First Day of school, Is it actually important?
First week of classes is finally over, but as I sit in the classroom now as a senior in college about to embark on the adventure of student teaching in the spring, I think about what it takes to have the best first day of class. So often for the first day of class we as students sit in a room with people we often don’t know very well and listen to the teacher give the speech we’ve heard a million times. The speech goes something like this Let’s go over the syllabus, here are the assignments, books and supplies needed, rules for the classroom, and if you get lucky you’re going to introduce yourself and give a fun fact.
As a student I still dread the first day or week of classes because I’ve heard this speech myself a hundred times. There’s no other way to put it this speech is boring, but necessary for the start of the year. So how do we as teachers make this more engaging for the students so they are excited to learn and be in the class?
Engaging students on the first day or even minute of the class I believe leads into motivating the students to want to learn and be there. Being a student, I know that I’m not always motivated to learn for some subjects and if there is no one to make you want to learn some students might never want to be there. So how do we set our students up to be motivated from the first second they step into our classroom?
If motivation has to come from us as the teacher, then how do we set ourselves up to be prepared? I believe a lot of it has to do with understanding how students learn and finding the best practices in the classroom. Also being prepared not just mentally but also physically, meaning having that well thought out lesson plan and unit plans, knowing your classroom rules and expectations, etc. You should know as a teacher what you need to do to run your classroom and how to set up your students for success. But how do we keep that success going through out the semester, so we aren’t stuck in a routine of unmeaningful learning? In the first days of school: how to be an effective teacher it says there are 4 stages of teaching fantasy, survival, mastery, and impact (Wong, H.K. & Wong). Most teachers get stuck in this survival stage of doing what they have to do to make it through each day of teaching. Survival stages is something teachers get stuck in because they don’t want to go above and beyond to make sure the students are getting a meaningful education from them. it seems like a daunting task to be able to motivate yourself and your students to be prepared and create a meaningful learning experience. But this is something that I want to challenge myself to be able to do within my own classroom and not be stuck in the survival stage.
As my journey continues, I hope to be able to answer all of these questions and have a better understanding of what I can do to make the first day of school the best and keep that motivation throughout the semester.
So, I’ll leave some questions for my peers and mentors to think about.
1) For your future students and/or future school administrators
· in what ways can I as a teacher help support the school mission and goals? And how can I get school administration to support my program? Whether that be coming to events that show case our students or other ways.
· What is the best way to showcase and communicate all the amazing things my students so inside and outside of school to the administrators, school board and community?
2) For your cooperating teacher and/or university supervisor
· What are techniques that you’ve used to motivate students to want to learn when they don’t seem interested?
· What ways do you use to engage every single student in your classroom and tailor your lessons plans to apply to everyone?
3) For one of your current virtual mentors (be specific!) and/or your cohort
· What will we do as a cohort and individuals to move up the different stages of teaching to reach that impact stage?
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