I've had a few technical difficulties. I got to class early on my first day. There were a few students that were also early so I asked one young man if he would help me set up the computer/ projector. He looked surprised, but tried to help me. We couldn't get it to connect, so I wouldn't be able to show my power point to introduce myself. Hmmm. Go to plan B. Well, it was now time for class to start and I wanted the students to move up into the front rows. They were scattered all over the room, and not very many of them. "Come up here, please" Nobody moved. "Come up to the front three rows." Everyone just stared. The same young man came up to help me. "I don't think they understand what you want." So I walked out into the group and repeated my request, with lots of motions. At this point I see some of them start to leave. Am I that scary? The boy then said, "This is not a class. They are just here reading or studying." We looked my schedule and sure enough it said I had a class at 1:30 (13:30) "But the next class is really at 2:00," he said. By this time everyone has vacated the room! Probably wondering who this crazy lady was. Well, I told this whole story when my actual class appeared and they thought it was hysterical! That seemed to break the ice and we had a very enjoyable time together. And I did just what my brother suggested - When technology failed me, I picked up my piece of chalk, went to the blackboard, and drew stick figures to introduce my family, a quick map of the US to show where I had lived and where my kids/gkids lived. I drew mts and foothills to show where my house was. As a backup plan I had my calendar with pictures of my gkids and showed them that. They were appropriately wowed by the pictures! .