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There Is Only One First Day of School
A New Start Every Year
That's the beauty of teaching; we get to start all
over again each year. You can't do this if you are a meteorologist
or a salesperson. When school starts this fall, or whenever, if you
are on a year round school, you will get a new group of students.
You can do anything you want with them. The effective teacher starts
with a plan, a better and more reflective plan than the previous
year. The ineffective teacher does the same thing year after year,
which is why Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again, yet expecting different results."
The First Day of School
Douglas Brooks was teaching at the University of
Texas-Arlington when he wrote an article, "The First Day of School,"
for Educational Leadership in 1985. He said that most all new
teachers start their teaching career without having received any
instruction on what to do the first day of school as well as never
having seen a first day of school as a student teacher. That's like
asking a pilot to fly a plane without having received any
instruction on how to take off with a plane nor having ever seen a
runway at an airport. The analogy is not so far-fetched when you see
how many novice teachers begin their first day of school.
The first day of school is the most important day of
the school year. There is only one first day of school and what you
do can determine your success or failure for the entire year. On
this day the students form their first impression of you. People in
marketing know that you have seven seconds to create a positive
impression.
The uninformed novice teacher thinks that starting
with a fun activity forms a positive impression. Douglas Brooks
wrote in 1985 that he video taped some teachers on their first day
of school and discovered that those teachers who started with a fun
activity spent the rest of the school year chasing after the
students. Whereas, those teachers who spent some time during the
first couple of days organizing the class so that everyone knew how
the class was structured and managed had far fewer discipline
problems and had students who were involved with learning.
Seven Things Students Want to Know
Douglas Brooks says that students want to know seven
things on the first day of school, thus, effective teachers plan
their first day of school accordingly. The seven things students
want to know on the first day of school are
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Am I in the right room?
For many students, who come from dysfunctional families or
challenging neighborhoods, school can be a safe and consistent
haven. Help the students to look forward to coming to school by
providing hall guides, signs, and welcome messages on the most
important day of the school year. The First Days of School
states that we celebrate the wrong day at school, which is
graduation day. Many students never see their graduation day and
this may be because we never start them off correctly.
Teachers should be standing at the door, helping
anyone who needs help. A sign should be on the door as well as the
chalkboard of the classroom with the teacher's name and other
welcoming and supporting information.
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Where am I supposed to sit?
You have two choices, open seating or assigned seating. When the
students enter the classroom of an effective teacher, they all
know where to stand, sit, or be. Thus, when you greet your
students at the door on the first day of school, you might want
to assign the seating for that day immediately. This can be done
in many different ways and suggestions are made in the book, The
First Days of School, or the video series, The Effective
Teacher.
If you want to make a good impression, invite your
students to take an assigned seat, much like a gracious host or
hostess would invite you in to sit-and offer you something to drink.
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What are the rules in this
classroom?
Every student knows that he or she is to behave. They are just
waiting for the discipline plan to be revealed so that they know
the limits on the classroom. Effective teachers have a hard copy
of a discipline plan ready for explanation. Every student gets a
copy, a copy should be sent home, a large copy needs to be
posted on the classroom wall, and extra copies are made
available as new students enter throughout the school year.
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What will I be doing this
year?
Effective teachers manage their classrooms with procedures,
whereas ineffective teachers discipline the students with
threats and punishments. The key word to understand is
"procedures." Procedures have to do with teaching students what
to do in the classroom, such as what to do if the teacher wants
the class's attention, what to do upon entering the classroom,
and how to make entries in a journal.
Effective teachers spend the first two weeks of
school teaching students how to be responsible for their behavior
and their learning. Students want to succeed and they want to be
taught how to do things, but they can only succeed if they are shown
the procedure for how to do things.
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How will I be graded?
Although it is perfectly understandable that
students want to know about their grade, the effective teacher
is much more concerned with getting the students to complete the
assignments and passing the tests. Grades are the after-effect
of the assignment and the test.
Effective teachers do not grade using the "curve." In an
effective classroom, the students earn their own grade based on
their mastery of the learning criteria. It would be best to wait
until day 2 or 3 to explain this concept to your students or
better yet, when you give them their first assignment.
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Who is the teacher as a
person?
Many teachers take a small section of a bulletin board and
create a "personality bulletin board," which contains a collage
of personal items about the teacher, such as pictures and
objects about the teacher's life, work, and family. If you are a
K-1 teacher, you may find this more effectively done by placing
objects about yourself in a bag and pulling the objects out one
at a time and discussing each-a teacher's own show and tell.
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Will the teacher treat me
as a human being?
Everyone wants to be treated with respect, dignity, and love,
whether that person is a teacher, administrator, or student. You
have seven seconds to create that perception beginning with
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how you treat yourself with respect, dignity,
and love,
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how you greet your students at the door,
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how you dress,
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what signs are posted in your classroom,
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the message on the chalkboard,
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the obviousness that you are organized and
ready, and
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that you are in control of the learning
environment for the classroom.
The ineffective teacher is more concerned with doing "my thing" and
can't wait to start with a fun activity so that he or she can be the
student's friend or pal. The students are not looking for fun. They
are looking for security, consistency, respect, dignity, and care
and you can convey that message on the first day of school by
conveying how well you are organized. Your classroom management
skill will tell the students if the class will be exciting or
boring, whether they will learn or fail, and if you will light or
blow out their candle.
We wish all of you a very
successful start to a new school year. We truly believe that you can
be a very effective teacher. This is because, each of you are
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destined for
accomplishment,
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engineered for success,
and
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endowed with seeds of
greatness.
source:
http://teachers.net
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This Blog belongs to Group A Teaching Students of Azarbaijan Teacher Training University and has been registered in 2007