Teaching at the Branch

This branch at the U is a bit of an odd shaped building;
there is a mysterious 4th floor that cannot be seen from afar.
My class was held in a room on this 4th floor.

Students made eye contact with me and smiled
when I walked down the hall. Rather odd.

Cell phones were worn like a badges of honor
and vibrated all the way through my lecture.
During break, a few students approached me
with the beginning phrase:
"Let me tell you [how it is? how it is going to be?] . . ."--
very authorative. Lots of older students and students who work.

And the classroom itself? The space is large and
stair-stepped. Lecture hall style. Ampitheater.
Setting: Small Community on the brink of Technology
Players: Students / Instructor / Voices from the past
Plot: TBA [Instructor goes mad right before everyone's eyes?]

The podium is this massive contraption
with a PC loaded into the front cabinet at a canted angle.
Most awkward.
I have no desk, no rolling chair; therefore, I suspect,
given the tone of the information
packet sent to me as well, I suspect that I am strongly
discouraged from, 'er, sitting.
Yuk.

And guess what? I bluffed my way through >gasp< a "time line."
Why?
I'm not sure.
It's against my pedagogical nature to reinforce
linear systems of thinking . . . and yet,
I did. Last night.
Why?
I'll have to give that some thought.
My knee jerk answer is that, after last quarter, I find it exhausting
to constantly buck the system--
but, as I hope to discover, it may be as equally exhausting not to.