You should all have a copy of your syllabus," you say. "Please pull that out so you can follow along as I point out some of its stellar highlights."
Shuffling noises fill the room as the students find their copies. Erick mutters under his breath. You bet it's something rude, as Inez frowns and gives his shoulder a little shove.
"As I said, I'll be covering highlights only. You can read as well as I can." You hope. "Let's start with the class structure and what I expect from you."
"I'll be doing traditional lectures, the kind you've experienced before. I know that can get old—they can be 'whiteboard and bored' classes, as a friend of mine used to say." Darcy. Darcy called them that. You shake off the moment of sadness. "I'll be breaking lectures up with in-class exercises, and be performing regular assessments of your progress through quizzes, tests, and an end-of-class project."
You highlight key dates in the syllabus, including the mid-term and final tests. You emphasize your planned office hours twice, though you suspect most won't take advantage of them. "And, of course, we'll have a final project at the end of class."
Based on their murmurs, the students aren't pleased with that. "This is a bunch of crap," Erick says, loud enough to be heard clearly.
"What the hell, man?" Inez hisses.
"That's inappropriate," Jayden says. "Dr. ., I apologize on behalf of the class."