The First Week of School

The first week of school is an anxious time for students and teachers alike. Students worry about whether their teachers will be nice or not, and whether their classes will be hard. Freshmen especially have extra worries. They worry about who will be in their classes, and whether they'll fit in. They worry about getting lost in the hallways and being picked on by upperclassmen. They usually find out pretty quickly that worrying about getting lost is a valid worry, but being picked on by upperclassmen is not as bad as the horror stories they may have heard.

As a teacher, I worry about what kind of students I will have walk through the doors of my classroom. I worry about whether or not I'm totally prepared to begin a new year. I also worry about if my students will find my classroom engaging or not, challenging or not, and comfortable or not. I want my students to feel safe when they walk through my classroom doors. Safe that no harm will come to them, safe that I have their best interests in mind, and safe that other students in the class will respect them, respect their opinions, and respect their struggles when they have questions.

During the first 2-3 days of school, I try to emphasize that biology is a subject that requires critical thinking and collaboration. I also try to emphasize that respect and hard work are what will be expected during the course of the year. The first thing I do to show the students it is my goal to respect them and care about them is that I learn all of their names by the end of the first day of our 50 minute class period. Most of my classes have 28 students in them, and with a little bit of effort, I have never failed to learn every students name by the end of the class period in 12 years of teaching. There are two tricks I use to help me accomplish this. The first is that I have the students organize themselves by birthdate at the beginning of the class period. Once they've done this, I have them tell me their name and their birthdate. I make sure to look them in the eye while they're talking to me and really concentrate on what they have to say. Again, I'm trying to make them feel respected and cared for from the start, and nonverbal cues are as important as verbal cues in doing this. I then have them sit in birth order, and use this as my seating chart for the first quarter of the school year.

The second trick is that, with about 20 minutes left in the class period on the first day we do a people search. The people search takes about 10-15 minutes. While the kids are trying to find other people in the class with certain interests or characteristics, I walk around and peek at everybody's paper while they work, then look at their faces. I also allow them to ask me to sign one of the spots on their people search, and take that opportunity to learn the students' names as well. In the last 5 minutes of class, I have the students sit down in their seats and go through the entire class, naming each student. You'd be surprised at how much my students like this.

What they don't like is that they get homework on the first day after I go through their names. I do this to try to set the tone that hard work will be expected of them each and every day. The assignment is a one page reading about sloths, and why they defecate when they get wet. My students have to propose a hypothesis to explain why they have this habit. I usually get some interesting answers.

That's all the time I have for today. I have to get one of my own children off to swim lessons! Hopefully some people read this and find it interesting, and I'd love to hear stories of other first day ideas from teachers.

Brad the Bio Teacher