought it was so
funny I had to put it up here!
- Wear a hood with one eyehole. Periodically make strange gurgling
noises.
- After confirming everyone's names on the roll, thank the class for
attending "Advanced Astrodynamics 690" and mention that yesterday was the
last day to drop.
- After turning on the overhead projector, clutch your chest and scream,
"My pacemaker!"
- Wear a pointed Kaiser helmet and a monocle and carry a riding crop.
- Gradually speak softer and softer and then suddenly point to a student
and scream "YOU! WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"
- Deliver your lecture through a hand puppet. If a student asks you a
question directly, say in a high-pitched voice, "The Professor can't hear
you, you'll have to ask me, Winky Willy."
- If someone asks a question, walk silently over to their seat, hand them
your peice of chalk, and ask, "Would you like to give the lecture Mr.
(Miss) Smartypants?"
- Pick out random students, ask them questions, and time their responses
with a stop watch. Record their times in your grade book while muttering,
"tsk, tsk."
- Ask students to call you "Tinkerbell" or "Surfin' Bird."
- Stop in mid-lecture, frown for a moment, and then ask the class whether
your butt looks fat.
- Play "Kum-Ba-Ya" on the banjo.
- Show a video on medieval torture implements to your calculus class.
Giggle throughout it.
- Announce "You'll need this," and write the suicide prevention hotline
number on the board.
- Wear mirrored sunglasses and speak only in Turkish. Ignore all
questions.
- Start the lecture by dancing and lip-synching to James Brown's "Sex
Machine."
- Ask occasional questions, but mutter "as if you gibbering simps would
know" and move on before anyone can answer.
- Ask the class to read Jenkins through Johnson of the local phone book
by the next lecture. Vaguely imply that there will be a quiz.
- Have one of your graduate students sprinkle flower petals ahead of you
as you pace back and forth.
- Address students as "worm."
- Announce to students that their entire grades will be based on a
single-question oral final exam. Imply that this could happen at any
moment.
- Turn off the lights, play a tape of crickets chirping, and begin
singing spirituals.
- Ask for a volunteer for a demonstration. Ask them to fill out a waiver
as you put on a lead apron and light a blowtorch.
- Point the overhead projector at the class. Demand each student's name,
rank, and serial number.
- Begin class by smashing the neck off a bottle of vodka, and announce
that the lecture's over when the bottle's done.
- Have a band waiting in the corner of the room. When anyone asks a
question, have the band start playing and sing an Elvis song.
- Every so often, freeze in mid sentence and stare off into space for
several minutes. After a long, awkward silence, resume your sentence and
proceed normally.
- Wear a "virtual reality" helmet and strange gloves. When someone asks a
question, turn in their direction and make throttling motions with your
hands.
- Mention in passing that you're wearing rubber underwear.
- Growl constantly and address students as "matey."
- Devote your math lecture to free verse about your favorite numbers and
ask students to "sit back and groove."
- Announce that last year's students have almost finished their class
projects.
- Inform your English class that they need to know Fortran and code all
their essays. Deliver a lecture on output format statements.
- Bring a small dog to class. Tell the class he's named "Boogers McGee"
and is your "mascot." Whenever someone asks a question, walk over to the
dog and ask it, "What'll be, McGee?"
- Wear a feather boa and ask students to call you "Snuggles."
- Tell your math students that they must do all their work in a base 11
number system. Use a complicated symbol you've named after yourself in
place of the number 10 and threaten to fail students who don't use it.
- Claim to be a chicken. Squat, cluck, and produce eggs at irregular
intervals.
- Bring a CPR dummy to class and announce that it will be the teaching
assistant for the semester. Assign it an office and office hours.
- Have a grad student in a black beret pluck at a bass while you lecture.
- Sprint from the room in panic if you hear sirens outside.
- Give an opening monologue. Take two minute "commercial breaks" every
ten minutes.
- Tell students that you'll fail them if they cheat on exams or "fake the
funk."
- Announce that you need to deliver two lectures that day, and deliver
them in rapid-fire auctioneer style.
- Pass out dental floss to students and devote the lecture to oral
hygiene.
- Announce that the entire 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica will be
required reading for your class. Assign a report on Volume 1, Aardvark
through Armenia, for next class.
- Ask students to list their favorite showtunes on a signup sheet.
Criticize their choices and make notes in your grade book.
- Sneeze on students in the front row and wipe your nose on your tie.
- Warn students that they should bring a sack lunch to exams.
- Refer frequently to students who died while taking your class.
- Show up to lecture in a ventilated clean suit. Advise students to keep
their distance for their own safety and mutter something about "that bug I
picked up in the field."
- Jog into class, rip the textbook in half, and scream, "Are you pumped?
ARE YOU PUMPED? I CAN'T HEEEEEEEAR YOU!"