Hi ED101, A couple of things I'm always looking for on the first day of class are 1) are there any "ringers" in the class 2) what is the motivation of each student. Ringers to me are students who know alot about the subject already, or at least think they do. So I need to find out who these people are and how much knowledge they possess. That way they don't become a distruptive influence. Motivation of each student is finding out why they are here. Some students only want to learn very specific things, while others are happy to absorb as much as possible. Knowing this I can give the former group what they want, even if I have to add some content to the course to do so. This makes the class a success in their mind. This is especially true for "ringers" so you can make them feel the time spent was worthwhile. Doing this kind of recon starts on the first day. I make sure I am there early to greet each student coming in, that way I can find out a bit about why they are attending this course. Next, as the students introduce themselves, I ask them to tell me abit about their experience and what they want to take away from the class. Finally while we are covering the syllabus / course outline I ask lots of questions (Socratic Method style) to find out people's background knowledge. These are critical pieces of info for me to make the class a success. Anybody else have other techniques for "recon"? Jeff