Hi Mary, You make a good point about sharing "personal" parts of your life with students. You really don't have to since you will be sharing your professional history with them. A key to developing rapport with students is to show them that you care about their success in your course. Help them to see their future and they will respect you for your dedication to them. If you want to share something personal on a more distant level you can chat a few minutes at the beginning of class about something you did over the weekend that involved --eating out, a hobby, movie, etc. The comments may be humorous or just conversational. This lets the students see you in a human light, gets them settled into the class and ready to learn. You haven't shared anything of significance about your personal life but the students know your are a regular person. This sometimes they forget when they are students. We are all former students ourselves with the challenges of life that we have to deal with just as they. Gary