Great tips here and it is always important to remember that some stduents are overhwlemed during the first class and while going over the syllabus and course objectives - policies and suggested flow of classes, i try to look out for those that seem overhwlemed or might misundertand the points. For example, once when I mentioned that we needed to follow APA formatting on all papers - and mentned to try and not use ambiguous terms - one student replied that he felt like he was being censored. I then exp,ained why we use APA formatting (so we are all consistent and also scholarly work is clearer and more robust when we avoid ambiguosu words and use more direct or speific verbiage). That explanation helped him so much and he said something like "so rather than using the word 'hard" we might use difficult" and I replied - "exactly" - and it reminded me that his definseiveness maybe connected to feeling overhwlemed and not fully undertstanding
