80 people

So, um, when did a room full of 80 people begin to look like a small audience to me? I teach in the same classroom several times a semester. The room holds 100 or so, and when it's really full kids are sitting in regular chairs at the back rather than in the chair with an arm that mostly fills the room.

I taught my first class of the semester there this morning and I felt like I did the first time I revisited my old elementary school--like a giant stomping around in a tiny tiny place. Well, since I'm rather short I didn't actually feel like a giant, but you know.

Then it struck me: I started teaching in a brand new classroom this semester, a room that holds 4 or 500 kids. It's so big, there are two huge screens and all of the kids have assigned seats so that the class minions can take attendance without killing themselves.

So thanks, giant classroom, for making my usual room feel so cozy, so intimate.