I have a new class, starting tomorrow.

Through some very odd circumstances, I was asked to take over a class mid-semester. I'm generally happy about this - in fact, the chair of the department is amazingly nice, which makes things easier - but I have lingering first-day-of-class fears.

The syllabus is already in place, and I'm fine with it; any readings I haven't done are merely other versions of things I have read. In fact, these readings will really help me revamp one of my own syllabi for next semester -- bonus points!

No, it's really the idea of walking into a classroom where bonds are already established between students, and I'm more the interloper than usual, as professor. And it's not even freaking me out that much, just enough that it's obviously on my mind. In some ways the situation is quite liberating: if it weren't for me taking over, the class likely would have been cancelled, so I really can run crazy with it.